John Bealle , (of Cincinnati for the last several years), wrote his dissertation in Ethnomusicology about the Bloomington Old Time Music and Dance community of which he was a part at that time. Bealle, John. "American Folklore Revival: A Study of an Old-Time Music and Dance Community." Ph.D. Dissertation. Indiana University, 1988. Susan -----Original Message----- From: Jeff Kaufman Sent: Sunday, May 05, 2013 4:47 PM To: Caller's discussion list Subject: Re: [Callers] Contra Academia? I wrote about variation in how people do various figures in different places for my undergraduate linguistics thesis: http://www.jefftk.com/final-papers/thesis/contra-thesis-1-0-0.pdf On Sun, May 5, 2013 at 4:01 PM, Maia McCormick <maia.mcc(a)gmail.com> wrote: _______________________________________________ Callers mailing list Callers(a)sharedweight.net http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers

In an earlier message I wrote: "The last chapter of the non-fiction book  "The  Rooms of Heaven"  by Mary Allen occurs at a Kansas City contradance." Here is a link about the book http://www.amazon.com/The-Rooms-Heaven-Story-Afterlife/dp/0679776567   Michael Fuerst      802 N Broadway      Urbana IL 61801       217-239-5844 ________________________________ From: Michael Fuerst <mjerryfuerst(a)yahoo.com> To: Caller's discussion list <callers(a)sharedweight.net> Sent: Sunday, May 5, 2013 5:51 PM Subject: Re: [Callers] Contra Academia? The last chapter of the non-fiction book  "The  Rooms of Heaven"  by Mary Allen occurs at a Kansas City contradance.   Michael Fuerst      802 N Broadway      Urbana IL 61801       217-239-5844 ________________________________ From: smcelroymarcus <smcelroymarcus(a)earthlink.net> To: Caller's discussion list <callers(a)sharedweight.net> Sent: Sunday, May 5, 2013 5:22 PM Subject: Re: [Callers] Contra Academia? John Bealle , (of Cincinnati for the last several years), wrote his dissertation in Ethnomusicology about the Bloomington Old Time Music and Dance community of which he was a part at that time. Bealle, John. "American Folklore Revival: A Study of an Old-Time Music and Dance Community." Ph.D. Dissertation. Indiana University, 1988. Susan -----Original Message----- From: Jeff Kaufman Sent: Sunday, May 05, 2013 4:47 PM To: Caller's discussion list Subject: Re: [Callers] Contra Academia? I wrote about variation in how people do various figures in different places for my undergraduate linguistics thesis: http://www.jefftk.com/final-papers/thesis/contra-thesis-1-0-0.pdf On Sun, May 5, 2013 at 4:01 PM, Maia McCormick <maia.mcc(a)gmail.com> wrote: _______________________________________________ Callers mailing list Callers(a)sharedweight.net http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers _______________________________________________ Callers mailing list Callers(a)sharedweight.net http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers _______________________________________________ Callers mailing list Callers(a)sharedweight.net http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers

The page says the access credentials are username ilove and password todance. It worked for me. On Fri, May 10, 2013 at 2:10 PM, Maia McCormick <maia.mcc(a)gmail.com> wrote: -- David Casserly (cell) 781 258-2761

On Fri, May 10, 2013, Maia McCormick wrote: Which contra community? ;-) (I know you know this, just being a bit snarkier than usual after attending the queer contra dance camp.) -- Hugs and backrubs -- I break Rule 6 http://rule6.info/ <*> <*> <*> Help a hearing-impaired person: http://rule6.info/hearing.html

On Sat, May 11, 2013, Maia McCormick wrote: One thing to be careful of, by way of personal example: primarily because of my hearing impairment but also because I have a lot of trouble staying up late, I tend to think of myself as "of" but not "in" the contra dance community. So you likely will need to put in extra effort if you want to find people who are not part of the core communities (i.e on the fringes, however you measure that). Before queer contra dance camp, I would have said that a quarter-century of contra (and IFD and square) had produced zero romantic effect. Now I'm not sure. ;-> -- Hugs and backrubs -- I break Rule 6 http://rule6.info/ <*> <*> <*> Help a hearing-impaired person: http://rule6.info/hearing.html

Maia: What do you mean by "intersections of gender, sexuality, flirtiness, role-swapping, skirt wearing, age, use of contra network as a social  base,  use of contra network to find romantic/sexual partners"  ? How can you make or evaluate any meaningful  findings about "contra networks" without a comparison to other social networks, dance or othrwise ? Will your use of the "g" word,  " god,"  predispose bias into whatever findings you eventually make ? Once you start saying things to dancers, such as  "hey, why don'tyou split up and pair off m/f?"  any findings become dubious By considering your self a young hip flashy dancer (whatever that means) will make your doing any objective study difficult. If you have a serious interest in social networks, you should look at the free on-line class currently being offered by Coursera: https://www.coursera.org/course/networksonline The course is 2/3 over, but you still can register to study all the course materials   Michael Fuerst      ________________________________ From: Maia McCormick &lt;maia.mcc(a)gmail.com&gt; To: Caller's discussion list &lt;callers(a)sharedweight.net&gt; Sent: Sunday, May 12, 2013 6:34 AM Subject: Re: [Callers] Contra Academia? 2013/5/11 Aahz Maruch &lt;aahz(a)pobox.com&gt; That's a really good point. I mean, one way would be to focus my study only on people who self-identify as being "in" the contra community... but, how would you suggest I go about finding people on the fringes? I feel like my sample size will be kind of biased by who I'm friendly with, which is pretty much the quote unquote 'young hip flashy' dancers (who tend to be super comfortable switching roles, largely queer, considerably poly and sexually liberal, etc.). I also want to find the people who consider themselves "contra community" but feel uncomfortable dancing switch, or might look at a male-male and female-female couple and say "hey, why don't you split up and pair off m/f?" _______________________________________________ Callers mailing list Callers(a)sharedweight.net http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers

