Men may be more comfortable competing than women, the Gender Project survey suggested. Earl Mosley, another participant in ''In the Company of Men,'' pointed out that if there were more women in dance, then there would probably be more female choreographers. ''Now as to what is accepted, there you go,'' Mr. Mosley responded. ''Men win this hands down. I am sure more people recognize more male names. Men lead, women follow. The sad part is both genders are so conditioned to play these roles with no question of why. Thank God for the exceptions!''

Jonathan Wolken, one of the founders of Pilobolus, took the long view of the ''beefcake-versus-cheesecake'' question, as he put it. ''The traditional roles of males in ballet seem at best limited, perhaps a bit medieval,'' Mr. Wolken wrote. ''There is something about the contained (constrained?) nature of ballet vocabulary (if not ballet culture) that puts the brakes on the inventive. Ballet thrives on keeping its creative eggs in the nest. Men are men; women are women, and that's mostly it.

''Modern dance opened the flood gates. Everything was fair game: roles, movement vocabulary, genders, the very notion of what dance is was up for grabs. And still is. If we are lucky, we know a good thing when we see it. Truth is, we all benefit from the new ease of role/gender flipping. What used to be two genders is now at least four, and perhaps a few more. Vive la différence!''

No More ''Sissy'' Labels

The dancing ''sissy'' has gone the way of the 98-pound weakling of body-building ads. Did that happen in part when men shed their ballet tights and began dancing modern? ''I wouldn't necessarily say that modern dance makes it 'safer' for men to explore dance,'' said Nicholas Leichter, one of the choreographers with ''In the Company of Men.'' ''But I do think that colleges and universities make it safer for men to 'experiment.' And I think that modern dance can fall into that safer category. One could argue that modern dance may be more loosely connected to sports and athletics, although who would argue against a ballet dancer's commitment to strength, speed, coordination, velocity, aerobics and pain?''

Mr. Keigwin cited the inspiration of ''trailblazing male dancers who have paved the way for us.''

''Perhaps without even knowing it they have influenced the climate in which we exist today,'' he continued. ''I immediately think of Ted Shawn and his male dancers, Merce Cunningham, Gus Solomons Jr. and John Jasperse, and let's not forget Mark Dendy, who made it safe for a male dancer to dance like a man or a woman.''

Modern dance opened up the world of dance for men who do not have ''textbook ballet bodies,'' Mr. Mosley said. ''Modern dance is such a buffet of different techniques and styles that a male has more of a chance to look like an athlete doing it. Which brings me back to acceptance from a society built on gender identity and prejudices.'' Mr. Mosley believes, he said, that ballet dancers may be more acceptable to nondancing men. ''They can show their girlfriends, dates, wives how open-minded they are by going to the ballet and watching the assumed gay boys dance around in the pretty white tights. But with modern dance, there can be a sense of confusion, merely because the audience might not know what in hell they are watching! And this confusion could arouse a little fear, and with that come the questions and the phobias. Is he gay? Is he a man? Is she a man?''