30 Oct
2023
30 Oct
'23
5:01 p.m.
For what it's worth, I went to a dance where a caller chose role-name-light
dances, and had this interaction with my partner, a college-age dancer
who's reasonably experienced. We were just in hands four.
(Small talk ensues, then unprompted:)
Partner: "The second dance I got confused by something the caller said. I
can't remember what exactly."
(Dance had us in Long Lines, for a Larks allemande left.)
Caller: "Left hand dancer with the left hand free ... allemande left"
Partner: "That was it."
(Next move is the same role does something else, again the caller chose to
not just say "larks")
Unless one is censoring one's repertoire severely, even dances with basic
things like "one role allemandes after a long lines" which is in a
bajillion dances, can get so much more wordy. And, if the dance has a few
people need prompting mid-dance, there's no simple way to recover if you're
avoiding saying a role name.
So, I'd suggest any organizer who is considering allowing positional
calling take the time to understand the ramifications to what that actually
means.
In dance,
Julian Blechner
On Mon, Oct 30, 2023, 9:28 AM Rich Dempsey via Organizers <
organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
In Rochester, NY, where our policy is "gender
neutral calling", which
includes both positional and larks/robins terminology, I haven't noticed
that any dancer cares about the distinction. The real point for our dancers
is clarity and economy in teaching the dance so we can start the music.
On Mon, Oct 30, 2023 at 1:20 AM Joe Harrington via Organizers <
organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
How do you feel, in a gender-neutral series,
about leaving the decision
of larks/robins vs. positional to the caller, so long as it's declared and
publicized in advance? At least in some areas, there are not enough
positional callers to have an all-positional series.
Thanks,
--jh--
On Mon, Oct 30, 2023 at 12:32 AM Lisa Marie Lunt via Organizers <
organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
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I think it's important to listen to what Don
Veino just wrote. Don is
both a caller and organizer. It's not fair to put the responsibility for
choosing role names on the callers. It's the organizers' responsibility to
make decisions about our dances.
Lisa Lunt
She/her
Jamaica Plain (Boston) Gender Free Contra Dance
On Sun, Oct 29, 2023, 4:17 PM Don Veino via Organizers <
organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
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As a caller and organizer, this is a hot button
topic for me. Please,
if you are organizing a dance, take responsibility for this decision and
make it clearly public to your participants in advance. I understand you
may be uncomfortable making this choice and possibly want to "please
everybody" by leaving it to the caller but that just sets up the worst
dynamic for all.
My take is that the dance's organizers *own* the culture and
implementation policies of their dance. If you would not leave it up to the
caller to decide to do swing dance instead or declare the admission is half
off for a given event, then you shouldn't leave such a topic to them either.
"Traditional", Larks/ Robins, positional - alternating per event,
whatever - make the determination and let the people coming know in advance.
I personally will no longer accept bookings from a dance that doesn't
have a stated role term policy. I will call with the terms stated (or
decline the event). I had a booking for a longstanding dance which changed
from decades of "Traditional" to "Caller's Choice" after booking
me, with
no heads up. I first heard of it when I started hearing from people
advocating for one or the other terms, as "my choice". The organizers
wouldn't make the call and the publicity was already out there. Bad scene
for all, not the way to set up dance joy.
On Sun, Oct 29, 2023, 1:28 PM Sandy Seiler via Organizers <
organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
<snip>
Currently terminology is the caller's decision. So it goes back and
forth from gendered to non gendered. That is not mentioned on the website,
but I do know that at least one of our callers has requested that the
Lawrence board make a decision about it so the callers don't have that
responsibility and possible fall out from it.
</snip>
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