Import1 September 2015

import1@lists2.sharedweight.net

1 participants
86 discussions

[Callers] Creating a safe dance space (was Shadow Swing Disclaimers)

by Ron Blechner via Callers

Erik, I'm alarmed at reading your reply in the shadow swing thread. I have seen, as a dancer, caller, and organizer, at a variety of dances, far too many incidents of inappropriate behavior. I refuse to simply wash my hands and say "oh, it's not the caller's place to worry about this." A caller is the MC, the coordinator, and often from the stage we can see everything happening in the room. It absolutely is our paid job to help create a safe dance space. I want to focus on what seems to be the crux of your statement from the shadow swing email: " that interpersonal conflicts will happen, and yet social interactions are required. They understand how to make everyone work together. Family schisms are inevitable." How many "conflicts" does it take before we take responsibility and address inappropriate behavior at a dance? I have seen many occasions where *one* conflict means a dancer who is new never returns, or an experienced dancer never returns, or they wind up having to spend every night avoiding *that creepy dude*. I know first hand what having a *single* bad experience can mean for a dancer. So if we leave these as "inevitable", then the people we lose aren't the people doing the inappropriate behavior - no, those jerks stay, stubbornly - we lose the nicer people who were victimized, harassed, made uncomfortable. Is that the kind of dance environment you want to promote? I don't believe so. Instead, asking questions, as Maia did, about things a caller can do to create a safe dance space, is essential to long term community building. This doesn't mean we are "dance police" or do anything extraordinary. But it does mean that we should be considerate to dancers and not write off their bad experiences as things that they need to merely tolerate and "be an adult" as you put it. Sincerely, Ron Blechner

9 years, 3 months

[Callers] Amy dances

by Andrea Nettleton via Callers

Hi friends, I'm calling at my home dance this weekend, and my good friend Amy let me know it's her birthday. I want to call some dances with Amy in the title to honor her. Could you please share any Amy titled dances with me? Include instructions if you have them, so I don't have to hunt around. Amy and I thank you, Andrea N. Atlanta Sent from my iPad

9 years, 3 months

Re: [Callers] Shadow Swing Disclaimers?

by Bob Green via Callers

This issue came up for me at a dance weekend just recently. My partner was dreadfully uncomfortable situation with another dancer. A timely gender swap solved the problem. Love this forum! Bob Green Sent from my iPad > On Sep 8, 2015, at 12:30 PM, Luke Donforth via Callers <callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote: > > Maia, > > Let me see if I'm correctly reading your goals: > You want to call dances with shadow swings > You want to minimize discomfort > > To do both of those, I think an announcement after folks have lined up is worse than an announcement earlier. If someone is uncomfortable with the idea of swinging a shadow, how comfortable would they be leaving a line after you've made the announcement and highlighting for everyone in the room that there's a problematic interaction? There's no way to surreptitiously drop out; folks have to take new hands four and identify new shadows. I think making the announcement after folks have lined up just puts public pressure on your dancers. > > You can announce it ahead of time, either at the end of the previous dance; or even during the walkthrough of the previous dance. I know some callers do this for mixers: "Alright, thanks everyone for lining up and taking hands four. Just so you know, the dance after this will be a mixer. You'll keep your partner for this dance, but the one after don't expect to stay with your sweetheart." etc. Andrea raises a good point that it's hard to know where the shadow would be when you line up (or if someone lines up after you). > > Other options that come to mind: > Call these dances that are dear to you only in instances where it's unlikely to be an issue. I.e. small dance communities where you know everyone and know it'll be fine; or very large events (dance weekends, etc) where it's much less likely for you to run into someone you have a bad interaction with. If you had a festival session called "Shadow Dances"; then anybody showing up is probably going to expect that they'll swing the occasional shadow. > As Ron suggested, you can modify the dance and say "and this move can be a swing". Might defeat why you're trying to call the dance though. > Make it triplet-esque; in that rather than full long lines, you break folks into small groups (10 dancers, etc) and run the dance for a short time. If there's a shadow, partner, and neighbor swing, chances are you don't want to run the dance super long anyway. You announce "find a partner and about 4 other couples for a special dance" and folks can self select a little more. Smaller groups also let more experienced dancers goof/chaos/play more with repetitive dances without throwing off large portions of the hall (I consider a dance with shadow & partner swing, with or without a neighbor swing; to have a high possibility of repetitiveness). > Hope that helps get you thinking about other options too. Have fun, and remember we're there for the dancers to have a good time. > Luke > >> On Tue, Sep 8, 2015 at 11:06 AM, Maia McCormick via Callers <callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote: >> Hey all, >> >> First, a disclaimer: Some people on this listserv thing shadow swings are problematic. Some don't see any issue with them. This is NOT the conversation I want to have in this thread; I ask that you respond to the question I'm asking and do not debate my premise--at least not in this particular thread. This should help keep this thread on track and hopefully reduce excess noise and go-nowhere discussions on this listserv. Thanks! >> >> Anyway, the actual question I wanted to ask (whew!)-- >> >> There do exist some really fabulous shadow-swing dances that I would love to be able to call, as long as I could do so without putting anyone in an uncomfortable position. Do folks have ideas for ways to mitigate the potential harms of shadow swing dances? I was considering, at the beginning of the dance, having dancers identify their shadow and mentioning, "this will be a shadow swing dance, so if you need to make any changes, do so now" (or something like that)--haven't gotten the wording down-pat, but the idea is giving dancers advance warning of a shadow swing so they can move (thereby changing their shadow) if they need to. Any thoughts on this method? Suggestions of others? >> >> Cheers. >> Maia >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Callers mailing list >> Callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net >> http://lists.sharedweight.net/listinfo.cgi/callers-sharedweight.net >> > > > > -- > Luke Donforth > Luke.Donforth(a)gmail.com > _______________________________________________ > Callers mailing list > Callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net > http://lists.sharedweight.net/listinfo.cgi/callers-sharedweight.net

9 years, 3 months

Re: [Callers] back, with a free choreography idea

by John Sweeney via Callers

Dave talked about, "Long lines balance and spin to the right within your line." There are already some dances with this: The Balanced Diet by Sue Rosen The Slithy Dance by John Sweeney http://www.contrafusion.co.uk/Dances/SlithyDance.html Happy dancing, John John Sweeney, Dancer, England john(a)modernjive.com 01233 625 362 http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Dancing in Kent

9 years, 3 months

Re: [Callers] back, with a free choreography idea

by Alexandra Deis-Lauby via Callers

Nice! On Sun, Sep 6, 2015 at 3:24 PM, Dave Merrill via Callers < callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote: > Hey fellow members, i unsubscribed a while ago as i was working an online > job that required ridiculous amounts of reading, so i burned out on keeping > up with threads, but i'm back and looking forward to be part of the SW > community. > > Meanwhile, amid composing a dance, i had an idea for a new (progressive! > no pun intended) figure. Consider it the hybrid offspring of Moneymusk > balances in non-wavy lines, and Petronella spins to the right. What do you > get? Long lines balance and spin to the right within your line. I don't > have a use for it in anything currently under construction, so thought i'd > put it out there for y'all choreographers to play with if you so choose. If > you do compose something with it, i'd love to see the result! > > _______________________________________________ > Callers mailing list > Callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net > http://lists.sharedweight.net/listinfo.cgi/callers-sharedweight.net > >

9 years, 3 months

[Callers] Font choices

by Kalia Kliban via Callers

Hi Michael You may not be aware of how minuscule the font you've chosen for your email comes out at the email receiver's end, but it's close to unreadably tiny, as well as being a low-x-height, lightweight serif font in the first place. If you have any control over your outgoing font size, goosing it up a few points would be a kindness. Kalia

9 years, 3 months

Re: [Callers] Shadow Swing Disclaimers?

by Perry Shafran via Callers

I'm going to go with Andrea's well-written note on this. I understand that the goal is to prevent people from dancing with people who really make them uncomfortable (i.e. creepers). However, if you suggest "if you need to make changes, do so now", that will open up the potential for people to refuse a shadow for ANY reason (they smell, they're too fat, they're too old, they're not my BFF, they're the same gender, they're a beginner, whatever), and that could cause a whole world of hurt - especially in a community where we welcome all and celebrate differences in people. There is no graceful way to do this, really, that I can think of. For the most part, if there is someone that a person does not want to encounter in a dance, much less be a shadow, that person will find a different line to dance in. At least that has been my experience. Callers should not be encouraging people to find someone "better" than the potluck shadow that they got. I would suggest not calling a dance with a shadow swing - that would ward off potential problems with shadows people don't want to swing and also prevent the hurt that would come with suggesting people make changes for whatever reason. Perry From: Maia McCormick via Callers <callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> To: "callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net" <callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> Sent: Tuesday, September 8, 2015 11:06 AM Subject: [Callers] Shadow Swing Disclaimers? Hey all, First, a disclaimer: Some people on this listserv thing shadow swings are problematic. Some don't see any issue with them. This is NOT the conversation I want to have in this thread; I ask that you respond to the question I'm asking and do not debate my premise--at least not in this particular thread. This should help keep this thread on track and hopefully reduce excess noise and go-nowhere discussions on this listserv. Thanks! Anyway, the actual question I wanted to ask (whew!)-- There do exist some really fabulous shadow-swing dances that I would love to be able to call, as long as I could do so without putting anyone in an uncomfortable position. Do folks have ideas for ways to mitigate the potential harms of shadow swing dances? I was considering, at the beginning of the dance, having dancers identify their shadow and mentioning, "this will be a shadow swing dance, so if you need to make any changes, do so now" (or something like that)--haven't gotten the wording down-pat, but the idea is giving dancers advance warning of a shadow swing so they can move (thereby changing their shadow) if they need to. Any thoughts on this method? Suggestions of others? Cheers.Maia _______________________________________________ Callers mailing list Callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net http://lists.sharedweight.net/listinfo.cgi/callers-sharedweight.net

