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

[Cara Sawyer via Callers]

Hi everyone again,
Angela, Jeff thank you. 
I appreciate knowing the emotional attachment many had to the history of these calling terms. I had no clue. From where I was coming from, it was more of a logistical question for my calling aspirations, trying to figure out what is easiest for the dancers to understand. I have had personal experience with it being difficult to remember if I was a Band or Bare, it seems arbitrary and now I see that this is intentional. It is good to hear some of the rationale and what others have experienced. 

Best,
Cara

Sent to you using thumbs. 

> On Jan 18, 2017, at 18:59, Jeff Kaufman <jeff.t.kaufman at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Hi Cara!
> 
> There is definitely a history! Many dancers don't like lead/follow as terms because they either don't think contra has a lead/follow dynamic or they don't want to encourage lead/follow dancing.
> 
> Some dance series, primarily ones with younger dancers, do use those terms, but there are enough dancers opposed to them that I don't see them as a potential community-wide replacement the way rubies/jets could be.
> 
> Jeff
> 
>> On Jan 18, 2017 7:53 PM, "Cara Sawyer via Callers" <callers at lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
>> 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".
>>>> --
>>>> Hugs and backrubs -- I break Rule 6                        http://rule6.info/
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