Greg wrote:
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.
All the references I've read to the all-male dances at the mining camps: - don't mention contra dancing - do mention wearing armbands to distinguish roles - call out waltzes and polkas so given that it seems to have been all-couple dancing and no called dancing, there wasn't a lot of need for terminology. (Incidentally, the gender-free couple dance is the only place where I feel fully comfortable calling the roles "lead" and "follow" because that's what they are.) -- 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 ===============================================================================
