25 Jun
2010
25 Jun
'10
4:31 p.m.
On Jun 25, 2010, at 9:17 AM, Will Loving wrote:
Lately, as a dancer, I and a fair number of other
folks at the Greenfield
(MA) dance have taken to switching gender roles every other time through a
dance. Not for every dance, but as an interesting challenge and a way to
have more interaction with people that you might not normally interact with
if you only dance one role. (I know, folks at gender-free dances are already
there, but a nominally 'gendered' dance is where I'm starting from.)
An interesting question, perhaps not appropriate for this thread, is what else you change
in how you dance when you change gender roles. Sure, in the woman's role you may be
doing different parts of the calls (the actual chaining in a Ladies Chain, or leading the
Hey instead of going second). I am talking about "dance feel". When swinging
are you leading the exit from the swing, when in time and in what direction, or are you
allowing your current partner to lead the exit? Generally I dance the man's role.
When I encounter men dancing the woman's role, some "feel" to me like the
other women in the line in terms of flourishes, ending swings, etc. Others feel like men,
who are leading, completely doing their own thing, and unable to "listen" to any
conversation related to lead/follow. When I switch roles, I try to also change from lead
to follow, as I think it applies to contra dancing.
When you do gender role switching every other time it
basically turns a
32-bar dance into a 64-bar one, at least that's what seems to be happening
inside my head when I realize that I have stopped thinking about when to
switch. There are some dances like Alternating Corners where you do
something similar in that the dance in different every other time through,
though with continued prompting from the caller. In the case of Alternating
Corners, the 1s and 2s alternate doing the swing and contra corners.
Alternating Corners is a great dance. One wonders if that same idea could (should) be
applied to other 1's preferential dances.
Will Mentor and I have been talking the possibility of
making a true 64-bar
dance that either uses a 64-bar tune or twice through of a standard 32-bar
tune. It opens up some interesting possibilities and challenges around
making a dance that's twice as long but that people remember, get into the
flow of and enjoy.
There are longer dances - 42, 48 and 64 bars - but not many that I'm aware
of. I'm interested to know what other folks experience has been about
writing and calling longer dance sequences.
I find most 4-face-4 dances don't have enough time in 32 bars to do anything
interesting -- especially if they try to get into a temporary square formation. Perhaps
writing a new 4-face-4 would be the place to start. Also, I would go for 48 bars, not
64-bars initially. Find a good AABBCC tune and write a dance around it. I am afraid that
coming up with a 48 or 64 bar compelling and memorable storyline for a normal DI or Becket
contra would be difficult.
One question to think about -- what do you want or need the extra music for?
* Swinging more people -- a few dances already have 3 swings
* Longer swings
* The ability to include a "big" figure (e.g., Contra Corners, the
"walk" of Wizard's Walk)
* The ability to set up or transition (this would be my reason in a 4-face-4
* The ability to have a relaxed part and an energetic part, and space them out a little
more
--
Clark Baker, Belmont, MA
cmbaker(a)tiac.net