[Callers] Re: Gentlespoons/Ladles (from Rompin' Stompin')

I believe it’s in Myrtle Wilhite’s *Lullaby of the Swing and other contra dances, tunes, waltzes, and essays* (Madison, WI, 1993). I can’t lay my hand on my copy at the moment, but perhaps someone else has one. Tony Parkes Billerica, Mass. www.hands4.com New book! Square Dance Calling: An Old Art for a New Century (available now) *From:* Mary Collins &lt;nativedae(a)gmail.com&gt; *Sent:* Wednesday, February 8, 2023 2:11 PM *To:* Jeff Kaufman &lt;jeff(a)alum.swarthmore.edu&gt; *Cc:* Tony Parkes &lt;tony(a)hands4.com&gt;om>; Joe Harrington < contradancerjoe(a)gmail.com&gt;gt;; contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net *Subject:* Re: [Callers] Re: Gentlespoons/Ladles (from Rompin' Stompin') Jeff, me too...if you find it, share please. mary "And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who couldn't hear the music." - Nietzsche “Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass ... it's about learning to dance in the rain!” ~ unknown On Wed, Feb 8, 2023 at 9:58 AM Jeff Kaufman via Contra Callers < contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net&gt; wrote: Aside: does anyone have a copy of the "I am not a lady" essay? I'd be interested to read it. Jeff On Wed, Feb 8, 2023 at 9:54 AM Tony Parkes via Contra Callers < contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net&gt; wrote: Joe Harrington wrote: *> *When I started dancing in the late 1980s… Callers were taking the revolutionary step of not calling "men" and "women" but rather using "ladies" and "gents", to signal that switching roles was ok, since nobody referred to themselves as a "lady" or a "gent" in casual conversation. Where was this, Joe? And are you talking about contra callers (rather than ECD)? I can only speak about the NYC area in the 1960s and early ’70s, and New England starting in the late ’60s and continuing to the present. In both regions, square/contra callers (contras were a subcategory of square dance until around 1975) universally used “gents/ladies.” (I believe ECD teachers have always used “men/women,” presumably emulating Playford and Cecil Sharp.) AFAIK, northeastern callers pretty consistently used “gents/ladies” until some of them started to move away from gender-related terms. Tolman and Page’s *Country Dance Book* (1937) uses “gents/ladies,” as do most of the other standard American dance books from the 1900s to the 1950s (a few, aimed at schoolteachers, use “boys/girls”). I know of no region where callers changed from “men/women” to “gents/ladies.” I know that some callers, beginning I think in the ’80s, changed from “gents/ladies” to “men/women,” feeling that “gentlemen” and “ladies” smacked of classism. (One female caller, in an essay titled “I am not a lady,” requested that other callers not use her contra compositions if they adhered to “gents/ladies.”) As an amateur (= lover) of dance history, I would like to know about past changes of which I was unaware. Tony Parkes Billerica, Mass. www.hands4.com New book! Square Dance Calling: An Old Art for a New Century (available now) _______________________________________________ Contra Callers mailing list -- contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net To unsubscribe send an email to contracallers-leave(a)lists.sharedweight.net _______________________________________________ Contra Callers mailing list -- contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net To unsubscribe send an email to contracallers-leave(a)lists.sharedweight.net _______________________________________________ Contra Callers mailing list -- contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net To unsubscribe send an email to contracallers-leave(a)lists.sharedweight.net