24 Mar
2025
24 Mar
'25
6:24 a.m.
Hi Louise,
I'd be really curious to know the dance that introduced Gent's / Left-hand
/ Larks / Men's chains; one from fifty years ago would certainly be a
strong candidate!
I did a bit of looking just now and found Mary McNab Dart's 1995 book mentions
them <https://store.cdss.org/elibrary/dart/conclusion.htm> briefly: *Men's
"chains" and same-sex "swings" are marginal innovations that are out
at the
edges of the tradition boundary today. Had they been introduced in 1950
they would have been too far out for acceptance. Now they have a chance, as
the boundary moves in directions that encourage gender equality.*
The oldest I can think of off the top of my head is Erik
<https://erikhoffman.com/>'s Men in Chains
<https://www.ibiblio.org/contradance/thecallersbox/dance.php?id=5033>,
which was in his Contradictations (1997
<https://www.nbcds.org/old_site/articles/erik1.html>), but I don't know how
much longer before that he wrote the dance.
Jeff
On Mon, Mar 24, 2025 at 8:52 AM Louise Siddons via Contra Callers <
contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
Joe and I clearly replied at the same
time, with a lot of the same
thoughts :)
It’s important to the historian in me to note that left-hand chains
generally are not new to contra, nor are ‘role-reversed’ chains — they’re
uncommon, but I can think of dances thirty and fifty years old with them
without trying too hard. (If I were a dedicated contra dance historian, I’d
be even more specific — but I’m sure there’s expertise on this list that
can provide a wide variety of examples.)
And I think it’s also important to note that we are not CALLERLAB, and we
don’t need to have one answer to this question. It is generally considered
(and has been the whole time I’ve been dancing, at least) a strength in our
dance communities that we accommodate difference and variety in our
callers, as well as in the execution of the dance (flourishes, etc.) and
the people with whom we dance. It’s really interesting to hear how other
people think through and address these changes.
Louise.
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On 24 Mar
2025, at 12:34, Joe Harrington via Contra Callers <
contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote: