<div dir="auto">Hi Cara!<div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">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.</div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">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.</div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">Jeff</div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Jan 18, 2017 7:53 PM, "Cara Sawyer via Callers" <<a href="mailto:callers@lists.sharedweight.net">callers@lists.sharedweight.net</a>> wrote:<br type="attribution"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="auto"><div>Hello all,</div><div id="m_5245068864065962034AppleMailSignature">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? </div><div id="m_5245068864065962034AppleMailSignature"><br></div><div id="m_5245068864065962034AppleMailSignature"><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">When I first encountered the creative alternatives in contra, I wasn't sure what to think. </span>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. </div><div id="m_5245068864065962034AppleMailSignature"><br></div><div id="m_5245068864065962034AppleMailSignature">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. </div><div id="m_5245068864065962034AppleMailSignature"><br></div><div id="m_5245068864065962034AppleMailSignature">Just curious if there is a history, I'm sure I am not the first person to think of this. </div><div id="m_5245068864065962034AppleMailSignature"><br></div><div id="m_5245068864065962034AppleMailSignature">Thanks!</div><div id="m_5245068864065962034AppleMailSignature">Cara</div><div id="m_5245068864065962034AppleMailSignature"><br><div id="m_5245068864065962034AppleMailSignature">Sent to you using<span style="font-size:13pt"> thumbs. </span></div></div><div><br>On Jan 18, 2017, at 10:40, Angela DeCarlis via Callers <<a href="mailto:callers@lists.sharedweight.net" target="_blank">callers@lists.sharedweight.<wbr>net</a>> wrote:<br><br></div><blockquote type="cite"><div><div dir="auto">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."<div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">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. </div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">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. </div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">That all said, I also like Larks and Ravens fine. </div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">Happy calling, everyone! </div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">Angela</div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Jan 18, 2017 11:30 AM, "Aahz via Callers" <<a href="mailto:callers@lists.sharedweight.net" target="_blank">callers@lists.sharedweight.<wbr>net</a>> wrote:<br type="attribution"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">Not that Portland, the other Portland. ;-)<br>
<br>
<a href="http://bangordailynews.com/2017/01/09/news/portland/contra-dancing-takes-a-gender-neutral-spin-in-portland/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://bangordailynews.com/201<wbr>7/01/09/news/portland/contra-<wbr>dancing-takes-a-gender-neutral<wbr>-spin-in-portland/</a><br>
<br>
I personally would prefer to settle on "larks" and "ravens" because that<br>
seems to have more traction -- but it doesn't matter as long as we get<br>
away from "bands" and "bares".<br>
--<br>
Hugs and backrubs -- I break Rule 6 <a href="http://rule6.info/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://rule6.info/</a><br>
<*> <*> <*><br>
Help a hearing-impaired person: <a href="http://rule6.info/hearing.html" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://rule6.info/hearing.html</a><br>
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