Re: [Callers] Gender free dances

Armbands and barearms work well as terms to use, but you would have to have ribbon to make the armbands, or perhaps use scarves, or ties.  Many gender free dance callers use the armbands and bare arms terminology when the dance provides the armbands for the leaders role.  There has to be some distinction in the dance as to who is doing what role.   Dave Colestock Harrisburg, PA --- On Thu, 12/2/10, susie rudder <surudder1(a)earthlink.net> wrote: From: susie rudder <surudder1(a)earthlink.net> Subject: [Callers] Gender free dances To: callers(a)sharedweight.net Date: Thursday, December 2, 2010, 1:02 PM    I have been asked to call for a new dance group forming in a small town    near our regular dance. Experienced dancers were asked to come help    these absolute newbies, and some local musicians have volunteered their    services. It became obvious that about half the dancers were lesbians    who asked me to use non gender specific terms when calling. I tried    'lead' and 'follow' because the syllable numbers worked, but I'm not    happy with that. I also had some regular dancers comment on not wanting    to deal with 'some' peoples' political agendas as related to contra    calling. I have never dealt with gender free calling and would    appreciate ANY help from those of you who may have been doing it for    years. What terms seem to work best? Any other hints to make things go    more smoothly?  These people are very enthusiastic and I want to see    the dance succeed. _______________________________________________ Callers mailing list Callers(a)sharedweight.net http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers