Re: [Callers] Local styles vs. consensus (Was: Another vote for "jets" and "rubies")

Ron Blechner wrote: > With regards to Tony's question about the number of terms increasing in > contra, a question: > I understand that squares used to be more commonly interspersed with contras > at dances, correct? Yes, up until around 1975–1980, most New England series of my acquaintance

Re: [Callers] Local styles vs. consensus (Was: Another vote for "jets" and "rubies")

Hearing the multiple-prompts-for-same-move topic framed in a new way has been helpful to me. I've enjoyed that local communities have different feels to them. I like that this discussion led to Tony and others indicating that term variations are part of the charm of local variations. With regards

Re: [Callers] Another vote for "jets" and "rubies"

In the New England MWSD Community, there is one weekend a year that dances collect data. This method, although it has problems, is probable good at seeng long term trends. Rich Sbardella On Mon, Jan 30, 2017 at 12:51 PM, Ron Blechner via Callers < callers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote: > No, I

Re: [Callers] Another vote for "jets" and "rubies"

What if we made a Google doc with more vague categories where dances could self-report their attendance? Something like, a column for the state where the dance is located, a column for 2015 average attendance, all done in ranges of 1-50, 51-100, etc, and another column for 2017 attendance, with

Re: [Callers] Another vote for "jets" and "rubies"

For attendance, what I would love to see is dances making their attendance numbers fully public. Something like a googledocs spreadsheet that anyone can view where you put in attendance numbers. (I've advocated for this, internally to BIDA, for years (unsuccessfully). We do have a sheet like

Re: [Callers] Another vote for "jets" and "rubies"

My husband keeps attendance records for our weekly dance in Seattle, and has done so for ~16 years. What sort of info do you seek? Just an overall trend, or numbers, or something else? -Amy On Jan 30, 2017 10:07 AM, "Linda Leslie via Callers" < callers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote: > It may be

Re: [Callers] Another vote for "jets" and "rubies"

It may be that the Organizers’ List for Shared Weight may have this kind of data. Linda On Jan 30, 2017, at 12:51 PM, Ron Blechner via Callers wrote: > No, I haven't seen statistical analysis of this. Maybe it's worthwhile for > this to be polled out to

Re: [Callers] Another vote for "jets" and "rubies"

No, I haven't seen statistical analysis of this. Maybe it's worthwhile for this to be polled out to various dances. Best regards, Ron On Jan 30, 2017 10:54 AM, "Donna Hunt" wrote: Just getting back to this thread, lots to catch up on. Jeff and Ron: You both seem like the

Re: [Callers] Another vote for "jets" and "rubies"

Jeff Kaufman wrote: > The gender free dances are split into explicitly LGBTQ ones and ones that are > gender free but not explicitly LGBTQ. I trust that the series in the second category are careful to mention their gender-free policy when (if) they invite new-to-the-series callers to come. No

Re: [Callers] Another vote for "jets" and "rubies"

I second Donna’s request for hard data, particularly on rising/falling/static attendance. Let’s remember, too, that there are many factors involved in attendance, and also that a series can buck the general trend. The church I attend, part of a national body that has seen steep declines in my

Re: [Callers] Another vote for "jets" and "rubies"

On Mon, Jan 30, 2017 at 10:54 AM, Donna Hunt wrote: > Is there any data > that reflects where in the country the LGBTQ gender-free dances are and > where the communities that use gender-free terminology are? The gender free dances are split into explicitly LGBTQ ones and

Re: [Callers] Another vote for "jets" and "rubies"

Just getting back to this thread, lots to catch up on. Jeff and Ron: You both seem like the statisticians here. Is there any data that reflects where in the country the LGBTQ gender-free dances are and where the communities that use gender-free terminology are? Just curious. Ron: When

Re: [Callers] Local styles vs. consensus (Was: Another vote for "jets" and "rubies")

Rich Hart wrote: << I'd also add to your two requirements (enjoyable and in a safe space), a third one. that is that our dances should also be welcoming to all, regardless of their position in life, and dance skills. As callers, we all try to chose dances and calls that are appropriate, and

Re: [Callers] Local styles vs. consensus (Was: Another vote for "jets" and "rubies")

I agree with much of what you say, Tony. In response to your question, "Do we really want to go down that road?", we have clearly already done that. In reality, there are still many, relatively parallel contra dance roads, some a little rougher than others. We have not yet reached the point that

[Callers] Local styles vs. consensus (Was: Another vote for "jets" and "rubies")

Chet Gray wrote: <> Amen! One of the things I’ve long lamented about the modern square dance movement is the disappearance of regional variations. If square dancing is viewed as a hobby, it makes sense (given the mobility of people in industrialized countries) to standardize the meaning of