Anyway, back to reality: I am sorry, Dave, but it seems very silly to me to accuse someone of a hate crime just because, regardless of how they feel about homosexuality, they are uncomfortable with close-hold same-sex swings.

Dave says, "If men in the UK are so uncomfortable touching another man that they don't want to swing that is unacceptably homophobic." Hmmmm... I looked up "homophobic" in my excellent Chambers 20th Century Dictionary (1983 Edition) and the word doesn't appear to exist! Fortunately I studied Ancient Greek at school, so I was able to work it out - "homos" means "same", "phobos" means "fear", so "homophobia" must mean fear of similarity. Ryan said "Can we please just get back to arguing about what's worse a whole night of duple-minor improper contras with 2 swings or a variety of forms and figures?" Sounds to me like Ryan might be homophobic if he is worried about being stuck with a whole night of similar dances! :-) (NOTE: Please, for the avoidance of confusion, make I make it absolutely clear that the above is intended to be humorous!) :-) (NOTE: I apologise if you didn't find it funny - yet, another difference between our countries :-) - but please don't react to it!) = = = = = = Anyway, back to reality: I am sorry, Dave, but it seems very silly to me to accuse someone of a hate crime just because, regardless of how they feel about homosexuality, they are uncomfortable with close-hold same-sex swings. It is a simple fact that many people ARE uncomfortable, so, as someone who is paid to ensure that people have fun, I am not going to force them to be uncomfortable. 99% of the time in a same-sex swing, one of the two will be dancing the role of the man, the other will be dancing the role of the lady, so there is no confusion about who holds whom and how. In the very occasional dance that has a genuine same-sex swing I always teach a symmetrical swing so that those who wish to use it can do so - this also avoids any confusion about the hold. Of course once they are dancing they can do any swing holds that they like; there are plenty of great ways to swing, both symmetrical and non-symmetrical. I love the Galway Swing. I learnt it from my mother as a teenager and it has always been one of my favourites. The look of sheer joy from someone successfully doing their first (and unexpected) Galway Swing in the middle of a dance is magic! :-) Anyway, did anyone like the "Galway Swing dance that I posted? Happy dancing, John John Sweeney, Dancer, England john(a)modernjive.com 01233 625 362 http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Dancing in Kent _______________________________________________ Callers mailing list Callers(a)sharedweight.net http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers