I love using role-neutral swings, and as Maia suggested, I think they are a fabulous teaching tool to correct awkward swings during a lesson.  However, I have observed stress indicators from some dancers newish to role swapping when I have tried using a neutral swing.  It seems as though having an asymmetrical swing hold indicates that both parties are in agreement as to who will end up where at the end of a swing.  Even for regular role swappers, using a neutral swing delays the role decision concurrence from the beginning of the swing to the end, possibly making people late to the next move.

Mark Pigman

Tacoma, WA

 

> Maia McCormick via Callers callers at lists.sharedweight.net 

>Tue Jul 5 14:06:36 PDT 2016

>But, I emphasize that you're both walking (or buzz-stepping) *forward*,
>roughly aiming at a point over your partner's shoulder. In fact, *the
>footwork for a swing for both roles is exactly the same!!!* A good way to
>emphasize this might be to have participants do a gender-neutral swing
>(e.g. right hand on shoulder blade, left hand clasped with partner above
>the heads) and then change the hand position into your classic ballroom
>swing (perhaps even trying out ballroom position with person A leading,
>then with person B leading) and noting how the footwork stays the same.