4 Oct
2017
4 Oct
'17
1:04 p.m.
Hi Jeremy,
At MIT’s Tech Squares, “boys” and “girls” are used, sometimes with “ladies” and “gents”
thrown in. However, many dancers dance either role. If you are dancing a role that does
not visibly match your gender, you typically call out (not too loudly) “boy” or “girl”,
when the caller gives a call that is specific to a gender. As you get more accomplished
as a dancer, you seem to not need to call that out as much - if the dance is moving, the
flow of the dance should usually indicate who is supposed to move.
Seth
On Oct 4, 2017, at 1:54 PM, Jeremy Child via Callers
<callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
Hi
I have a question for anyone who calls or dances Gender Free MWSD (by Gender Free I mean
where no assumptions are made about what role a dancer will take based on their gender).
I've been told that GF MWSD dances still use the terms "Boys" and
"Girls", but please correct me if I'm wrong.
MWSD is unique amongst folk dancing in that dancers need to know the role being danced by
others in the square (if I'm a "boy" and the call is "boys trade",
I need to know who the other boy in my line / wave is in order to do the call).
So to my question: How do the dancers identify which roles the other people are dancing?
Traditionally this is done with dancers taking the opposite role to their gender wearing
bands, but that is surely inappropriate if the dance is GF.
Also, if any MWSD clubs are using truly non-gendered terms, please let me know.
Thanks in Advance
Jeremy
www.barndancecaller.net <http://www.barndancecaller.net/>
www.genderfreedance.net
<http://www.genderfreedance.net/>_______________________________________________
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4 Oct
4 Oct
1:55 p.m.
New subject: [Callers] Gender Free MWSD
See http://www.iagsdchistory.org/historywiki/index.php?title=Gender_Roles
for a discussion of gender roles and gender terminology in general, and use
in the LGBTQ* clubs that make up the IAGSDC in particular.
Boys/Girls, Gents/Ladies, Men/Women are used very interchangeably in MWSD.
Belles/Beaus DO NOT mean the same thing (see above article and CALLERLAB
definitions).
To my knowledge there are no MWSD clubs that use truly non-gendered terms.
Upwards of 99.9% of callers would not be able to easily call to such a
group, nor would such dancers be able to travel anywhere else and dance.
So to my question: How do the dancers identify which roles the other people
are dancing? Traditionally this is done with dancers taking the opposite
role to their gender wearing bands, but that is surely inappropriate if the
dance is GF.
Dancers dance their own part. Period. Full stop. Most dancers are somewhat
capable of tracking the arrangement of dancers within the ever changing
formations of MWSD. If a caller says "boys u-turn back", a dancer only has
to know their own gender role. If a caller says "centers trade" a dancer
only has to know their own position, and determine who is the other center.
If a caller says "boys trade" a boy dancer must determine who is the
"other
boy" they must work with (not that different from the centers example). If
dancers aren't 100% sure who that person is, they will self-identify
(calling out "boy!") while the other boys do the same, thus knowing who
they must trade with. This works very smoothly in practice and is not a
problem.
Hope that helps!
Andy Shore
contra and MWSD caller
CALLERLAB member
past president Gay Callers Association
On Wed, Oct 4, 2017 at 11:04 AM, Seth Seeger via Callers <
callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
Hi Jeremy,
At MIT’s Tech Squares, “boys” and “girls” are used, sometimes with
“ladies” and “gents” thrown in. However, many dancers dance either role.
If you are dancing a role that does not visibly match your gender, you
typically call out (not too loudly) “boy” or “girl”, when the caller gives
a call that is specific to a gender. As you get more accomplished as a
dancer, you seem to not need to call that out as much - if the dance is
moving, the flow of the dance should usually indicate who is supposed to
move.
Seth
On Oct 4, 2017, at 1:54 PM, Jeremy Child via Callers <
callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
Hi
I have a question for anyone who calls or dances Gender Free MWSD (by
Gender Free I mean where no assumptions are made about what role a dancer
will take based on their gender).
I've been told that GF MWSD dances still use the terms "Boys" and
"Girls",
but please correct me if I'm wrong.
