On 4/4/2016 9:10 AM, Darwin Gregory via Callers wrote:

While I am relatively new to contra, and just called my first dance this weekend, The Baby Rose... I'll have never considered gypsy a term related to a race of people, nor did I know it was applied today to a group of people called Romas.

However, my general position on terms that have both discriminatory and non-discriminatory meanings is that the meaning needs to be derived by context. 

Before reading the discussions here, I had only considered the meaning of gypsy as related to wandering dancers... Not a particular ethnic group.  Perhaps my view has been naive.

Ok, cool.

While I am sensitive to cultural issues, until someone comes up with a term that captures not only the physics of the move, but also the flirtatious nature of it, I will probably grimace any time someone uses a different term.  Orbit, no handed swing, whatever... Until something emphasizes the flirtatious eye contact it will fall short in my mind.  It is more than a figure, it is a figure with an attitude.  :)

Wait.  Why does the word "gypsy" imply flirtatious eye contact?

(I'm not trying to police what words you use or what you do when calling, but I don't understand your logic here, which seems to be:

 "gypsy in dance context harmlessly refers to dance gypsies, not ethnic Gypsies"
 "'gypsy' is the only satisfying term for the figure I've heard because it implies flirtatious eye contact".

I'm kinda suspecting that the implication of flirtatious eye contact is because of ideas of ethnic gypsies, gypsy dance, etc, but maybe you have another reason and I'd like to hear it. 


-- Alan

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