[Callers] More substitute terms for the g-word

Tue Mar 13 12:27:06 PDT 2018

Hi Kalia,

I independently came up with using kipsie myself on the way down to calling the Palo Alto contra.  I tried it out with dancers before the dance and during the lesson.  The overall response was negative.  2 comments came back as: "You're just trying to not say gypsy, so it's still offensive".  I ended up using right-shoulder round during the dance and got further feedback during the break and after the dance.  Again, kipsey got a bad response, although that may be because it was new.  I think folks are getting a lot of replacement-term fatigue ("what, now this?").   Right-shoulder round seemed to be the preferred term amongst the dancers themselves - they claim to understand it best.  Still, I'm not giving up quite yet.  😊

(Note, the PA Contra doesn't yet have an official policy banning the g-word.  They leave it up to the caller.)

Thanx, Ric Goldman
Portland, OR

P.S. And NO, Kipsey is not an ethnic slur against people from Poughkeepsie, New York.

-----Original Message-----
From: Callers <callers-bounces at lists.sharedweight.net> On Behalf Of Kalia Kliban via Callers
Sent: Tuesday, March 13, 2018 11:53 AM
To: callers at lists.sharedweight.net
Subject: Re: [Callers] More substitute terms for the g-word

On 3/13/2018 11:02 AM, Martha Wild via Callers wrote:
> Interesting discussion on the Portland Country Dance Community 
> Facebook page. Lots of great suggestions. A lot of people really don’t 
> like “right shoulder round” (I’m one of them). I tried one of their 
> suggestions last night - Kipsey - and it worked amazingly well.

I've been using "R/L shoulders around" since it has, at least so far, been preferable to the alternatives.  The big advantage of the word "gypsy" is that it's both a noun and a verb, so you can say "gypsy your neighbor" or "dance a mirror gypsy with your partner."  RSA is more cumbersome and less flexible.

Gotta say, I really like "kipsey."  A lot.  It's the first alternative I've heard that scratches the same itch as "gypsy" without being excessively twee or hard to say or hard to hear.

Other CA Bay Area callers on the list, what do you think about this possibility?

Kalia
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