29 May
2015
29 May
'15
12:27 p.m.
Hampshire College and Village Contra in NYC are two gender free dances
who've done these studies over the course of several evenings. The same
night seems excessively difficult for both caller and dancers, though.
On May 29, 2015 12:17 PM, "John W Gintell" <john(a)gintell.org> wrote:
It would be interesting to get some dancers'
reactions to these various
terminologies.
Has anyone thought of using two different pairings in a dance evening and
then asking the dancers which they thought was clearer to their ears and
which they preferred? Of course this is even a bigger burden on the caller.
On May 29, 2015, at 11:43 AM, Ron Blechner via Callers wrote:
Erik, neat cheat.
For reference, my own thoughts on the terms, and a general FAQ about
gender free terms:
http://contradances.tumblr.com/post/113203981035/genderfree-contra-dance-te…
I have not updated it with gems / rubies.
I like jets / rubies, but I think gems / rubies is better:
1. I disagree that the "em" sound is harder to hear than the "et" in
jet.
Good mic skills / having a foam pad on a mic will dull the sharp "ts" in
"gents", and thus, "jets". Because a loud "ts" on the mic
is harsh.
Therefore, this argument against "gems" is not an issue.
2. A lot of people don't know "jet" is a gemstone, and so they think
airplane. I've had a lot of gender free dancers complain about this. Given
that the terms need to serve the LGBTQ community, and not merely us as
callers, I take this complaint seriously. Thus, "gem" is a better choice.
3. Yes, a ruby is a gem. So what? They're both gems.
4. There's a gender connotation to thinking jet = airplane, since it's
either phallic, or people think the NY/NJ football team, or the West Side
Story fictional gang. Again, the terms are here to serve the dancers, not
merely us.
5. Gem has all the same advantages as jet.
I thus think gem / ruby is a superior pair than jet / ruby.
Ron Blechner
On May 29, 2015 11:32 AM, "Erik Hoffman via Callers" <
callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
We are still using larks and ravens at the
Berkeley dance. And, though I
don't seem to have too much trouble using different words for different
dances -- so far I've used men/women, ladies/gents, bands/bares,
trees/squirrels, and larks/ravens without changing my mess of dance notes
-- I understand that others can't switch so easily. On this note, at the
Berkeley dance a caller recently did the following:
1) asked if anyone had some post-its. When found some
2) wrote "lark" and "raven" on the sticky end
3) cut out these little cheat-sheets
4) covered the words "gents" and "ladies" with the post-it cheats
5) move cheats to next card as needed
Thereby changing their cards to the current words on the fly. I was
impressed.
~erik hoffman
oakland, ca
On 5/28/2015 8:01 PM, Kalia Kliban via Callers wrote:
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On Thu, May 28, 2015, Alan Winston via Callers
wrote:
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On 5/28/15 12:30 PM, Ron Blechner via Callers
wrote:
>
>>
>> For those interested in gender free contra dance terms:
>>
>> 1. Do you like or dislike jets / rubies ?
>>
>
> Like. (I'm responding on personal preference alone; I'm aware of some
> objections to this, which I don't personally share.)
>
> 2. How would gems / rubies compare?
>>
>
> Less good, because the soft "ms" would make the call less clear. Also,
> rubies _are_ gems, so this is confusing.
>
Me too. I haven't yet tried calling with the jets and rubies
terminology, though I've used bands/bares and larks/ravens. I can't say
I'm eager to add yet another set of translated cards to my files.
Kalia Kliban
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