[Callers] Another approach to Gender Free calling

Roger Hayes via Callers callers at lists.sharedweight.net
Mon Jun 1 07:24:29 PDT 2015


Check out Brooke Friendly and Chris Sackett's English Country dances - they
use "geographic" terms, and structure the dances without gender roles. It's
different, but the dance does keep changing, it's a live art.

http://www.brookefriendlydance.com/

Aside from Mr. Hemphill's effort recently here described, I know of no
comparable endeavor in contra dance choreography - I suppose we're more
traditional than ECD. Does anyone have info to share?

Roger Hayes
Jim - I don't think I am alone in wondering how you managed this without
telling the dancers. I take that to mean you didn't make it gender free by
the terminology you used (jets or whatever) but by the kinds of dances you
chose.  I'd love to read more details about what this entailed.

Please share more!

Amy
206 330 7408
Amy at calleramy.com

On Jun 1, 2015, at 5:37 AM, Jim Hemphill via Callers <
callers at lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:

The recent discussions on this topic inspired me to try an experiment in
gender free calling.  Last night I called the contra dance in St. Louis
using gender free calling without telling anyone.    The experiment was a
great success.  I received lots of  positive feedback on the evenings
dance.  At the break and after the dance I made a point to ask several
dancers, some were callers as well, if they noticed anything different or
unusual about the dances or how I taught them.   One person noticed that
there were more dances that included a swing in the center for couple 2
than usual.  No one I talked to noticed that the calls and teaching were
gender free.

It took some extra time to construct a fun, diverse 3 hour program, but it
is certainly possible.  Re-labeling the dancers is not the only way to call
gender free.

If you are interested in the program I used or the larger collection of
gender free dances I chose the program from, send me an email,
arcadian35 at gmail.com.

Thanks,
Jim Hemphill



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