[Callers] Re: New Names for Ladies' Chains

Jeff suggested “Robins chain” which I just want to nuance a little bit. “Ladies' chain” has historically meant a chain by the right, and I have heard callers say “men, do a ladies’ chain” in gendered contexts. Callers using Larks and Robins, though, are in my experience more likely to say, “Larks, chain across” or similar, than to say, “Larks, do a Robins’ chain” — which is on the face of it slightly ludicrous. (The same would go for Robins chaining by the left — one wouldn’t say “Robins, do a Larks’ chain.) So if I’m calling with role terms (which, yes, I sometimes do), I might say “[Larks/Robins], chain across.” If I want to specify which hands (regardless of role terms/positional calling), I would say “chain by the right” or “chain by the left” rather than “right-hand chain” or “left-hand chain” — because those latter prompts produce stars a bit too often. Having said all that, experience suggests that “chain” is almost always fine by itself, because the walkthrough teaches the dancers who’s doing what, and most of the need for a longer phrase is because callers want to give dancers a reminder of the figure a bit sooner than one word allows. I “grew up” with people calling “ch-ch-chain” as a way to solve this problem without adding words, and I sometimes still do that because it’s concise and fun to say. Louise. (Winchester, UK)