" I haven't enjoyed the "gender neutral" dance events" With utmost respect, then discussing gender neutral terms is probably not so relevant to your interests. On May 29, 2015 7:00 PM, "Neal Schlein via Callers" < [email protected]> wrote:
> Okay, this is from a square dance/contra caller: I'd go crazy if I was > stuck with a single set of terms, no matter what they were. The rhyming > potential for the calls is lost. > > Anyway, I still think it is more than just a matter of terminology. > > All we are doing is swapping words; everyone knows they are stand-ins and > what they are stand-ins for. In essence, we are just obscuring the > original choreographic intent of gendered figures and dances, not calling > gender neutral dances. (Plus, anything written within the last 30 years is > a copyrighted work and technically we require permission to make changes, > perform it publicly, OR make derivative works. Not that anyone really > cares.) > > Personally, I haven't enjoyed the "gender neutral" dance events I've been > to--not because I think it's a bad idea or dislike dancing with men, but > because the callers were taking historical dances with built-in and > intentional gender differences and simply ignoring them. Particularly in > older ECD, it is one thing to intentionally dance the lady's role and > another to ignore that there WAS a role. It impoverishes the dance as a > whole. > > Some older dances happen to work well as gendered or ungendered dances, > but to me a truly gender-neutral dance is constructed to intentionally be > that way. For example, the following: > > Gender-Swapped > By Neal Schlein, 5/29/15 > Duple gender-less contra > Music: Probably something highly phrased, like Irish > A1: 1's step into center and handy hand turn neighbor 2 times > A1: End with everyone facing down the hall, 4 in line, and go down the hall > A2: Face the center of the line, pass thru, leads u-Turn and swing, any > type (end in same spot where started swing, 1's on outside, facing up the > hall) > B1: Come up the hall > B1: Bend the line and circle full > B2: 1's gypsy full and slow cast down while the 2's gypsy or swing 1 and > 1/2 to end in starting line; 1s come into the center. > > It's not the best timing in the B2, but if I did that right.... > > - With improper and gendered lines, it dances normally the first time > through--standard swings, everything. The second time, the 1's will be on > the opposite side of the set, meaning half of the dance is same-gender and > half is opposite. > - With PROPER gendered lines, that is exactly reversed. > - With gender-neutral lines--it is completely random, but it doesn't > matter because... > > The dance itself is gender-neutral: it doesn't need gender or > gender-substitute terms for teaching any of the figures or the sequence in > any formation. The choreography was selected to force interaction of > identical sorts with all participating genders and positions. > > . > > Neal Schlein > > _______________________________________________ > Callers mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.sharedweight.net/listinfo.cgi/callers-sharedweight.net > >
