[Callers] Chains: the other side of the coin

[Ron Blechner via Callers]

Tavi,

Thanks for opening discussion on this topic.

I'd like to propose that we call the move what it is: "chain", and we stop
calling left-hand chains as "gents chains" and right-hand chains as "ladies
chains" for two important reasons:

1. No other common move in contra has the role in the move. It's "chain",
being prompted to "ladies", the same way there's no difference between a
"gents allemande left" and a "ladies allemande left". In genderfree
contras, callers certainly don't prompt, "Rubies, ladies chain" - they swap
the role, because that's the role *prompt*, not actually part of the move
name.
2. For moves that have a left and right version, there are two conventions,
none of which "gents/ladies chain" follows. The conventions are:

A. Having two totally different move names. This is often ignored and
prompted like "left shoulder dosido" instead of see-saw, leading me to
think that having mirrored moves with different names is less useful than
the other convention.......
B. The move name is the base, and the direction is a modifying prefix or
suffix to a prompt* Star, allemande, balance, etc. (Technically, the "hey"
as well, since you indicate who-passes-which-shoulder-first). Often, any of
these moves, once walked through, are prompted vanilla-flavored, without
the direction modifier, because the hand/direction is obvious. (Gents,
allemande left, pass your partner, hey for four...)

It seems intuitive then that "chain" falls into the latter category, and
should be treated as such.
The move is "chain", and there's a left and right handed version, and the
handedness is usually unnecessary because the role of the people doing it
will make the hand used to pull-by obvious. But for calling card notation,
the handedness is useful to notate.

...

As someone who's been writing and calling gents right-hand chain dances, I
see the pros and cons of the gents left-hand chain as follow:

Pros:
1. An extra move that can flow into a gents-pass-L / gents alle R / etc
next move - so there are new combinations to find.
2. More variation in general. More moves to play with.

Cons:
1. Another Clockwise-rotation move that is less usable than a
counter-clockwise move. A left-hand chain is simply not as useful as a
right-hand chain for this reason.
2. As Aahz pointed out, we're accustomed to twirling with right-hands, and
so left-hand twirling is new and unusual.
3. A right-hand chain is just ... a chain. And in dances where you get
role-swapping, you need to do zero-to-little teaching of a gents right-hand
chain.

So rather than promote the left-hand chain, I would broaden any support to
be for doing *all* chains.

Best,
Ron

On Mon, Sep 5, 2016 at 9:38 PM, tavi merrill via Callers <
callers at lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:

> Sigh. Why is "join right with right in front, left hands behind the gent's
> back, gents walk forward and ladies back up" way more difficult than "join
> left with left in front, right hands behind the lady's back, ladies walk
> forward and gents back up"? It's not, but....
>
> A numerical argument:
> Say in a typical evening of 13 dances, 6 dances include a ladies' chain,
> R&L through, or promenade across (wherein turning to face back in counts as
> a courtesy turn) and 2 more dances contain either two of one or one each of
> two. (I consider that a conservative estimate given the ubiquity of ladies'
> chains!) That makes 10 iterations of standard courtesy turn; if each
> sequence is run for an average of 8 minutes (16 iterations of the dance)
> that's 160 iterations of standard courtesy turn in a typical evening of
> dance.
>
> Now, since a small minority of callers ever get off their butt and use a
> gents LH chain (because it's soooooooooo difficult), let's say one gents
> chain shows up in every 10 evenings of dance we go to (this time, a very
> liberal estimate). Same assumptions of average dance run time, so that's 16
> iterations to practice the reverse courtesy turn.
>
> But since we danced ten evenings to get that one gents LH chain in, we had
> a whopping *1,600 iterations of practice for the standard courtesy turn
> to our 16 iterations of practice for the reverse*.
>
> The only real reason* the standard turn *seems* "easier" is because we
> get s---loads more practice at it! That will never change unless the
> reverse turn gets more use. It's hard because we so rarely do it, and we
> don't do it because it's hard. Great work everybody. Look at us exceeding
> our programming.
>
> Aahz, I would say the same for myself - a regular role-swapper, heavy-duty
> twirler in both roles, and "usually good about paying attention" - but I
> don't really care how often other callers dance both roles. The fact
> remains that many dancers don't, and of the dancers that don't, many lack
> the enhanced sensitivity to whether others want to be twirled that comes
> with being ambidancetrous. How aware we are is not an argument against the
> necessity of raising dancers' awareness. Let's elevate the level of dance
> in our communities.
>
> *The other possible reason: resistance to any actual built-in
> choreographic challenge to gender-normativity. When we're voluntarily
> swapping roles, we are queering the dance, and the dance's built-in gender
> inequity is secondary to our experience - but when the choreography itself
> challenges the form's built-in gender assumptions, it feels somehow
> wrong. I use traditional, gendered calling language in posts about
> choreography and gender inequality in the dance for a reason. How many
> dances involve the ladies doing a move - do-si-do, gypsy, et cetera - while
> the gents stand around and watch? How many dances involve ladies' chains?
> How few iterations of the reverse are there? No matter how much the
> ambidancetrous among us queer it on the floor, no matter how much we gloss
> over it by using alternative term sets, the prominence of gender in the
> roles is pretty hard to miss. Alternative term sets and role swapping have
> their place. I'm interested in the fact that neither of these things makes
> a perfectly good figure easier to use.
>
> Meh.  I think you've got part of a point, but as someone who gender-swaps
>> regularly (often within a single set), I find doing the reverse courtesy
>> turn way more difficult than doing a regular courtesy turn dancing raven.
>> And I'm also a heavy-duty twirler, both lark and raven.  And I'm usually
>> good about paying attention to whether someone wants to be twirled.
>>
>> Probably I could learn the reverse courtesy turn, but I think you're
>> underestimating the difficulty.
>
>
>
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