On Sun, May 12, 2013, Greg McKenzie wrote: That's kinda what I was getting at in part, but even your survey would likely not have caught me, depending on exactly how you executed it. For example, I pretty much only dance in the winter because I'm prone to heat exhaustion. Mailing lists are likely useful for catching another set of people, but there are probably lots even now who still don't use e-mail (and mailing lists would be an even smaller fraction of the crowd). For most of the last decade, I have done less than six/year of anything other than contra (and often barely meeting that standard for contra) -- just too hard to manage dancing and a job with my schedule. Then again, I probably don't really count as "leadership position", either (just an online loudmouth and moderately visible on the dance floor). On the gripping hand, I identify as a dance enthusiast because there have been periods when I danced multiple times per week and I've been doing all of contra/square/folk for more than a quarter century. I'm providing this datapoint as an example of how complicated it is to label people. ;-) Well, I've *wanted* dance to be in part a mating ritual, it just doesn't seem to have worked that way for me. And my most recent partner, who I found on OKCupid, is someone that I *should* have previously met dancing (zie is a hard-core folk dancer, going to Greece and other places for dancing); similarly, one of my exes was a semi-serious contra dancer for a while (and may still be going to Gaskells), and two of my other partners would like to dance but can't due to medical issues. So even though dance hasn't worked for me historically as a mating ritual, it certainly has been part of my romantic life. Hard to say how much my experience is informed by my hearing impairment, but likely lots, because socializing in a dance context is very very difficult for me. People with social issues might have a similar experience for different reasons. -- Hugs and backrubs -- I break Rule 6 http://rule6.info/ <*> <*> <*> Help a hearing-impaired person: http://rule6.info/hearing.html

Oh my god, this is really my day. Definitely hit send before I finished writing the email. Anyway, Michael, I am curious about your ideas on objective research in anthro! Just because it seems like any researcher will have some sort of potentially biasing group affiliation... Cheers, Maia

Greg:   Children can explain their motivations. For example, listen to the audio comprising Act 3 of this web site:  http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/27/the-cruelty-of-ch…   Michael Fuerst      802 N Broadway      Urbana IL 61801       217-239-5844 Links to photos of many of my drawings and paintings are at www.ArtComesFuerst.com ________________________________ From: Greg McKenzie &lt;grekenzie(a)gmail.com&gt; To: Caller's discussion list &lt;callers(a)sharedweight.net&gt; Sent: Sunday, May 12, 2013 2:22 PM Subject: Re: [Callers] Contra Academia? Maia wrote: I would point out that folks are, generally, much better at reporting their own actual behavior than they are in reporting their motivations. People are often not really aware of their own actual motivations.  We are all prone to explain our behavior by generating reasons.  In research you might be better off asking about actual behaviors.  If I ask "why" a person attends contras the results are not likely to be dependable.  If I ask "how many contra dance evenings have you attended during the last 12 months?" I am more likely to get a more accurate answer, in part because the behavior is externally observable. Dancing a role that is different from your most apparent gender is observable.  Why you do so is less dependable information.  A study that reports on the behavior of gender-role switching at dances would generate useful information for callers and organizers.  If you can also report on the apparent gender of the respondents and the sexual preferences of the respondents this might also be very helpful. I would shy away from asking "why" of respondents.  That might be something you, or the readers of your report can infer from the findings. - Greg McKenzie West Coast, USA _______________________________________________ Callers mailing list Callers(a)sharedweight.net http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers

Hi all. New to the list.. Can't figure out how to reply to the thread off the archive, so I guess this is a new thread sorry about that.. Barbara Groh, the Hussy Queen ( and subsequently the Bride) herself, informed me that Hussy is spelled without the "e".. bill here's the choreography: THE HUSSY BRIDEA duple improper contra by Bill Olson A1: Long Lines F & B (8), W allem R x 1.5 (8) (left hand to partner, right to next in long waves) A2: Bal wave (4) allem R 3/4 to wave across (women in center by left) (4) bal wave (4) walk straight forward to new wave (partner is on right hand) (4) B1: Bal wave and Sw partner (16) B2: Circle L 3/4, swing neighbor Notes:This dance was finished in October, 1999 and dedicated to Barbara Groh, a wonderful dancer and caller from Asheville, North Carolina, on the occasion of her marriage. A possible alternative in A2 would be for Women to allemand left once around after the second balance. This would propel the women toward their partners for a partner balance and swing in B1.

On Sun, May 12, 2013, Maia McCormick wrote: Obviously, you'll need to do some research on proper technique for obtaining study participants. I'd suggest that getting support from dance organizers would help; you should definitely do your study over an extended period of time (to find people who like me are seasonal dancers or who only show at random times when their schedule permits, which is also true for me when I'm busy). You also need to think about your goal(s), whether it's to provide useful information for the dance community, support your academic career, etc.; that'll likely influence both how you structure your study and how you find your participants. For example, I was part of a sample of three participants for a friend's thesis (linguistics PhD); would have been difficult for zir to find more given the timeframe and the focus on people who were going through the process of getting a cochlear implant. -- Hugs and backrubs -- I break Rule 6 http://rule6.info/ <*> <*> <*> Help a hearing-impaired person: http://rule6.info/hearing.html