I was hired to call a dance and noticed, when I arrived, that there were only two other men in the room besides myself. When I commented on this I was informed that the group who hired me was a local lesbian club. They specifically asked that I not make any accommodations, even though many of them were new to contras. I believe that they made a point of NOT informing me of their makeup specifically so that I would not try to dance around the gender specific terms.
It worked out very well. All had a great time, and this in spite of the fact that there were also two deaf dancers in the room as well.
Attitude is a key factor. I understand a lot of dances were called here in California at mining towns during the gold rush. The men danced with each other and half of them played the part of ladies. I don't think they ever asked for "gender neutral" terms. A few shots of whisky probably helped as well.
- Greg ******* At 10:02 AM 12/2/2010, Susie 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. _______________________________________________ Callers mailing list [email protected] http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers
