Jeff quoted: > Bree wrote: > >=20 > > Sun Assembly, the English group in our area, is [gender free]. ...I > > like the more relaxed atmosphere of not needing to find a partner > > and no concern about gender balance. > >=20
> How did sun assembly do gender free where you didn't need to find a > partner? Having gotten the name of the group wrong, I may have no credibility, but I'm familiar with how Heather and Rose does it, and Sun Assembly was founded by the same guy later, so I think it's probably the same. The custom at Heather and Rose is that when sets are forming, you can just take the next spot in either file by yourself, and the next person who wants to dance (of whatever gender) will come and stand across from you. [Since they do English and Scottish, where the roles are not as strongly different as they are in contra, people tend not to specialize in left-file or right-file; they can comfortably start in either position. Since the roles are so alike, there's less incentive to swap in the middle.] Nobody had to ask and run the risk of rejection, the lines fill smoothly and efficiently, and there isn't the monster "whoosh" factor some contra dances have, where if you blow 15 seconds thanking your partner everybody else is partnered up already and you're screwed. You're not forbidden from asking some specific person to dance and forming a couple, but it's a faux pas for a couple to join the line below a single dancer who's waiting for somebody to come and stand across from them. -- Alan =============================================================================== Alan Winston --- [email protected] Disclaimer: I speak only for myself, not SLAC or SSRL Phone: 650/926-3056 Paper mail to: SSRL -- SLAC BIN 99, 2575 Sand Hill Rd, Menlo Park CA 94025 ===============================================================================
