24 Mar
2025
24 Mar
'25
7:40 a.m.
No date on it, but Al Olson’s Butternut Squash (with apologies for the gendered language:
https://www.ibiblio.org/contradance/thecallersbox/dance.php?id=3709) was published in
Zesty Contras. I know 1983 wasn’t 50 years ago but it was over 40 — and many of the dances
in there were written long before Larry published the book.
Larry uses the term “arky” to describe a figure done from the unexpected side, so my
impression is that at least in 1983, at least some dancers were doing dances with figures
that inverted role expectations enough to need a word for it. I’d love to hear more from
people on this list who were dancing back then.
Louise.
On 24 Mar 2025, at 13:24, Jeff Kaufman
<jeff.t.kaufman(a)gmail.com> wrote:
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
<mailto:contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net>> wrote:
> > On 24 Mar 2025, at 12:34, Joe Harrington via Contra Callers
<contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net
<mailto:contracallers@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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