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@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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