Just a bit of Louisville dance community history on this subject—when my husband started dancing there in the late 70’s and I came in 1982, the Monday night dance was a mix of English and contra.  The default contradance star grip was the “wrist lock” not hands across as in English.  We called it a basket handhold or wrist grip.  Our influence came from New England because our friend, Norb Spencer, who started the group along with Marie and Frank (Cassidy?) and who called much of the time—learned in New England.  We then taught it that way when we moved to Cincinnati and started that group.  Louisville only became a “bastion of hands-across-by-default” sometime in the late 1990’s or ealy 2000’s during my calling hiatus.  When I re-entered the calling scene 6-7 years ago, I was surprised and bemused upon calling in Louisville to learn of the high regard held for their ‘traditional’ hands-across star style.
Susan McElroy-Marcus
 
Sent: Monday, October 10, 2016 9:44 AM
Subject: Re: [Callers] Wrist-Lock Stars
 
I tend to consider my home dance, Louisville, KY, and nearby Lexington, as two of the last bastions of hands-across-by-default. Wrist-grip seems to be the default (for contra; squares are a different matter) even in relatively nearby cities: Indianapolis, Bloomington, IN, Nashville, Cincinnati. Not sure about Berea and Somerset, KY, also nearby.
 
I'd be hesitant to use weekends, Flurry in particular, as bellwethers of what is typical in anything but weekends. I'd wager that the vast majority of contra dancers, even habitual dancers, have never been to a dance weekend, perhaps not even their "home" weekend. Just as there is a sort of "weekend-style" dance program, there is a "weekend-style" of dancing that is a pidgin not necessarily representative of any particular regional style.
 
On Mon, Oct 10, 2016 at 9:41 AM, Tim Klein via Callers <callers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
I call for dances in Knoxville, TN and occasionally in the surrounding area (Jonesboro, Chattanooga). I've been dancing here for 30 years. Kaufman was correct. I recall hands across stars in Knoxville, Atlanta, Brasstown, Asheville and points between, but wrist grip stars in Lexington, Louisville and Nashville. I'm certain about Knoxville, but perhaps others can confirm for the other cities.

The wrist star has gradually taken over as the default in the area, but a couple of us old-timers are still holding out. I still teach the hands across star in the pre-dance lesson because it's quicker, but acknowledge that there are variations. When I call and dance, I still prompt and encourage the hands-across grip. We've got to hold onto our traditions and fight the globalization of contra, right?

Of course, there are situations where one variety works better than another - to/from a move with an adjacent person (star to alemande, courtesy turn to star) suggests a wrist star, while moves where the contact is across (star old neighbors to star with new, ladies start star then gents join in) suggest the hands across. In those cases, I'll explicitly suggest one version in the walk through.
 
Tim Klein
Knoxville, TN
 
From: Dave Casserly via Callers <callers@lists.sharedweight.net>
To: John Sweeney <john@modernjive.com>
Cc: "callers@lists.sharedweight.net" <callers@lists.sharedweight.net>
Sent: Monday, October 10, 2016 8:37 AM
Subject: Re: [Callers] Wrist-Lock Stars
 
Jeff Kaufman wrote a paper on regional variations in contra dance.  Here's what he found for wrist-grip stars (page 31 of the link).  Basically, they're common everywhere in the US except in some parts of the South.  This is based on data from ten or more years ago, so I'm not sure if that's still true.  I would not be surprised if it isn't-- there's enough cross-contamination that wrist-grips could have taken over even in the South.  We do have people from Georgia and North Carolina on the list; hopefully they'll chime in.
 
-Dave
Washington, DC
 
On Mon, Oct 10, 2016 at 4:31 AM, John Sweeney via Callers <callers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
Hi all,
        I have been to contra dances and festivals all over America and
everywhere I have danced everyone automatically uses a wrist-lock star
(unless the caller has specified hands-across because of the subsequent
choreography).

        But I am constantly challenged in England by people claiming that
wrist-lock stars are not the standard in America.

        When I go to somewhere like The Flurry and see 600 people from all
over the country all doing wrist-locks it seems to me that it must be the
standard way of doing things.

        And obviously it has been common in America for a long time; this
video is from 1964 in Northern Vermont and shows wrist-lock stars:
https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=pZubTju7g_s

        So, are there still significant communities that don't use
wrist-locks?

        Is the wrist-lock the de facto standard?

        Thanks.

            Happy dancing,
                   John

John Sweeney, Dancer, England   john@modernjive.com 01233 625 362 & 07802
940 574
http://www.modernjive.com for Modern Jive Events & DVDs
http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Dancing in Kent



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David Casserly
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