Re: [Callers] Leading, consent in embellishments

One thing is missing from this discussion, and that is a recognition that some embellishments occur between dancers who are dancing the same role. For example, if the dance calls for two gents or two ladies to allemande left once around, one those two dancers might start leading an allemande twice

Re: [Callers] Leading, consent in embellishments

My belief: For the actual dance there is only one Leader: that is the caller. All the dancers are Followers, following the caller’s Lead. Any suggestion that one role has a leading responsibility is misleading and does disservice to all the dancers in the other role. Historically

Re: [Callers] Leading, consent in embellishments

Thanks, Jack. I think we, as callers, ought to acknowledge there are 2 camps of dancers, believing either: 1. Gents/Larks role is implicitly "led", and ladies/Ravens role is implicitly "follow" (along with all of the good comments about consent, such as Maia's) 2. Contra is implicitly not

Re: [Callers] Leading, consent in embellishments

My friend Ron Blechner wrote a wonderful piece a few years ago about "lead" and "follow" as being how one can dance whichever role in contra you are dancing. I commend it to your attention. It's

Re: [Callers] Leading, consent in embellishments

Angela’s point about managing your weight is really important. I hate the term “give weight”! I really don’t want your weight, in swings or allemandes or anything else. I am happy, though, to counterbalance your mass in order to stop centrifugal force pulling us apart. It is dancing,

Re: [Callers] Leading, consent in embellishments

I don’t see the advantage of using the terms lead & follow here, and I do see disadvantages. There are dance styles that have true leading and following (most ballroom, swing, etc.), and some new-to-contra people already know those true-leading/following dance styles, and will know that the

Re: [Callers] Leading, consent in embellishments

Hello Jeanette! So excited about this topic. I help run a genderfree dance in Boston, and love what happens to a community with genderfree terminology*. Firstly, I agree with everything Maia has already said, particularly their point about finding it confusing if there isn't a clearly delegated

Re: [Callers] Leading, consent in embellishments

Hi Jeanette, Exciting workshop! I'm glad to see this discussed! So if I'm understanding you correctly, you seem to be contrasting the idea of a "leader" with the fact that moves must be "executed with mutual consent", which I find interesting. For me, those ideas are not at all at odds. I see

Re: [Callers] Leading, consent in embellishments

see my comments sprinkled... On Mar 6, 2018, at 12:21 AM, Jeanette Mill via Callers wrote: Hello I am devising a workshop for a festival here in Australia, and have long been of the opinion that there are no "leaders" in contra dance couples. That's a great issue to discuss. My

Re: [Callers] Leading, consent in embellishments

Hi Jeanette, For star holds see: http://lists.sharedweight.net/pipermail/callers-sharedweight.net/2016-October/001950.html Embellishments are best achieved in a microsecond by a good leader initiating the embellishment and a good follower following it.