28 Jan
2016
28 Jan
'16
2:10 a.m.
I tried typing each of the following into the Google search box:
"frontier twirl" square dance
"frontier whirl" square dance
The "whirl" version got more hits, but the "twirl" version also
got enough to show that it's more than just one person's
idiosyncratic variant.
Bonus history tidbit: In Ed Gilmore's dance "The California
Whirl", as published in the May 1951 _Sets in Order_ magazine
and on page _Sets In Order_'s _5 Years of Square Dancing_
compilation (a/k/a _Five Years of Sets In Order_), the term
"California Whirl" is used to mean what would now be called
a "Left Star Thru". That is, it's done by dancers who are
facing each other, rather than by those who are side-by-side,
with gent using left hand and lady using right hand. On the
other hand (as it were), when Ed describes the "Inside Arch
Outside Under" routine in his 1949 callers course syllabus
http://squaredancehistory.org/items/show/581
he uses "California Whirl" just as we now use "California
Twirl'. The terminology just wasn't as precicodified in
those ®®days as it is in MWSD today.
--Jim
On Jan 27, 2016, at 1:20 PM, Rich Sbardella via
Callers <callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
Erik,
I have heard Frontier Whirl as a California Twirl, but never Frontier Twirl? Are you
sure? (Maybe I am mistaken.)
Rich Sbardella
Stafford, CT
On Wed, Jan 27, 2016 at 12:26 PM, Erik Hoffman via Callers
<callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
What Michael Fuerst said at a readable size (It's still coming through to me in some
microscopic font):
Are you also contemplating to abandon the
awkward to say "California
Twirl"
If you use your gypsy alternative for new dancers, will you advise them
of all the synonyms being conjured ?
Aha! A whole new topic. Well, actually old. Larry Edelman, one of my favorite dance
callers, and someone I feel lucky to have spent time with, and from whom I have learned so
much, use to complain about "California Twirl." I don't recall his reasons,
but he always called it a "Frontier Twirl," which I think he got from old square
dance books.
I've been using "right shoulder turn," and "left shoulder turn,"
and mentioning that there's been a discussion on the use of the word Gypsy. Then
again, somewhere around sixty percent of the time I tend to call a "right hand
turn," instead of "allemande right," as it's more descriptive.
This, in some ways, gives another reason for using different words: the use of
descriptive calls. Thus abandoning a non-descriptive call for one that is more readily
interpreted by all dancers has other benefits than just abandoning a word that some--or
all--find pejorative .
~erik hoffman
oakland, ca
On 1/27/2016 7:03 AM, Michael Fuerst via Callers wrote:
Are you also contemplating to abandon the
awkward to say "California Twirl"
If you use your gypsy alternative for new dancers, will you advise them of all the
synonyms being conjured ?
Michael Fuerst 802 N Broadway Urbana IL 61801 217 239 5844
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