On Sun, May 12, 2013, Greg McKenzie wrote: > Maia also wrote: >> >> I also want to find the people who consider >> themselves "contra community" but feel uncomfortable dancing switch, or >> might look at a male-male and female-female couple and say "hey, why don't >> you split up and pair off m/f?" > > I wouldn't say that the idea of a "contra community" is a myth, but I would > question the usefulness of this concept in any objective study. I fear > that the idea of a "self-identified" community of contra dancers is almost > always a projection of the one making that determination. That's why, in > my study, I worked to obtain the most random sample I could of all those in > the hall at our dances.
That's kinda what I was getting at in part, but even your survey would likely not have caught me, depending on exactly how you executed it. For example, I pretty much only dance in the winter because I'm prone to heat exhaustion. Mailing lists are likely useful for catching another set of people, but there are probably lots even now who still don't use e-mail (and mailing lists would be an even smaller fraction of the crowd). > I suspect that almost all of those in leadership positions in the contra > dance movement are enthusiasts of multiple dance forms, (defined as dancing > each form at least six times a year. Please let me know if this is not the > case for you, personally.) About HALF of those in the hall at our open, > public contra dances, however, will rarely, if ever, attend any other type > of social dance. Contras are their primary, or sole social dance activity. For most of the last decade, I have done less than six/year of anything other than contra (and often barely meeting that standard for contra) -- just too hard to manage dancing and a job with my schedule. Then again, I probably don't really count as "leadership position", either (just an online loudmouth and moderately visible on the dance floor). On the gripping hand, I identify as a dance enthusiast because there have been periods when I danced multiple times per week and I've been doing all of contra/square/folk for more than a quarter century. I'm providing this datapoint as an example of how complicated it is to label people. ;-) > I suspect that most of those who are most comfortable with switching roles > are also multiple dance form enthusiasts. The function of social dance as > a "mating ritual" may be much less significant for hard-core multiple dance > form enthusiasts. Well, I've *wanted* dance to be in part a mating ritual, it just doesn't seem to have worked that way for me. And my most recent partner, who I found on OKCupid, is someone that I *should* have previously met dancing (zie is a hard-core folk dancer, going to Greece and other places for dancing); similarly, one of my exes was a semi-serious contra dancer for a while (and may still be going to Gaskells), and two of my other partners would like to dance but can't due to medical issues. So even though dance hasn't worked for me historically as a mating ritual, it certainly has been part of my romantic life. Hard to say how much my experience is informed by my hearing impairment, but likely lots, because socializing in a dance context is very very difficult for me. People with social issues might have a similar experience for different reasons. -- Hugs and backrubs -- I break Rule 6 http://rule6.info/ <*> <*> <*> Help a hearing-impaired person: http://rule6.info/hearing.html