9 years, 3 months

[Callers] Contra etiquette for the guys

by Michael Fuerst via Callers

9 years, 3 months

Re: [Callers] Fw: Shadow Swing Disclaimers?

by Michael Fuerst via Callers

Chis asked: "Any chance that that could be made a separate topic, for those that wish to rehash it? Maybe, but only on a Monday Michael Fuerst 802 N Broadway Urbana IL 61801 217 239 5844 On Tuesday, September 8, 2015 2:59 PM, Chris Page via Callers <callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote: Ummm... the question was asked about ways to mitigate a shadow swing, assuming you want to call a shadow swing dance. And the original poster asked not to be derailed by whether or not a shadow swing is something you wish to call in the first place. Any chance that that could be made a separate topic, for those that wish to rehash it? -Chris Page San Diego On Tue, Sep 8, 2015 at 12:54 PM, Michael Fuerst via Callers <callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote: Luke: Your assessment is inaccurate. This is not a matter where levity is acceptable.Creating a situation which could force someone into close, almost intimate proximity with a person perceived as emotionally or physically threatening is inappropriate.A lesser problem is that one can get a shadow who one considers personable, but very unpleasant for swinging (for example, due to either height difference, or a body position or weight distribution which unnecessarily strains one's own body). Michael Fuerst 802 N Broadway Urbana IL 61801 217 239 5844 From: Maia McCormick via Callers <callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> To: "callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net" <callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> Sent: Tuesday, September 8, 2015 11:06 AM Subject: [Callers] Shadow Swing Disclaimers? Hey all, First, a disclaimer: Some people on this listserv thing shadow swings are problematic. Some don't see any issue with them. This is NOT the conversation I want to have in this thread; I ask that you respond to the question I'm asking and do not debate my premise--at least not in this particular thread. This should help keep this thread on track and hopefully reduce excess noise and go-nowhere discussions on this listserv. Thanks! Anyway, the actual question I wanted to ask (whew!)-- There do exist some really fabulous shadow-swing dances that I would love to be able to call, as long as I could do so without putting anyone in an uncomfortable position. Do folks have ideas for ways to mitigate the potential harms of shadow swing dances? I was considering, at the beginning of the dance, having dancers identify their shadow and mentioning, "this will be a shadow swing dance, so if you need to make any changes, do so now" (or something like that)--haven't gotten the wording down-pat, but the idea is giving dancers advance warning of a shadow swing so they can move (thereby changing their shadow) if they need to. Any thoughts on this method? Suggestions of others? Cheers.Maia _______________________________________________ Callers mailing list Callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net http://lists.sharedweight.net/listinfo.cgi/callers-sharedweight.net _______________________________________________ Callers mailing list Callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net http://lists.sharedweight.net/listinfo.cgi/callers-sharedweight.net

9 years, 3 months

Re: [Callers] Shadow Swing Disclaimers?

by Jane Ewing via Callers

Maia - I have checked and the dance is in Carol's book "The Lizard Research Institute" which should be available thru CDSS. Anyway to quote Carol out of the book/"Because this dance has more satisfying interactions with one's shadow than with one's partner//, I have dancers line up in Becket formation, roll away with a half sashay and swing the one they meet, and take hands f//our from there ( with//a couple out at the top of the set ). I then explain that the person they asked to dance is now their shadow, the one they swung is their partner, and I tell them why. Inevitable, some dancers are not listening when I explain this, even if I repeat it a few times;try it at your own risk. /I have danced and called this dance and enjoyed it. This may not solve your dilemma but rather just moved it. Just a suggestion. Jane Ewing Grant, AL

9 years, 3 months

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Import1 September 2015