Re: [Callers] Another approach to Gender Free calling

Check out Brooke Friendly and Chris Sackett's English Country dances - they use "geographic" terms, and structure the dances without gender roles. It's different, but the dance does keep changing, it's a live art. http://www.brookefriendlydance.com/ Aside from Mr. Hemphill's effort recently here described, I know of no comparable endeavor in contra dance choreography - I suppose we're more traditional than ECD. Does anyone have info to share? Roger Hayes Jim - I don't think I am alone in wondering how you managed this without telling the dancers. I take that to mean you didn't make it gender free by the terminology you used (jets or whatever) but by the kinds of dances you chose. I'd love to read more details about what this entailed. Please share more! Amy 206 330 7408 Amy(a)calleramy.com On Jun 1, 2015, at 5:37 AM, Jim Hemphill via Callers < callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net&gt; wrote: The recent discussions on this topic inspired me to try an experiment in gender free calling. Last night I called the contra dance in St. Louis using gender free calling without telling anyone. The experiment was a great success. I received lots of positive feedback on the evenings dance. At the break and after the dance I made a point to ask several dancers, some were callers as well, if they noticed anything different or unusual about the dances or how I taught them. One person noticed that there were more dances that included a swing in the center for couple 2 than usual. No one I talked to noticed that the calls and teaching were gender free. It took some extra time to construct a fun, diverse 3 hour program, but it is certainly possible. Re-labeling the dancers is not the only way to call gender free. If you are interested in the program I used or the larger collection of gender free dances I chose the program from, send me an email, arcadian35(a)gmail.com. Thanks, Jim Hemphill _______________________________________________ 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