4 Apr
2016
4 Apr
'16
10:13 p.m.
On 4/4/2016 9:10 AM, Darwin Gregory via Callers wrote:
While I am relatively new to contra, and just called my first dance
this weekend, The Baby Rose... I'll have never considered gypsy a term
related to a race of people, nor did I know it was applied today to a
group of people called Romas.
However, my general position on terms that have both discriminatory
and non-discriminatory meanings is that the meaning needs to be
derived by context.
Before reading the discussions here, I had only considered the meaning
of gypsy as related to wandering dancers... Not a particular ethnic
group. Perhaps my view has been naive.
Ok, cool.
While I am sensitive to cultural issues, until someone comes up with a
term that captures not only the physics of the move, but also the
flirtatious nature of it, I will probably grimace any time someone
uses a different term. Orbit, no handed swing, whatever... Until
something emphasizes the flirtatious eye contact it will fall short in
my mind. It is more than a figure, it is a figure with an attitude. :)
Wait. Why does the word "gypsy" imply flirtatious eye contact?
(I'm not trying to police what words you use or what you do when
calling, but I don't understand your logic here, which seems to be:
"gypsy in dance context harmlessly refers to dance gypsies, not ethnic
Gypsies"
"'gypsy' is the only satisfying term for the figure I've heard because
it implies flirtatious eye contact".
I'm kinda suspecting that the implication of flirtatious eye contact is
because of ideas of ethnic gypsies, gypsy dance, etc, but maybe you have
another reason and I'd like to hear it.
-- Alan