Hello from Halifax, NS, Canada!
I'd like to add to this convo by saying that for many years (as both a
dancer and then a caller), I've had the desire to cultivate the roles as
equal, rather than the Larks having more of a leader role.
I wasn't sure that that was an
ok
thing to want though, so I kept it to myself at first. I'm thrilled
to now read that there are others also consciously pushing the roles in
that direction.
Our group was doing gents and ladies when i started to dance, and there
were definitely many gents in our group who wanted to lead me around. I
didn't particularly enjoy being relegated to the follow role because of
my gender. (and yes, there was in theory the option to dance the other
role, but as I was easily confused back then, I preferred to stick with
the role I was slowly getting used to). At the same time, as I started
to learn more, I noticed there were many "gents" who had no sense of
leading, and I began to enjoy as the "lady" being able to "back-lead"
them to help them feel the wonderful centripetal and balancy forces at
play. I became quite the expert back-leader in the ladies chain! But I
always hated the term "back-lead" as I felt it had a negative
connotation. (That pushy lady is back-leading the gent, just like a
back-seat driver!). I even remember once, an experienced dancer from
the US telling me it was totally inappropriate to desire to "back-lead"
and I still feel annoyed by that today ;)
Anyhow, we've now switched over to a non-gendered dance with Larks and
Ravens (with beautiful bird-labels that the dancers wear, which is why
we haven't evolved to Robins here) and it is working wonderfully for us.
With so many new dancers coming in and old ones fading away over the
years, I think the majority of our dancers don't have any idea there
even *were* gender roles in our type of dancing. (We are quite an
isolated community out here, so for many people, we are the only thing
they know about contra dancing). I think that is so cool! When you
look around the room at our dances, we have reached the point where
there is no correlation between visible gender and bird-role - everyone
randomly assigns themselves. For us, it's been an amazing change - and
we've heard directly from both the queer community and from many women
that they feel more comfortable at our dances now. And the cisgender
men keep coming so I presume they are having an ok time too :)
As I've become more confident in my calling and am now the defacto
caller for our group (nobody else is currently available though I'm
going to train some new folks this spring), I've felt more bold to
cultivate the roles as I'd like to see them.
I never mention a notion of leading or following, and instead I talk
about the delightful "push-me-pull-you" feeling of contra, where each
dancer feels an "elastic connection" to the other, and how (in my view)
this special shared connection, along with a feeling of never-ending
movement, is what makes contra magical.
We get a very large proportion of beginners each month, and also many
repeat dancers who don't become particularly skilled (they perhaps
attend once every 2-3 months on average, so their learning curve is
slow, and they forget a lot after our 3-month summer break).
As such, we do a lot of dances without swings (I try to get at least
halfway through the dance without introducing a swing), and I'm trying
Larks chains as well as Robins chains prior to swinging these days.
Post-covid, we've been doing swings with a modified ballroom hold (Larks
left hand in Robins' right, but other hands cupped on each others'
elbows), which creates more space between the dancers -- both for
personal comfort for any gender when dancing with a stranger--and also
less germs-in-face feeling during these covid times.
(Though I plan to try the Scottish Swing that Ridge suggested at our
next dance, just out of interest! :) )
I find the swing in this modified ballroom position feels symmetrical to
me and to our dancers- both dancers are supporting each other by the
elbow, and one does not feel more inherently "lead-y".
I've also replaced "California Twirl" with what I call "tug and turn" - I
tell the dancers to tug off the hand they are holding (i.e inside hand)
to pass by the right shoulder - then catch by the new inside hand
facing the other way. When this happens with partners, sometimes they
end up doing a cali-twirl as an embellishment - but the base move is symmetrical.
So I feel I'm close to achieving my personal vision for a no
leads/follow dance. :D
I have always loved contra as a way for two dancers or 4 dancers or a
whole line of dancers to feel these interesting connections and forces
at play, while never stopping moving. I personally have never been
interested in contra as something that resembles "couples dancing", so
the approach we have in our group is emphasizing the elements of contra
that
I personally love
best. As our dances are well attended and growing, it seems to be
working for our group. Which is gratifying for me for sure :)
All that said!
One of the most interesting parts of this discussion is to read about
all the diverse approaches that callers are taking throughout the world,
and how different approaches seem to work super well in different
communities. I am totally intrigued by positional calling. I don't
forsee trying it myself any time soon, only because what we have going
for us right now is working really well and it's taken many years to get
here... but I'm super keen to try it out at a dance elsewhere, and
maybe in the future I'll give it a try in Halifax.
And while I LOVE our non-gendered dances here in Halifax, I could see
myself as a cisgender person getting a kick out of going to a dance
somewhere far away with my sweetheart on a date night, where they call
with men and ladies and the gender roles are quite rigid, and getting
into that vibe for the evening. And though I am personally terrified of
the idea of dancing at one of those fusion events where the contra
dancers do some red-hot swing/blues type dancing with their partners, I
*adore* watching videos of it, it's amazing!
So I wanted to say that I hope everyone continues to contribute to this
discussion in the spirit of "Here is what works for me/ here is what
works for my group in case it interests you" rather than in a critical
or prosthelytizing fashion :)
Cheers from Halifax!
Kat Kitching
https://halifaxcontra.ca