12 May
2013
12 May
'13
4:28 p.m.
On Sun, May 12, 2013, Greg McKenzie wrote:
Maia also wrote:
That's kinda what I was getting at in part, but even your survey would
likely not have caught me, depending on exactly how you executed it. For
example, I pretty much only dance in the winter because I'm prone to heat
exhaustion.
Mailing lists are likely useful for catching another set of people, but
there are probably lots even now who still don't use e-mail (and mailing
lists would be an even smaller fraction of the crowd).
I also want to find the people who consider
themselves "contra community" but feel uncomfortable dancing switch, or
might look at a male-male and female-female couple and say "hey, why don't
you split up and pair off m/f?"
I wouldn't say that the idea of a "contra community" is a myth, but I
would
question the usefulness of this concept in any objective study. I fear
that the idea of a "self-identified" community of contra dancers is almost
always a projection of the one making that determination. That's why, in
my study, I worked to obtain the most random sample I could of all those in
the hall at our dances. I suspect that almost all of those in leadership
positions in the contra
dance movement are enthusiasts of multiple dance forms, (defined as dancing
each form at least six times a year. Please let me know if this is not the
case for you, personally.) About HALF of those in the hall at our open,
public contra dances, however, will rarely, if ever, attend any other type
of social dance. Contras are their primary, or sole social dance activity.
For most of the last decade, I have done less than six/year of anything
other than contra (and often barely meeting that standard for contra) --
just too hard to manage dancing and a job with my schedule. Then again,
I probably don't really count as "leadership position", either (just an
online loudmouth and moderately visible on the dance floor).
On the gripping hand, I identify as a dance enthusiast because there
have been periods when I danced multiple times per week and I've been
doing all of contra/square/folk for more than a quarter century. I'm
providing this datapoint as an example of how complicated it is to label
people. ;-)
I suspect that most of those who are most comfortable
with switching roles
are also multiple dance form enthusiasts. The function of social dance as
a "mating ritual" may be much less significant for hard-core multiple dance
form enthusiasts.
Well, I've *wanted* dance to be in part a mating ritual, it just doesn't
seem to have worked that way for me. And my most recent partner, who I
found on OKCupid, is someone that I *should* have previously met dancing
(zie is a hard-core folk dancer, going to Greece and other places for
dancing); similarly, one of my exes was a semi-serious contra dancer for
a while (and may still be going to Gaskells), and two of my other
partners would like to dance but can't due to medical issues. So even
though dance hasn't worked for me historically as a mating ritual, it
certainly has been part of my romantic life.
Hard to say how much my experience is informed by my hearing impairment,
but likely lots, because socializing in a dance context is very very
difficult for me. People with social issues might have a similar
experience for different reasons.
--
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