28 Mar
2018
28 Mar
'18
3:12 p.m.
In NYC there are more dances now then there ever have been in the past. They are all
pretty progressive in Dance roles. Two are gender free and one is not but has a
significant majority of dancers that dance both roles and lots who dance with everyone.
Attendance fluctuates so it’s hard to tell, but right now we seem to be on a slight up
taking into account the higher frequency of dances.
Portland, ME had a thriving gender free dance that as I understand it came about as the
older, more traditional Dance wound down- maybe someone else with more knowledge will jump
in.
The Chicago scene has added two dances in the last year. Their queer dance is growing,
their regular dance that is very encouraging of people Dancing both roles is growing, and
the two new series (one revived) are on college campuses. When I was dancing there
Several years ago, the groups were less into progressive concepts. The groups were
smaller. Correlation? Maybe so.
Thanks Ron, Louise, Maia and Jen for the thoughtful responses.
Sent from my iPhone
On Mar 28, 2018, at 2:58 PM, Tom Hinds via Callers
<callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
Ron,
I keep on reading your writing and see that you often give only partial information.
What you write below is interesting:
In New England, New York, Seattle, and the Bay
Area, many callers have been examining terminology and changing. Several dance series have
gone genderfree without being specifically chartered as LGBTQ dances. Not coincidentally,
these dances are thriving amidst a decline of attendance of contra in general.
My own preference is for you to give more information and not let us fill in the pieces.
For instance in the areas that you list above, was there a decline in attendance while
callers were using calls like gypsy and other words like men and women? If attendance did
in fact dip, did it in fact pick up again when alternative words were used? Might be cause
and effect or a correlation or simply coincidence.
If attendance in these areas have always been strong then perhaps there is something else
at work.
Ive always expected contra dance to die simply because that's the way it works. Come
on! Does anyone need me to spell this out? If you don't believe me, Mr Spock, in
one of the Star Trek movies once said, "all things must end" and I think
he's pretty smart!
Ron, I must also ask you about what you wrote below. It's not perfectly clear and of
course nobody is named but my take is that some of us (or me?)have ruined your party by
not going along with what you and others want? Perhaps I don't understand. Would you
please care to explain?
In the case of this original post, Rich was
asking for practical advice, and there *was no* argument until a couple choice people
started throwing shade at those of us who think changing the lyrics from "she was a
young thing" to "she was a young girl" is an easy swap that doesn't
diminish the tradition, but also reduces the objectification of women.
What does throwing shade mean? Does it mean that the sun was shining on you and that
someone blocked the sun? I'm afraid my college degree is from an applied institution
so I'd appreciate it if you could keep it simple for me in the future.
I've had very good conversations with Rich on and off the discussion group and feel
that he shares many of my values. Would you rather that I and others not participate?
Perhaps that is the primary reason that some of us aren't comfortable with PC. Where
does it end and what freedoms am I going to have to give up? My memory is that this
incredible discussion started with a complaint from ONE person.
Lastly let me suggest this after reading Jeffrey's very good email: It may be that
terms like gypsy (and of course others) are location dependent. Here in Charlottesville
and perhaps DC people don't really care for the gypsy issue. In other areas perhaps
that's not the case. On the English list people are reminded that folks from many
countries are members and that we should keep this in mind.
You want fries with that?
Tom
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