Designating who does what in the figure: "????? Chain" ... - trad-callers@lists.sharedweight.net

23 Mar 2017

Designating who does what in the figure: "????? Chain" ...

This is a subject that probably deserves its own thread - so 
I'll start it.
The immediate spur to discuss this arises from the message 
quoted farther below.
But I've been ruminating about the issue for 30+ years ...

30+ years ago, in Chicago, the figure "people's chain" was used 
occasionally.  It was accepted as dancing the same action as 
"ladies chain", but from a proper set (all the gents on one 
side, all the ladies on the other).  It was used [blasphemously, 
thought some] with some of the Chestnuts in place of "proper-set 
R&L thru," to add a bit of spice.

About 30 years ago, I attended a dance weekend - in Kentucky, I 
think, (maybe Camp Levi Jackson?) - at which we had the unusual 
(for dance camps) situation of more men than women on the dance 
floor.  (In fact, having an all-guy square evened things up 
pretty nicely.)

It's safe to say that among all the above dancers, "gents chain" 
was already accepted as the gents doing a mirror image of the 
"ladies chain," starting from the lady's left.

At the dance camp, Gene Hubert test-drove a new contra (can't 
remember the name, unfortunately - sorry) in which the gents 
were to the right of their partners on the sides of the set - 
and Gene wanted the gents to chain across.  In the walk-through, 
Gene explained that he would call, "gents do a ladies chain."  A 
perfectly good solution for the moment.  But to me, it seemed a 
bit lacking for the long-haul.

Gene and I had a discussion that evening about how this 
situation might be handled more generally.  I suggested that we 
might, in this situation, say, "gents do a right-hand chain."  
Or, even better, just say, "chain by the right" or "right-hand 
chain" ... when it occurred to me that, if it weren't for the 
'pesky problem' of tradition, "right-hand chain" and "left-hand 
chain" could handle all circumstances.  And I opined that, just 
perhaps, we might even consider changing the traditional names 
of the figures this way to accommodate any other situations that 
might (and probably would) arise in the future.  Gene took the 
side of the traditional skeptic in the discussion, incompletely 
convinced of the idea's usefulness.

So - I'm here to pose the same question again:  Might we, 
perhaps, consider changing the names of these figures to 
"right-hand chain" and "left-hand chain?  Or at least, begin 
using these names side-by-side with the traditional names?  
Among other things, it accommodates something that never crossed 
my mind until a few years ago: gender neutrality.

It would also make for a very interesting, entangling addition 
to the old square, "The Route".

Roger Diggle

On 3/20/17 at 10:27 PM, trad-dance-callers(a)yahoogroups.com 
(Michael Barraclough michael(a)michaelbarraclough.com 
[trad-dance-callers]) wrote:

...
 On Monday, March 20, 2017 9:46:43 PM MST Dale wrote:
 The move at the beginning of B2 is usually called
a "men's 
chain" -- at least here in Saint Louis.  It's not a common 
move, but it's not unheard of. 
I deliberately didn't call it a "men's chain", which it of 
course is :) because I see that term used ambiguously as to 
whether the chainee starts on the left or on the right of the 
chainer; which hands the chainees take to start the chain; and 
also who backs up in the courtesy turn.

Michael Barraclough
www.michaelbarraclough.com

 I first discussed it about 30 years ago with Gene Hubert -