4 Sep
2025
4 Sep
'25
4:05 p.m.
Before we get into an acrimonious retread of past discussions, I wanted to
flag that "is a lead-follow dynamic a central part of modern contra dance"
is something there's a lot of disagreement on, going back decades. I think
getting into it here would be a distraction from the good discussion we're
having on the best word choices for these kinds of moves.
Jeff
On Thu, Sep 4, 2025 at 11:59 AM Colin Hume via Contra Callers <
contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
On Wed, 3 Sep 2025 16:00:27 -0400, Joe Harrington via
Contra Callers wrote:
Some of our dance moves come from lead-follow
dances, where the dancers
act asymmetrically. One opens the opportunity
to do a move, the other decides whether, how, and
when to respond. Ask
any good swing, salsa, or ballroom dancer
whether follows have equal agency!
But traditionally Contra has never been a lead-follow dance - and nor has
English, from which Contra is derived.
Who is the leader in a ladies' chain? Or when the ladies start a hey for
four. It's true for couple dancing, and if
you import moves from that you import lead-follow at the same time, but
it's not an intrinsic part of Contra.
In a roll away, both partners are active - I would say the woman is more
active because she does most of the work.
The man isn't initiating a flourish - it's part of the figure of the dance.
Colin
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