2013/5/12 Greg McKenzie <[email protected]> > Maia wrote: > > > That's a really good point. I mean, one way would be to focus my study > only > > on people who self-identify as being "in" the contra community... but, > how > > would you suggest I go about finding people on the fringes? I feel like > my > > sample size will be kind of biased by who I'm friendly with, which is > > pretty much the quote unquote 'young hip flashy' dancers (who tend to be > > super comfortable switching roles, largely queer, considerably poly and > > sexually liberal, etc.). > > > Last night I attended the "Queer Youth Leadership Awards" dinner in our > county. State representatives, city council members, county supervisors, > and many other leaders in the community came out to celebrate queer youth > who have excelled in leadership in their high schools, etc. > > Obviously there is some significant progress being made in our society > toward tolerance of differing personal relationships and preferences. I am > delighted with how well the contra dance movement has worked to adapt to > these changes. This is certainly an area where some study would be useful > for callers and organizers of contra dances. > > 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. > > 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. > > 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.
I don't think I agree. I'm almost exclusively a contradancer, and it definitely is a "mating ritual" or sorts for me, and that's precisely *why* I started to dance the other role: because I'm queer, and if I danced my assigned role, I'd never get to dance with people I'm interested in, er, "mating" with. Just to throw that out there. But that's the sort of thing I'm really interested in exploring--WHY people do or don't dance switch, what place contra holds in their life and social world and how that does/doesn't impact the way they dance it, etc. Michael (and everyone)--Oops, I realize that last email was not terribly coherent. I didn't realize it was going out to the whole listserv, I thought I was replying to just one person, so I was being silly and flip and using joking-gender-studies slang. Please don't consider that my research proposal! Sorry about that one, folks! =/ Maia > How can you make or evaluate any meaningful findings about "contra > networks" without a comparison to other social networks, dance or othrwise ? > It's more that I'm attempting to make evaluations *inside* the contra network. > Will your use of the "g" word, " god," predispose bias into whatever > findings you eventually make ? > I'm confused. Are you joking? > Once you start saying things to dancers, such as "hey, why don'tyou split > up and pair off m/f?" any findings become dubious > Again, I'm confused. I never proposed saying this to dancers, and certainly not in the course of any study. > By considering your self a young hip flashy dancer (whatever that means) > will make your doing any objective study difficult. Every person who has ever done an anthropological study has had some sort of identification in relation to the group they were studying, even if that identification is "not of your group." It seems obvious to me that the people who are most like to
