Sorry - I did not mean to hijack this thread with discussion of gypsies - just
found it curious that the term 'dance gypsy' was used in the subject line. I
have not heard of anyone addressing that usage. Please return to the original
discussion
Mac
On Monday, October 7, 2019, 02:46:21 PM CDT, Masha Goodman Crawford
<[email protected]> wrote:
Becky - Excellent answer.
The first time I heard the term "gypsy" for the dance move, I happened to be
living among Roma in Europe and was back in the states on a short visit.The
part that seemed particularly offensive to me was that the move was taught with
the emphasis on gazing flirtatiously into the other dancer's eyes - something
that would have been absolutely taboo among the people I had been travelling
with. I suppose the name came from someone's mental image of a Flamenco dancer
circling, and some idea that Gypsy = Flamenco? who knows. I discovered, much to
my dismay, that many of my well-educated American friends thought "Gypsies"
were just a fictional group or general term for folks who travel, hence the
"dance gypsy" slang. They are a proud and very real ethnic group with a
centuries-old language, customs, and a long history of being marginalized and
persecuted.In your mind, take any other group with a similar history, and
substitute it: Would you teach dancers to do a "Xxx", and tell them that it
means to behave a certain way with strangers? (Becky gave one good example, I
can think of others as well.)Can we just DROP the term "gypsy" altogether,
please?- Masha(dancing and calling since 1978)
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