Thanks for this Maia; you said it better than I can.  

And as I’ve said elsewhere, learning to teach/call positionally and adapting to dancing to Larks/Ravens has, for me, the bonus of creating new brain cells and possibly delaying cognitive decline.


On Mon, Feb 13, 2023 at 9:47 PM Maia McCormick via Contra Callers <contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
Happier days for some, but a lot of us, those "haylcon days" were really not all that. Transgender people and gays and lesbians having to hide who they were, or not able to dance with (let alone marry) their partners for fear of retaliation, or having to go to their own separate dances to feel safe and accepted; women with no recourse if they were touched inappropriately or made to feel unsafe; and more that I don't have a gut sense for, not being part of those groups. For myself, I much prefer the current time.

I'm sure it must feel jarring to experience this sort of contention and discomfort, but I promise this is only a fraction of what minorities and vulnerable groups have experienced in the dance scene over the years. I hope that folks who have mostly coasted through a dance world built for them are willing to endure a little proximal discomfort and change for the sake of the people only just finding safety and community here.

I know email and especially large group discussions are a pretty lousy way to have discussions and convey nuance; if Jon or anyone else yearning for these "simpler times" is interested in having a one-on-one conversation about this, drop me a line off-list.

Take care,
Maia
--
Maia McCormick (she/her)
917.279.8194


On Sat, Feb 11, 2023 at 5:37 PM Jon Greene via Contra Callers <contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
Oh those halcyon days when gents were men, ladies were women, birds were birds, gypsies melted down, nobody cared how many jabs you had and you never had to guess whether someone was smiling or frowning at you.

Sent from my iPhone

On Feb 10, 2023, at 9:23 PM, ROBERT FABINSKI via Contra Callers <contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:

I look forward to a day in the future when the "quaintness" of the gendered terms will be used as a quirky theme for a dance evening, and people will think it's so old fashioned that no one will take offense; gendered terms will just be "the way it was a long time ago" and not the contentious topic it has been for the last few years. 

If that ever happens, the "Push Pa, Pull Ma" type dances with original will be pure gold!

bobfab@aol.com

On Fri, Feb 10, 2023 at 3:03 PM, Rich Sbardella via Contra Callers
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