[Organizers] [Callers] contra dance gypsy

[Mac Mckeever]

 Sorry - I did not mean to hijack this thread with discussion of gypsies - just found it curious that the term 'dance gypsy' was used in the subject line.  I have not heard of anyone addressing that usage.  Please return to the original discussion
Mac
    On Monday, October 7, 2019, 02:46:21 PM CDT, Masha Goodman Crawford <mashagoodman at yahoo.com> wrote:  
 
  Becky - Excellent answer.
The first time I heard the term "gypsy" for the dance move, I happened to be living among Roma in Europe and was back in the states on a short visit.The part that seemed particularly offensive to me was that the move was taught with the emphasis on gazing flirtatiously into the other dancer's eyes - something that would have been absolutely taboo among the people I had been travelling with. I suppose the name came from someone's mental image of a Flamenco dancer circling, and some idea that Gypsy = Flamenco? who knows. I discovered, much to my dismay, that many of my well-educated American friends thought "Gypsies" were just a fictional group or general term for folks who travel, hence the "dance gypsy" slang. They are a proud and very real ethnic group with a centuries-old language, customs, and a long history of being marginalized and persecuted.In your mind, take any other group with a similar history, and substitute it: Would you teach dancers to do a "Xxx", and tell them that it means to behave a certain way with strangers?  (Becky gave one good example, I can think of others as well.)Can we just DROP the term "gypsy" altogether, please?- Masha(dancing and calling since 1978)
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