24 Mar
2025
24 Mar
'25
2:43 p.m.
Rod Linnell was a square dance caller who died in 1966. He had a book of
his dances in the works when he died. The book was completed by Louise
Winston, and published with the title Square Dances From A Yankee Caller's
Clipboard in 1974.
The book has a glossary which defines all of the figures used in it.
Ladies Chain is defined as the ladies chaining over and back again. Ten
variants of a Ladies Chain are then listed, including Ladies Half Chain
(over to your opposite but not back to your partner), Gents Chain, Gents
Half Chain, Gents Grand Chain, and Ladies (or Gents) Half Grand Chain.
Here's the entry for Gents Chain:
"GENTS CHAIN. This is used much less often than ladies chain and is done
similarly, with the following differences: The two men join LEFT hands as
they pass to go to the opposite girl. Each man puts his right arm around
the girl's waist, and she holds the pivot as she turns him forward to face
the opposite couple again. The men return to their own partner in the same
manner."
I don't know if that definition was written by Rod Linnell or by Louise
Winston.
The book contains seven contras written by Rod Linnell, in addition to
squares and double quadrilles, but none of the contras include the Gent's
Chain figure.
Jacob Bloom
On Mon, Mar 24, 2025 at 9:25 AM Jeff Kaufman via Contra Callers <
contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
Hi Louise,
I'd be really curious to know the dance that introduced Gent's / Left-hand
/ Larks / Men's chains; one from fifty years ago would certainly be a
strong candidate!
I did a bit of looking just now and found Mary McNab Dart's 1995 book mentions
them <https://store.cdss.org/elibrary/dart/conclusion.htm> briefly: *Men's
"chains" and same-sex "swings" are marginal innovations that are out
at the
edges of the tradition boundary today. Had they been introduced in 1950
they would have been too far out for acceptance. Now they have a chance, as
the boundary moves in directions that encourage gender equality.*
The oldest I can think of off the top of my head is Erik
<https://erikhoffman.com/>'s Men in Chains
<https://www.ibiblio.org/contradance/thecallersbox/dance.php?id=5033>,
which was in his Contradictations (1997
<https://www.nbcds.org/old_site/articles/erik1.html>), but I don't know
how much longer before that he wrote the dance.
Jeff
On Mon, Mar 24, 2025 at 8:52 AM Louise Siddons via Contra Callers <
contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
Joe and I clearly replied at the same
time, with a lot of the same
thoughts :)
It’s important to the historian in me to note that left-hand chains
generally are not new to contra, nor are ‘role-reversed’ chains — they’re
uncommon, but I can think of dances thirty and fifty years old with them
without trying too hard. (If I were a dedicated contra dance historian, I’d
be even more specific — but I’m sure there’s expertise on this list that
can provide a wide variety of examples.)
And I think it’s also important to note that we are not CALLERLAB, and we
don’t need to have one answer to this question. It is generally considered
(and has been the whole time I’ve been dancing, at least) a strength in our
dance communities that we accommodate difference and variety in our
callers, as well as in the execution of the dance (flourishes, etc.) and
the people with whom we dance. It’s really interesting to hear how other
people think through and address these changes.
Louise.
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On 24 Mar
2025, at 12:34, Joe Harrington via Contra Callers <
contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote: