[Callers] Amy Asked For A Less Loaded Term (formerly "Advice on gypsy")

tavi merrill via Callers callers at lists.sharedweight.net
Sun Oct 25 14:08:01 PDT 2015


With regard to the term's offensiveness or lack thereof, i am less
interested in the exact origins of the term's use within ECD than i am in
the implications in pairing the term with that particular move. To be
"gypped" is to be cheated, a term rooted in stereotypes of Romani people as
untrustworthy, and the eyes are associated with gypsies in popular lore
that ascribes a certain mystery or hypnotic power to the gypsy's gaze.
While i am aware of both people who are offended by the term and people who
take pride in it (hmm, how is that different from the N word? or fag?) i
find the term itself less problematic than the web of association among the
term, the eyes, mystery, hypnosis and criminality.

Alternatives to "gypsy" have thus been on my radar for some time now. Most
of the suggestions - orbit, vortex, yada yada - are dismissible, which
leads me to a very simple suggestion.

While flirtation isn't necessary to the move, eye contact is kind of the
point of it. I had forgotten to explicitly teach the move at a recent gig
with a number of beginners and just decided to prompt "eyes." It was
magic. While i haven't yet pressed this into service: "Take eyes with your
[partner/neighbor] and, without hands, turn by the [R/L]." As a prompt,
"eyes" has so much more sense and grace to it than any other term that's
been suggested.

Associated moves (gypsy chase, gypsy star, etc) are another bridge to
cross. Personally, i would feel comfortable removing the term from my
calling as the name of that particular move without feeling a need to
eschew or sanitize dances with the term in the title. I mean, Amy Asked for
Eyes is a little awkward ;)
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.sharedweight.net/pipermail/callers-sharedweight.net/attachments/20151025/f3b1c206/attachment.htm>


More information about the Callers mailing list