[Callers] Another approach to Gender Free calling
Jim Hemphill via Callers
callers at lists.sharedweight.net
Tue Jun 2 01:13:42 PDT 2015
Alan, that is exactly what I did. I chose a variety of dances that
excluded reference to a gendered role. It was actually a good night to try
this style of calling. A good sized group of ladies celebrating a birthday
showed up for our dance, almost all of them brand new to contra, so there
was a good sized gender imbalance. I noticed several ladies who rarely
switch roles were doing so to help incorporate all the new dancers. I hope
the lack of gender references in the calls helped. I know when I dance the
ladies role I have to stop myself from making a 3 pronged star every time I
hear gents allemande left.
I was completely prepared to switch to a "normal" program if I sensed any
discontent. Going in I had decided to do the 1st half with gender free
calls and I had two 2nd half program lines ready to choose from. The 1st
half of the dance went so well that I stuck with the gender free call
program I had for the 2nd half.
Jim
On Tue, Jun 2, 2015 at 12:21 AM, Winston, Alan P. via Callers <
callers at lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
> An approach to subtle gender free calling is to choose choreographies
> where both members of the couple do the same thing. Really traditional
> contra dances often have this feature, as well as lots of English dances
> which were not composed with that in mind.
>
> Chorus Jigg is one of those naturally gender free ones:
>
> 1s down the outside and back
> 1s down the middle and back
> 1s turn contra corners
> 1s balance and swing.
>
> Since Jim referred to having more dances than usual where 2s swing in the
> middle I assumed he'd used this approach to at least some degree. This
> would restrict the figure menu. You can do interrupted square thru but you
> can't do ladies chain. If you're so gender free that you don't have rules
> you can't use swings to progress and neighbor swings could be trouble. But
> you could call an evening without specific gender reference to a group who
> already knew roles and where swings ends using only partner, neighbor, 1s
> and 2s, and they might not notice that you never said gents and ladies.
>
> Alan
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
> > On Jun 1, 2015, at 9:12 AM, Kalia Kliban via Callers <
> callers at lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
> >
> > Jim, as I look at your set of dances the first question that occurs to
> me is how you dealt with the improper formation without reference to
> gender/dance-role.
> >
> > Kalia
> >
> >> On 6/1/2015 8:14 AM, Jim Hemphill via Callers wrote:
> >> A friend told me about Brooke Friendly's style of calling ECD and that
> >> was part of the inspiration for this contra program.
> >> Jim
> >>
> >> On Mon, Jun 1, 2015 at 9:24 AM, Roger Hayes <roger.hayes at gmail.com
> >> <mailto:roger.hayes at gmail.com>> wrote:
> >>
> >> 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 <tel:206%20330%207408>
> >> Amy at calleramy.com <mailto:Amy at calleramy.com>
> >>
> >> On Jun 1, 2015, at 5:37 AM, Jim Hemphill via Callers
> >> <callers at lists.sharedweight.net
> >> <mailto: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 <mailto:arcadian35 at gmail.com>.
> >>> Thanks,
> >>> Jim Hemphill
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