Thank you Beth for your comments. From your response I gather that
you have not encountered the kind of resistance Jeff referred to when
he mentioned the "grumbling" among some dancers when either a mixer
or a partner-swing-free contra is called?
I would be interested in knowing:
- Do you announce your mixers in advance?
- If so, when? At the end of the current dance? Or before the
walk-through of the current dance?
I would also be interested in the experience of other callers with
mixers and/or partner-swing-free contras. Do dancers embrace these
dance slots, or do you sense any resistance? Do you announce them in advance?
Beth also wrote:
The modern urban contra dance scene is welcoming to people who would
fit in anyway. That's not necessarily a bad thing. It is the nature
of hobby activities. Since muc dancers go to a dance primarily to
dance "what they want to dance the way they want to dance it" then
anything outside of their hobby mind-set is anathema.
The "modern urban contra dance scene" seems to vary greatly from
venue to venue and from night to night depending--to a great
extent--upon the caller, the band, and the organizers. Framing
contras as a "hobby" activity is certainly a legitimate view, but
there are many other ways to frame the phenomenon. For many people
it is a hobby. But contras are also, by nature, open public social
events where newcomers are encouraged to attend without prior training.
Part of the appeal of contras, for at least some of us, is that they
allow for wide participation and are something more than merely a
gathering of dance enthusiasts. Making dances with live music
accessible to almost everyone is at the heart of what makes contras
somewhat unique in the realm of social dance.
But that might be another thread entirely.
- Greg McKenzie
