11 Sep
2009
11 Sep
'09
9:47 p.m.
Martha wrote:
1. Dancers might benefit from a mention in the
beginner workshops that they
should not be too surprised if the person they are to do a move with is of
the unexpected gender, that it's just done for fun and is okay. Forewarned
is forearmed. New dancers might think we're strange, but they won't have to
panic and think they've done something wrong. Maybe they'll even laugh as
they get the joke.
As I say in my other post, it's going to happen without any playful swapping
attempt if two same-sex people dance together rather than sit out. (Which
happens pretty frequently, especially in English.)
2. All respect to Chris Ricciotti's wonderful
treatment of gender-free
calling, I still wish we could find something other than "bands and bares".
This is traditionally the point in the discussion where I'd suggest "shirts and
skins."
If it's the local custom, I'd wear armbands,
but I really would rather just
dance the other role without worrying about whether I was dressed right.
I'm with you, and so is, eg "Heather and Rose" in Oregon and "Triangle
Country
Dancers" in North Carolina. But I think that train has probably left the
station on self-consciously gender-free contra dancing.
Positional dancing really isn't all that hard, so
all we really need is
better words to describe the positions. If everyone was bilingual (English
and Contra) we could use the English Country Dance terms "partner, neighbor,
and corner". Those terms pretty much define everyone in the set without
using gender. We'd just have to figure out whether we want "first corners"
to be the *"*position at the time of the call", or the "people who were
first corners when the set was formed", as in English. Either way, the pesky
"ladies chain" would simply be "second (or first ) corners chain."
H&R use "first diagonals", "second diagonals", "right
file", "left file",
neighbor, reserving "corner" when you're turning contra corners, and that
pretty much covers it. (In a square formation, "first diagonals" are the
left-hand person in each couple; there's a rationale for that, but I don't
remember what it is.) The "left file" and "right file" seem to be
official
terminology which doesn't get used that much; you usually end up saying
"clock"
and "window" or "hill" and "porch" or some other
geographical landmark, because
not everybody can easily sort out that they're a left file person when they're
now standing the in right file, and when you say something like "left file
people turn left hand with neighbor and turn single right shoulder to face
partner; four changes of rights and lefts" there's enough confusion of
direction and identification to mess up many people.
3. In the meantime, however, I prefer to keep the
regular terms, men (or
gents) and ladies. But I sure like the square dance terms "boy" and
"girl"
because of the nice plosive consonant at the beginning of the words, making
them easy to distinguish in an echoey hall.
There turn out to be advantages of concision and inclusiveness in using
positional terminology unobtrusively even in "gents" and "ladies"
situations.
"First corners turn two hands" gives equal agency to first gent and second
lady, might produce a better turn with both engaged than with her passively
being acted upon, and has fewer syllabes than "First man turns second lady two
hands." It's possible to do a whole evening of English and have nobody
notice that the calling was gender-role-free.
-- Alan
On Fri, Sep 11, 2009 at 8:57 AM, Jack Mitchell
<jamitch3(a)mindspring.com>wrote;wrote:
> One other thing I had thought about doing in a
workshop is to have a
> few people in each line with a red ball cap or a particular shirt or
> some other identifying mark, and challenge folks in the workshop to
> make sure that they're not swapping when they get to those particular
> people in the line. At regular dances, I have particular local dancers
> that I know don't react well to switching parts -- mostly because it
> confuses them -- and I try to switch back when I see them coming. I
> also attempt (mostly successfully) to make sure that I don't switch
> parts when one of the folks in the next couple is a new dancer. The
> partner swing is a nice time to look ahead to see who the next couple
> is and quickly switch back if needed.
> Jack
> At 09:36 AM 9/11/2009, you wrote:
>
> Following up on Mark Galipeau's note:
> In a workshop, it may be good to offer a little context on when
> gender-role-swapping is appropriate (or inappropriate). For example,
> at most
> dance weekends your neighbors will welcome or at least understand.
> At many
> monthly dances, there are neighbors who may become confused either
> because
> they are new, rigidly devoted to traditional gender roles, or any
> number of
> other reasons. Some may even try to correct us (if they don't know
> us).
> Before swapping, I look ahead in the line to be sure that our next
> neighbors
> will be part of the "game" and not put off by it.
> (Mark indicates the idea of there being a time and a place for this,
> I
> merely offer an additional tip).
> --Jerome
> >
> > Message: 3
> > Date: Wed, 9 Sep 2009 15:27:15 -0700 (PDT)
> > From: Mark Galipeau <red72impala(a)yahoo.com>
> > To: Caller's discussion list <callers(a)sharedweight.net>
> > Subject: Re: [Callers] Gender Swapping
> > Message-ID: <964380.63567.qm(a)web83604.mail.sp1.yahoo.com>
> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
> >
> > If the group is alert, what my dance partners and I occasionally
> enjoy, is
> > memorizing both roles in the dance, then each iteration when there
> is a
> > swing your partner, we swap gender roles.
> > ie: first swing I lead, then the next time we come back to swing
> my partner
> > immediately takes the lead role and swings me.? Some dances are
> challenging
> > and if the grey matter is slow, or it is late in the evening this
> can really
> > snafu the line.
> > ?
> > Chris Ricciotti has a great web resouce on Gender Free Contra on
> this web
> > site.
> > [1]http://www.lcfd.org/Articles/GFManual/index.html
> > ?
> > Mark Galipeau
> > Queer Contra Dancer
> > We swing both ways, and then some.
> >
> >
> >
> --
> Jerome Grisanti
> 660-528-0858
> [2]http://www.jeromegrisanti.com
> For the good are always the merry,
> Save by an evil chance,
> And the merry love the fiddle
> And the merry love to dance. ~ William Butler Yeats
> _______________________________________________
> Callers mailing list
> Callers(a)sharedweight.net
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>
> References
>
> 1. http://www.lcfd.org/Articles/GFManual/index.html
> 2. http://www.jeromegrisanti.com/
> 3. http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers
> _______________________________________________
> Callers mailing list
> Callers(a)sharedweight.net
> http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers
>
--
For the good are always the merry,
Save by an evil chance,
And the merry love the fiddle
And the merry love to dance. ~ William Butler Yeats
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Alan Winston --- WINSTON(a)SSRL.SLAC.STANFORD.EDU
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