Re: [Callers] Gender free dances

I'll observe that there are multiple reasons for needing gender-free terms. Our dance series is family-oriented and usually heavy with first time dancers. So, we often have mother dancing with daughter, son dancing with son, father with son, daughter with best friend, and so forth. The kids are generally uninhibited in pairing up, but often retreat when they realize they are playing the "wrong" role (especially the boys). We sometimes use "cats" and "dogs", at least for some of the playful, non-contra dances. As with so many of the discussions here, how well random designations with no visible association works depends very strongly on the level of the dancers. At some dances you can assume that whoever is coming toward you is the right person. At our dances you cannot make that assumption. The odds are quite high that the crow did not leave his birdie on the right or that instead of allemanding 1 and 1/2 times they allemanded once (and with the wrong hands). We find ties very useful. Perseverating on this theme, it is not unusual for us to have enough first time dancers so that there are not enough experienced dancers to go around, leaving us with two beginners dancing together. Children and their parents are often understandably uncomfortable having the children dancing with strange adults, again leaving us with two neophytes dancing together. And sometimes a couple will come, expecting to dance with each other. I am not complaining about the dancers. Part of our mission is to expose new people to traditional dancing, and this is what it takes. I just ask that here we not dogmatically assert that our way is the only way without acknowledging the context. Dave On 12/2/2010 7:20 PM, beth(a)hands4.com wrote: