On Jun 25, 2010, at 9:17 AM, Will Loving wrote: > Lately, as a dancer, I and a fair number of other folks at the Greenfield > (MA) dance have taken to switching gender roles every other time through a > dance. Not for every dance, but as an interesting challenge and a way to > have more interaction with people that you might not normally interact with > if you only dance one role. (I know, folks at gender-free dances are already > there, but a nominally 'gendered' dance is where I'm starting from.)
An interesting question, perhaps not appropriate for this thread, is what else you change in how you dance when you change gender roles. Sure, in the woman's role you may be doing different parts of the calls (the actual chaining in a Ladies Chain, or leading the Hey instead of going second). I am talking about "dance feel". When swinging are you leading the exit from the swing, when in time and in what direction, or are you allowing your current partner to lead the exit? Generally I dance the man's role. When I encounter men dancing the woman's role, some "feel" to me like the other women in the line in terms of flourishes, ending swings, etc. Others feel like men, who are leading, completely doing their own thing, and unable to "listen" to any conversation related to lead/follow. When I switch roles, I try to also change from lead to follow, as I think it applies to contra dancing. > When you do gender role switching every other time it basically turns a > 32-bar dance into a 64-bar one, at least that's what seems to be happening > inside my head when I realize that I have stopped thinking about when to > switch. There are some dances like Alternating Corners where you do > something similar in that the dance in different every other time through, > though with continued prompting from the caller. In the case of Alternating > Corners, the 1s and 2s alternate doing the swing and contra corners. Alternating Corners is a great dance. One wonders if that same idea could (should) be applied to other 1's preferential dances. > Will Mentor and I have been talking the possibility of making a true 64-bar > dance that either uses a 64-bar tune or twice through of a standard 32-bar > tune. It opens up some interesting possibilities and challenges around > making a dance that's twice as long but that people remember, get into the > flow of and enjoy. > > There are longer dances - 42, 48 and 64 bars - but not many that I'm aware > of. I'm interested to know what other folks experience has been about > writing and calling longer dance sequences. I find most 4-face-4 dances don't have enough time in 32 bars to do anything interesting -- especially if they try to get into a temporary square formation. Perhaps writing a new 4-face-4 would be the place to start. Also, I would go for 48 bars, not 64-bars initially. Find a good AABBCC tune and write a dance around it. I am afraid that coming up with a 48 or 64 bar compelling and memorable storyline for a normal DI or Becket contra would be difficult. One question to think about -- what do you want or need the extra music for? * Swinging more people -- a few dances already have 3 swings * Longer swings * The ability to include a "big" figure (e.g., Contra Corners, the "walk" of Wizard's Walk) * The ability to set up or transition (this would be my reason in a 4-face-4 * The ability to have a relaxed part and an energetic part, and space them out a little more -- Clark Baker, Belmont, MA [email protected]