MWSD is unique amongst folk dancing in that dancers need to know the role
being danced by others in the square (if I'm a "boy" and the call is
"boys
trade", I need to know who the other boy in my line / wave is in order to
do the call).
So to my question: How do the dancers identify which roles the other
people are dancing? Traditionally this is done with dancers taking the
opposite role to their gender wearing bands, but that is surely
inappropriate if the dance is GF.
Also, if any MWSD clubs are using truly non-gendered terms, please let me
know.
Thanks in Advance
Jeremy
www.barndancecaller.net
www.genderfreedance.net
_______________________________________________
List Name: Callers mailing list
List Address: Callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net
Archives: https://www.mail-archive.com/callers@lists.sharedweight.net/
_______________________________________________
List Name: Callers mailing list
List Address: Callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net
Archives: https://www.mail-archive.com/callers@lists.sharedweight.net/
--
/Andy Shore
http://andyshore.com/
best email - andyshore(a)gmail.com
2:20 p.m.
New subject: [Callers] Gender Free MWSD
What Jeremy describes is what I've seen as both an attendee of the
IAGSDC convention in recent years, and as a visitor to a handful of
IAGSDC clubs in CA, NV, NM, OR, and WA. IAGSDC even offers suggestions
to non-LGBT dancers attending IAGSDC conventions on how to "square up"
as a boy, girl, or either:
<http://www.iagsdchistory.org/historywiki/index.php?title=The_Guide_to_IAGSDC_Convention_Chapter_6>
The Rosetown Ramblers (an IAGSDC club based in Portland, OR) have a page
on commonly-used "fluff" (including the "boy!"/"girl!" thing
mentioned
previously) at
<http://www.iagsdchistory.org/historywiki/images/3/33/How_To_Fluff.pdf>.
Outside of IAGSDC world, at least in my neck of the world (California's
central valley, about 100 miles east of San Jose), women dancing as
"boys" is tolerated if not exactly encouraged; women who do so may wear
a necktie to indicate the role that they're dancing, and some women will
carry a "boy" badge or a "boy/girl" badge that can be flipped so that
the role they're dancing is right-side-up while the role they're not
dancing is upside-down with them.
--Nick
On 10/04/2017 11:04 AM, Seth Seeger via Callers wrote:
Hi Jeremy,
At MIT’s Tech Squares, “boys” and “girls” are used, sometimes with
“ladies” and “gents” thrown in. However, many dancers dance either
role. If you are dancing a role that does not visibly match your
gender, you typically call out (not too loudly) “boy” or “girl”, when
the caller gives a call that is specific to a gender. As you get more
accomplished as a dancer, you seem to not need to call that out as
much - if the dance is moving, the flow of the dance should usually
indicate who is supposed to move.
Seth
On Oct 4, 2017, at 1:54 PM, Jeremy Child via
Callers
<callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net
<mailto:callers@lists.sharedweight.net>> wrote:
Hi
I have a question for anyone who calls or dances Gender Free MWSD (by
Gender Free I mean where no assumptions are made about what role a
dancer will take based on their gender).
I've been told that GF MWSD dances still use the terms "Boys" and
"Girls", but please correct me if I'm wrong.
MWSD is unique amongst folk dancing in that dancers need to know the
role being danced by others in the square (if I'm a "boy" and the
call is "boys trade", I need to know who the other boy in my line /
wave is in order to do the call).
So to my question: How do the dancers identify which roles the other
people are dancing? Traditionally this is done with dancers taking
the opposite role to their gender wearing bands, but that is surely
inappropriate if the dance is GF.
Also, if any MWSD clubs are using truly non-gendered terms, please
let me know.
Thanks in Advance
Jeremy
www.barndancecaller.net <http://www.barndancecaller.net/>
www.genderfreedance.net <http://www.genderfreedance.net/>
_______________________________________________
List Name: Callers mailing list
List Address: Callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net
<mailto:Callers@lists.sharedweight.net>
Archives: https://www.mail-archive.com/callers@lists.sharedweight.net/
_______________________________________________
List Name: Callers mailing list
List Address: Callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net
Archives: https://www.mail-archive.com/callers@lists.sharedweight.net/
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2 comments
3 participants
participants (3)
-
Andy Shore -
Nick Cuccia -
Seth Seeger