14 Oct
2025
14 Oct
'25
12:56 p.m.
It's definitely much easier to line up improper with Larks and Robins.
Rather than saying who's on the left and who's on the right, I have
partners hold inside hands and wave at their neighbors — if you can wave
with your left hand, you're a lark! If you can wave with your right, you're
a robin.
In ye olden times when the majority of dances were done in proper
formation, to get improper you would line up dancers normally and have the
ones cross over. I think in this modern era it makes sense to line people
up improper (as dancers in our community are accustomed to) and then — get
this — just have the ones cross over. It's no harder than it's ever been!
Just reversed.
If your community is already dancing with Larks and Robins, there really
isn't any need to bring up gents and ladies.
On Tue, Oct 14, 2025, 6:54 AM Rich Goss via Contra Callers <
contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
I recently attended a ceilidgh in London. The caller
called Flying
Scotsman which is a longways set. They arranged it by the taller on the
left and designated them 2s. The shorter line 1s. Thought it was a
clever way to set it up. They would call something like “2s line arch, 1s
line lead through”. This may be common in th UK, but it was new to me (a
travelling US person)
As far as to say whether certain roll terms should or shouldn’t be used,
well…I’m not wading into that.
Rich
On Oct 13, 2025, at 9:35 PM, Michael Fuerst via
Contra Callers <
contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
Before the rise to prominence of larks and robins, callers and dance
transcriptions would occasionally refer to the gents'/ladies' line as the
line in which gets/ladies would line up for a proper dance.
Should this now rarely used designation be
declared obsolete or
deprecated, or should we now occasionally refer to the
gents' and ladies'
lines
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