Alan, that is exactly what I did. I chose a variety of dances that excluded reference to a gendered role. It was actually a good night to try this style of calling. A good sized group of ladies celebrating a birthday showed up for our dance, almost all of them brand new to contra, so there was a good sized gender imbalance. I noticed several ladies who rarely switch roles were doing so to help incorporate all the new dancers. I hope the lack of gender references in the calls helped. I know when I dance the ladies role I have to stop myself from making a 3 pronged star every time I hear gents allemande left.
I was completely prepared to switch to a "normal" program if I sensed any discontent. Going in I had decided to do the 1st half with gender free calls and I had two 2nd half program lines ready to choose from. The 1st half of the dance went so well that I stuck with the gender free call program I had for the 2nd half. Jim On Tue, Jun 2, 2015 at 12:21 AM, Winston, Alan P. via Callers < [email protected]> wrote: > An approach to subtle gender free calling is to choose choreographies > where both members of the couple do the same thing. Really traditional > contra dances often have this feature, as well as lots of English dances > which were not composed with that in mind. > > Chorus Jigg is one of those naturally gender free ones: > > 1s down the outside and back > 1s down the middle and back > 1s turn contra corners > 1s balance and swing. > > Since Jim referred to having more dances than usual where 2s swing in the > middle I assumed he'd used this approach to at least some degree. This > would restrict the figure menu. You can do interrupted square thru but you > can't do ladies chain. If you're so gender free that you don't have rules > you can't use swings to progress and neighbor swings could be trouble. But > you could call an evening without specific gender reference to a group who > already knew roles and where swings ends using only partner, neighbor, 1s > and 2s, and they might not notice that you never said gents and ladies. > > Alan > > Sent from my iPad > > > On Jun 1, 2015, at 9:12 AM, Kalia Kliban via Callers < > [email protected]> wrote: > > > > Jim, as I look at your set of dances the first question that occurs to > me is how you dealt with the improper formation without reference to > gender/dance-role. > > > > Kalia > > > >> On 6/1/2015 8:14 AM, Jim Hemphill via Callers wrote: > >> A friend told me about Brooke Friendly's style of calling ECD and that > >> was part of the inspiration for this contra program. > >> Jim > >> > >> On Mon, Jun 1, 2015 at 9:24 AM, Roger Hayes <[email protected] > >> <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: > >> > >> Check out Brooke Friendly and Chris Sackett's English Country dances > >> - they use "geographic" terms, and structure the dances without > >> gender roles. It's different, but the dance does keep changing, it's > >> a live art. > >> > >> http://www.brookefriendlydance.com/ > >> > >> Aside from Mr. Hemphill's effort recently here described, I know of > >> no comparable endeavor in contra dance choreography - I suppose > >> we're more traditional than ECD. Does anyone have info to share? > >> > >> Roger Hayes > >> > >> Jim - I don't think I am alone in wondering how you managed this > >> without telling the dancers. I take that to mean you didn't make it > >> gender free by the terminology you used (jets or whatever) but by > >> the kinds of dances you chose. I'd love to read more details about > >> what this entailed. > >> > >> Please share more! > >> > >> Amy > >> 206 330 7408 <tel:206%20330%207408> > >> [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > >> > >> On Jun 1, 2015, at 5:37 AM, Jim Hemphill via Callers > >> <[email protected] > >> <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: > >> > >>> The recent discussions on this topic inspired me to try an > >>> experiment in gender free calling. Last night I called the > >>> contra dance in St. Louis using gender free calling without > >>> telling anyone. The experiment was a great success. I received > >>> lots of positive feedback on the evenings dance. At the break > >>> and after the dance I made a point to ask several dancers, some > >>> were callers as well, if they noticed anything different or > >>> unusual about the dances or how I taught them. One person > >>> noticed that there were more dances that included a swing in the > >>> center for couple 2 than usual. No one I talked to noticed that > >>> the calls and teaching were gender free. > >>> It took some extra time to construct a fun, diverse 3 hour > >>> program, but it is certainly possible. Re-labeling the dancers is > >>> not the only way to call gender free. > >>> If you are interested in the program I used or the larger > >>> collection of gender free dances I chose the program from, send me > >>> an email, [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>. > >>> Thanks, > >>> Jim Hemphill > >>> _______________________________________________ > >>> Callers mailing list > >>> [email protected] <mailto: > [email protected]> > >>> http://lists.sharedweight.net/listinfo.cgi/callers-sharedweight.net > >> > >> _______________________________________________ > >> Callers mailing list > >> [email protected] <mailto: > [email protected]> > >> http://lists.sharedweight.net/listinfo.cgi/callers-sharedweight.net > >> > >> > >> > >> > >> _______________________________________________ > >> Callers mailing list > >> [email protected] > >> http://lists.sharedweight.net/listinfo.cgi/callers-sharedweight.net > > _______________________________________________ > > Callers mailing list > > [email protected] > > http://lists.sharedweight.net/listinfo.cgi/callers-sharedweight.net > _______________________________________________ > Callers mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.sharedweight.net/listinfo.cgi/callers-sharedweight.net >
