For more than two decades, Chris Ricciotti has been the leading exponent of the armbands/barearms method of role free calling. Chris has made available a web-based Gender-Free Dancing Callers Manual and History as a callers' resource. This is the best available published source of information. Go to:
http://lcfd.org/Articles/GFManual/ From this page you can download the Manual in PDF format. Subjects include a FAQ about calling and dancing role free (including "agenda" issues), sample dances with comparative instructions in both traditional and role-free notation, an essay on "Programming an Evening of Gender-Free Dancing," discussion of methods other than Armband/Barearm (from which you could further develop "lead" and "follow"), a history of role-free dancing, etc. ... Bob Robert Golder New Bedford, MA, USA On Dec 2, 2010, at 1:02 PM, susie rudder wrote: > I have been asked to call for a new dance group forming in a small town > near our regular dance. Experienced dancers were asked to come help > these absolute newbies, and some local musicians have volunteered their > services. It became obvious that about half the dancers were lesbians > who asked me to use non gender specific terms when calling. I tried > 'lead' and 'follow' because the syllable numbers worked, but I'm not > happy with that. I also had some regular dancers comment on not wanting > to deal with 'some' peoples' political agendas as related to contra > calling. I have never dealt with gender free calling and would > appreciate ANY help from those of you who may have been doing it for > years. What terms seem to work best? Any other hints to make things go > more smoothly? These people are very enthusiastic and I want to see > the dance succeed.
