Not that it makes any difference, but the dance was in Denton -- probably the 2nd largest artsy community in Texas.  The kids were from all over the "district."   

I'm just not into that whole Larks/Ravens thing.  They didn't seem to mind and kept dancing with each other anyway.  Looking at my program, it only mattered in one dance.  I usually also say "if you are dancing the gent's part, you need to be on the inside of the circle, but you and your partner will be doing the same thing, only backwards."

On Jun 18, 2017 12:51 PM, "Read Weaver" <rweaver@igc.org> wrote:
Unless Temple, Texas, is more of a hotbed of gender noncomformity than I’ve been led to believe, I think it unlikely that the phrase “those who are pretending to be ladies” will result in increased eagerness for guys to dance together. There’s been plenty of discussion on this list of other terminology to use; Larks and Ravens (Larks on the Left, Ravens on the Right) seems to be the phrasing that’s increasingly used. (And no need, with a group who’s never done any of this before, to “explain” that the Larks are the traditional Gents and the Ravens the traditional Ladies; just use the terms on their own.)

Read Weaver
Jamaica Plain, MA

On Jun 17, 2017, at 1:07 PM, Linda S. Mrosko via Callers <callers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
...
Thanks for asking the gender question.  I still use ladies and gents when necessary, but I add "those who are pretending to be gents" and "those who are pretending to be ladies".  They're just kids and no one seems to mind.
...
On Sat, Jun 17, 2017 at 11:51 AM, Linda Leslie <laleslierjg@comcast.net> wrote:
...
A question for you, though:  if girls are dancing with girls, and boys with boys, how are you approaching the use of language to distinguish positions?


On Jun 17, 2017, at 12:31 PM, Linda S. Mrosko via Callers <callers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:

In years passed, I tried to teach them swings -- but I guess everybody still has cooties at 18 years -- never worked -- plus, you have a good number of girls dancing with girls and boys dancing with boys and it makes some of them uncomfortable.   
...

Linda S. Mrosko
102 Mitchell Drive
Temple, Texas 76501
(903) 292-3713 (Cell)
www.zazzle.com/fuzzycozy* (Dance buttons, t-shirts, & more)