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

I’m not the best person to address this, as I have (as yet) very little experience with positional calling, even as a dancer. But I don’t think anyone is currently advocating “lefts allemande right.” Referring to the two roles as “left” and “right” would be just another renaming, similar to “larks/robins” or “lakes/rivers.” As I understand it, that’s not what positional calling is about. I’ll leave it to more experienced folks to say what it actually is. Tony Parkes Billerica, Mass. www.hands4.com<http://www.hands4.com/> New book! Square Dance Calling: An Old Art for a New Century (available now) From: Allison Jonjak via Contra Callers &lt;contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net&gt; Sent: Thursday, February 9, 2023 9:48 AM To: Gabrielle Taylor &lt;gabrielletaylor(a)vivissi.com&gt; Cc: Peghesley &lt;peghesley(a)cox.net&gt;et>; Shared Weight Contra Callers &lt;contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net&gt; Subject: [Callers] Re: Gentlespoons/Ladles (from Rompin' Stompin') I don't have a cultural stance against positional calling, but I do have the "right/left" equivalent of dyslexic (if you say turn right/left as I'm driving, I get it wrong about 70% of the time, and I work around it by navigating with NSEW or a map.) I was able to learn dancing by feel and by momentum of the dance ('this feels like it will be a right allemande') and I was often late when I was learning until I had a good "translation" system in place / until I had developed a sense of dance flow. So I'm personally pretty fearful of "lefts allemande right"--it will be workable for me as a dancer because I already learned how things "feel" using roles. But I will never attempt calling it (recipe for disaster), and I'm pretty confident that if I was learning dancing as a newbie and got the sentence 'lefts allemande right' I would have given up and not come back. So for me, the birds are the obvious solution, positional calling feels totally not compatible with my particular handicap. I have no idea how common "left right dyslexia" is, so it could be that the 'right choice' is to override people in my shoes--there may simply not be very many of us. (In fact, I haven't heard anyone else say this yet, which is why I felt compelled to write). On Thu, Feb 9, 2023 at 7:56 AM Gabrielle Taylor via Contra Callers <contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net<mailto:contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net>> wrote: As a member of the LGBT community, my view (personal, from talking to others, and from votes in local contra dances in Western Massachusetts) is it's very good to have a consistent term that isn't inherently gendered. After local debate and dance-specific polls, we've been using larks and robins/ravens here since about 2018, and I think it's been a big improvement over ladies/gents. Larks and robins are my personal preference, since it's what everyone here is used to, and I at least don't have enough bird knowledge to get confused about robins or larks having some inherent gendering. I don't have any cultural stance against positional calling, but the confusion of "lefts allemande right" seems a lot worse than learning new terms. Thanks, Gabrielle On Feb 9, 2023, at 13:45, Jim Thaxter via Contra Callers <contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net<mailto:contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net>> wrote: Just a thought, but has anyone checked with the lgbtq community about what terms they would like to have used? Another thought, someone mentioned earlier in the thread that the terminology issue had been discussed thoroughly some time ago and the decision had been made to go with the birds. I don’t remember seeing or hearing about a general survey sent out to all the CDSS affiliates or any other general list of dance groups around the country or world vetting that decision Personally, I’m exploring positional calling. Just my gut feeling, but I think fewer people would be challenged by right/left directional calls than by being called bird names. Jim Thaxter Columbia, MO On Thu, Feb 9, 2023 at 6:31 AM Amy Cann via Contra Callers <contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net<mailto:contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net>> wrote: Since no one else has mentioned this, I'll just say that my entire personal difficulty with birds comes from fairy tales and ornithology. When we say "robin" we are mostly thinking about that bird with the "red breast", right? Not something kinda reddish-brownish? That's the male. In my childhood I read any number of books with anthropomorphised birds, and Mister Robin Redbreast was male. In a bunch of the stories there was also small, sweet-singing female lark. Add to that that in the states the robin is a different bird from in the UK, and much larger, I've got two good reasons to think of the robin as being the "male" role. My brain weighs the imagery and memories against that silly little detail of starting with "R" or "L" and defaults obstinately to the exact wrong conclusion every time. EVERY time. It's somewhat maddening. But "Ravens" was even worse, because ravens are black and men in formal clothing dress in black, so I guess things are better now?? Whew. Change is hard. On 2/9/23, Peghesley via Contra Callers <contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net<mailto:contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net>> wrote: _______________________________________________ Contra Callers mailing list -- contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net<mailto:contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net> To unsubscribe send an email to contracallers-leave@lists.sharedweight.net<mailto:contracallers-leave@lists.sharedweight.net> _______________________________________________ Contra Callers mailing list -- contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net<mailto:contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net> To unsubscribe send an email to contracallers-leave@lists.sharedweight.net<mailto:contracallers-leave@lists.sharedweight.net> _______________________________________________ Contra Callers mailing list -- contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net<mailto:contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net> To unsubscribe send an email to contracallers-leave@lists.sharedweight.net<mailto:contracallers-leave@lists.sharedweight.net> -- Allison Jonjak allisonjonjak@gmail.com<mailto:allisonjonjak@gmail.com> allisonjonjak.com<http://allisonjonjak.com>