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@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 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's Men in Chains, which was in his Contradictations (1997), 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@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
> On 24 Mar 2025, at 12:34, Joe Harrington via Contra Callers <contracallers@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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