Hi Maia, Here's my recent thoughts on the subject, in chronological order for the first walkthrough: 1. To me, there's nothing really to explain. I find it's too much complication for too little help, and I don't really think roles exist in an integral way as others do. I'm not here to give history lessons, I'm here to get people moving and smiling. I'd rather spend my time thanking people for participating and putting them at ease. You might want to try skipping over the section of your lessons in question and come up with a new way (see below). Different people do different things in the dance, but, in my opinion, it's just easier to teach those things in the moment rather than create an "original" geometry. 2. I do essentially what Louise has mentioned, circle people up first (I always teach La Bastringue for the first dance), then get people to practice the swing with partner and neighbour separately, utilizing the concept of the "pointy hand", a la Louise. 3. Then I encourage that if someone has a preference for side, they should communicate that to their partner. I stress that it doesn't really matter. Most dances I teach are partner-symmetrical. Most noobies just stay where they are. 4. From here I use bi-coloured wrist bands (scrunchies) to identify people. I'm not a positional caller - I think the duality of 1st and 2nd couple is mirrored in the duality of the partners, and not everything is symmetrical. What you really want, what you're really asking for, is an easier way to explain what each person is doing. I just received feedback last night from a new dancer who's been coming monthly for the last year-or-so, that the bi-coloured wrist bands I initiated in December is making a world of difference for cohesion. Years ago, the local ECD group adopted coloured sashes for the right-hand people (formerly expected to be women), and the local international group adopted formal wear ties for the left hand people (formerly, though rarely, men) when they danced partner dances. I supercharged the idea by utilizing bi-coloured scrunchies, directing them to be put on specific wrists - this is key. Now everyone wears something, rather than some people essentially being outed for not being in the traditional role (thus requiring additional identifiers). The bands do more though. The colours identify "role": Orange is lead/lark/man, blue is follow/robin/woman. But since the orange bands are on the left wrist and the blue bands are on the right wrist, this gives a secondary word to use to identify who I'm talking to. I'm tending to use right-hand person and left-hand person, rather than my previous lead/follow designations, which is more positional. They're essentially the same thing - roles, but these ones are easier to understand and see under pressure. I also think it's a slight leg up on arm bands because people are looking at others' hands more often, and I can also identify people's pointy hands - they're the ones with the coloured wrist bands!! Swinging is much easier now, and I can use the pointy hand concept to help people end up on the correct side. THANKS LOUISE!! Greg Winnipeg P.S. I tried to buy red and blue, but the colour on the online ad for the wrist bands was off and they came orange. I much preferred the idea of "making purple" as a phrase for swinging but orange is good, too. lol Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. This is filler text that changes the size of the messages I send - an added layer of security for detection and identification of encrypted information using metadata. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. This is filler text that changes the size of the messages I send - an added layer of security for detection and identification of encrypted information using metadata. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. Sent with Proton Mail secure email. On Sunday, March 10th, 2024 at 11:22 AM, Louise Siddons via Contra Callers contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net wrote:

Hi, “Some dances have been around since George Washington's time”! Oh! So, you only do the recent stuff :-) Happy dancing, John John Sweeney, Dancer, England john(a)modernjive.com 01233 625 362 & 07802 940 574 http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Dancing in Kent

Oh John! I just "got" your comment! Lol..sorry bit slow on the uptake. Mary On Sun, Mar 10, 2024, 1:55 PM John Sweeney via Contra Callers < contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net&gt; wrote:

Hi Mary, I’m curious, how do you find that the roles do or don’t break down along gendered lines when you introduce them with this bit of history? I’d assume that the implication that a role is traditionally for (men/women) would bias people into dancing along gendered lines, but I’ll admit I haven’t actually tested that hypothesis. Cheers, Maia -- Maia McCormick (she/her) 917.279.8194 On Sun, Mar 10, 2024 at 1:36 PM Mary Collins &lt;nativedae(a)gmail.com&gt; wrote:

My dance (Orlando) gets around 20-25 people, maybe 1/3 - 1/2 new each week. Also, around 2/3 are women. So, it isn't possible for us to dance without a bunch of role swapping. Even though I have them partner up in the workshop using a scatter mixer, so there is plenty of same-gender partnering even among the men, when I teach the swing in the very next exercise with the existing partners, there will be some (unrequested by me) shuffling and we have nearly entirely guys dancing with women and standing on the left, and women dancing with women with the more experienced person on the left. This has most of the new women learning the robin's role, save in the occasional two-beginner-women couple. For a while I tried teaching the swing from both sides. It got awkward and uncomfortable for many of the guys (women didn't seem to have a problem with it), so I don't do that anymore. When I'm asked why we do larks and robins (it's rare that I am), these days I just point out the number of women and say that it's to facilitate role swapping, as otherwise we'd have too many sitting out. Still, I feel bad about not giving the newbies exposure to both sides of the swing. The women typically do learn both sides after they're confident, a few evenings later, but it's rare for guys to dance the robin (maybe once a night someone does). Some of the dancers are religious conservatives, especially the younger ones (homeschoolers, some of them), so I don't push it. Still, if we had some mechanism that would make it more socially comfortable, I'd be very interested in learning about it. (Hmm. Maybe if I had a dance with a larks swing and a partner swing, some of my larks would swap...! Ok, not going that far with this group. Not my job to tell them what to like.) So, I guess this is something like your, "unless you have a preference, whoever is standing on the right of your partnership is the robin for now", with nearly everyone having a preference for the traditional role and some of the experienced women swapping for the good of the dance. BUT, when we had a college dance in 2022-2023, the story was totally different. There, we had guys comfortably swapping, just like in many Northern, urban, community dances. I just taught people in whatever role they were standing in, and I taught both sides. I didn't tell them to learn one role before learning the other. Most swapped a lot and did great. The students mostly taught each other after that, and I did occasionally hear the advice that someone who was less coordinated should stick to a role until they got it basically down. But, college students are young enough that their brains are still sponges and they learn fast. It might not work so well for older newbies. So, I think the answer lies in how much social inertia there is in your group, and what direction it's in. --jh-- On Sun, Mar 10, 2024 at 1:37 PM Mary Collins via Contra Callers < contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net&gt; wrote:

I don't like to assign roles in the lesson. A lot of good discussion, and a couple points I'll add: - my lesson teaches the swing as allemande R -> 2 hand turn -> swing, and so the concept of the swing being symmetrical except for handholds is established, and then Left/Right side. (And handhold) being the concept introduced as the difference with role. - if there's a small number of new dancers, experienced people in my general region will typically help show the ropes in terms of dancing either role. - for larger groups, I am more likely to specifically have them try both roles - I do like to tell new dancers that for the first couple dances, they should consider sticking with the role in the lesson. I'll say something like "if you're feeling comfortable, absolutely try dancing the other role, too". In dance, Julian Blechner He/Him Western Mass On Mon, Mar 11, 2024, 6:23 PM Winston, Alan P. via Contra Callers < contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net&gt; wrote:

“the roles have a loose base in gender.”??? Perhaps, “the roles were originally (completely and utterly) based on gender”! Happy dancing, John John Sweeney, Dancer, England john(a)modernjive.com 01233 625 362 & 07802 940 574 http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Dancing in Kent