1 Jun
2015
1 Jun
'15
3:17 p.m.
Jim, thank you for testing this! It is precisely what I was trying to
describe in my previous email--dances which are themselves gender-free both
in their teaching and base pattern without need for term changes. They
don't have to be custom-created (as I kind of suggested previously), but
they do have to be carefully identified.
Perhaps ECD has been more amenable to non-gendered choreography and
instruction because many of its identifying terms are already non-gendered
(1st corners, 2nd corners, opposite, partner, 1s, 2s) and a lot of the
choreography is position-oriented rather than person-oriented. Just a
hunch; I don't know of any generally used contra term corresponding to
ECD's "1st/2nd corners" other than Gents and Ladies.
As for comparable efforts, about a year ago I was at a barn dance where the
first third of the night was squares and big sets with 0 gender reference.
I had to leave at that point, so I don't know if the patterned continued,
but it got me to thinking I could teach things the same way, Now I have a
bunch of simple (and even slightly more complex) contras where the dancers
can simply end facing their starting direction and everything works out.
The more advanced ones I have used at regular dances.
Neal