I’ve always felt that a huge role of the caller was to do their best to promote fun and happiness on the dance floor. That seems impossible to do when so many people get upset about terminology. When the gypsy kerfuffle started, people in my dance community were divided - with very strong opinions - about how to that move should be called. It felt like no matter how I called it, I’d get angry looks from some of the dancers (along with the occasional jeers). So… for years, I stopped calling the move. I’d change it to an allemande, a do-si-do, or just not call a dance with that move in it. When it finally seemed settled in my community that right shoulder round was the accepted terminology, I called it again using what seemed to be the now agreed upon phrase. And of course, the first time I called it, a person on the floor looked up at the stage and yelled, “You mean gypsy?”

And then came non-gendered terminology. Trying to navigate that without upsetting a good amount of dancers became increasingly difficult. The pandemic put that on hold for a few years for me… and I made the decision that I would stay behind the piano and stop calling. I saw no way to call that wasn’t going to upset a good number of dancers, and as a caller, that was something I did not want to do.

But… as dancing resumed, there seemed to be a shortage of callers here and I ended up being asked to call the first dance since the beginning of the pandemic. I was not thrilled about calling ladies/gents, nor was I prepared to call larks/ravens. So I tackled positional calling, and there were no complaints. None. Just compliments.  I’ve called since then and have been experimenting with ECD terminology of first corners / second corners, and that seemed to work quite nicely - and it has the added benefit of helping bridge the gap between dancers who only dance in one of those communities. Hopefully, it will catch on with other local callers here, as that’s where I’m headed.