Thank you for doing this, Martha.
-- Alan
On 11/3/2015 7:43 PM, Martha Wild via Callers wrote:
All, I have received the following response from a representative from
the Voice of Roma. This seems to be a pretty definitive response to
whether the term is insulting or not to the Roma people.
Martha
Begin forwarded message:
*From: *Carol Silverman <csilv...@uoregon.edu
<mailto:csilv...@uoregon.edu>>
*Subject: **Re: Use of the word "gypsy" in various folk dances*
*Date: *November 3, 2015 7:28:00 PM PST
*To: *Martha Wild <maw...@sbcglobal.net
<mailto:maw...@sbcglobal.net>>, Voice of Roma <voiceofr...@gmail.com
<mailto:voiceofr...@gmail.com>>
*Cc: *Petra Gelbart <petragelb...@gmail.com
<mailto:petragelb...@gmail.com>>
Dear Martha,
Sani Rifati, President of Voice of Roma forwarded you message to me.
Although I am not Romani, I am on the Board of VOR and we do care
deeply about the terms used for the people we represent.
A large number of Roma (but not all) are offended by the term Gypsy,
especially with a small g. To “gyp" someone means to steal and
swindle; plus the word connotes a false history— it a short for
Egyptian whereas Roma are from India. Roma have faced centuries of
discrimination, and today are subject to deportations and racial
profiling; this would be an opportunity to teach your community a
little about their history.
So whatever the history of the dance step, I know that names can be
changed by sensitive callers like you. I would urge you to change the
names and seize and educational moment!
Sincerely, Carol Silverman
PS Check the VOR webs page fro my information:
http://www.voiceofroma.com/culture/gyp_vs_rom.html
From: *Martha Wild* <maw...@sbcglobal.net <mailto:maw...@sbcglobal.net>>
Date: Tue, Oct 27, 2015 at 1:56 AM
Subject: Use of the word "gypsy" in various folk dances
To: voiceofr...@gmail.com <mailto:voiceofr...@gmail.com>
Hi,
I am a folk dancer - I do a lot of contra dancing and English
Country dance and I call the dances as well.
Recently a newcomer who came to a dance at another venue brought to
our (a group of caller's that talk about such subjects on a list)
attention that we have been using the word gypsy for one of the
dance moves in both types of dance. This dancer (not a Roma) came to
one of our dances and was upset that we used the term "gypsy" for
this dance move, as they felt that the word was insulting to the
Roma people.
I would like to know if this is the case, as we have never intended
to be derogatory to anyone, but lots of dances have this move, and
dance names even contain the name, like "The Gypsy Star" and others.
The move in question is a move where two people walk around each
other and back to place, while facing each other. There is some
confusion about origin of the term, but the best guess is that there
was an English Country dance called "The Spanish Gypsy" that was
written over a hundred years ago, and it was the first to include
this move of people walking around each other while facing (prior to
that people generally did a "back to back, or what is also called
"do-si-do". The move was not called a "gypsy", but because this
dance used it and other dances copied it, people called it a "gypsy"
because it was the same move that was in that dance.
I've been calling these dances for over 25 years and have used this
term to indicate this move, never intending anything by it other
than as an established name for a dance figure. I am hoping that
some of the folks at Voice of Roma could give me an opinion as to
whether you find it offensive or not for us to continue to use it.
We've been discussing on the web whether we should try to find a
different name, but if you feel that this use of the word gypsy is
not an issue then we can stop arguing over words like "eddy" or
"swirl" and continue to use it. If you do find it offensive,
however, I will gladly alter my dance cards to something else so as
not to continue to be offensive.
Thanks for your input,
Martha Wild
--
Sani Rifati
707/823-7941
http://www.voiceofroma.com <http://www.voiceofroma.com/>
Carol Silverman
Professor
Department of Anthropology and
Folklore Program
University of Oregon
Eugene OR 97403-1218
Office 541-346-5114
Fax 541-346-0668
csilv...@uoregon.edu <mailto:csilv...@uoregon.edu>
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