[Callers] Another vote for "jets" and "rubies"

[Cara Sawyer via Callers]

Hello all,
I am quite new to the list and am only now embarking on learning to call, but I have to ask a question I have had for awhile as a dancer that I now need to understand as a caller: is there something wrong with Lead and Follow? 

When I first encountered the creative alternatives in contra, I wasn't sure what to think. I came to contra from a swing background and that is what is used in workshops (and sort or in general now), since many people switch in that dance style as well. 

Besides being an obvious description for the dancer role, it had the same 1/2 syllables rhythm as Gent/Lady. And it seems to me to have the advantage of being intuitively linked to how the dancer is thinking about his/her/their role. 

Just curious if there is a history, I'm sure I am not the first person to think of this. 

Thanks!
Cara

Sent to you using thumbs. 

> On Jan 18, 2017, at 10:40, Angela DeCarlis via Callers <callers at lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
> 
> When I called at PICD (the Portland ME dance), I really enjoyed using Jets and Rubies. One silly thing I enjoyed any the terms during the beginners' lesson was coaching palm direction based on the terms: "Jets' palms face up, towards the sky; Rubies' palms face down, towards the ground."
> 
> And yes, I realize that *both* are gemstones and that some feel strongly that we should steer away from the "airplane" association, but it did make for easy teaching. 
> 
> Jets and Rubies is also more forgiving for callers new to gender-neutral language, since the terms are so linguistically comparable to Gents and Ladies. 
> 
> That all said, I also like Larks and Ravens fine. 
> 
> Happy calling, everyone! 
> 
> Angela
> 
>> On Jan 18, 2017 11:30 AM, "Aahz via Callers" <callers at lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
>> Not that Portland, the other Portland.  ;-)
>> 
>> http://bangordailynews.com/2017/01/09/news/portland/contra-dancing-takes-a-gender-neutral-spin-in-portland/
>> 
>> I personally would prefer to settle on "larks" and "ravens" because that
>> seems to have more traction -- but it doesn't matter as long as we get
>> away from "bands" and "bares".
>> --
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