Community, and the customs that go with a particular community, and how and who can influence those customs appears to be the larger topic.
We've arrived at our community customs for particular reasons. Understanding that history, and how influence is effective, I believe, will aid any perspectives on the topic of booking ahead...and more than a few other topics. Another view, and community norm, is described by caller Colin Hume, about dances in the England, in his advice to Americans visiting England. See: http://www.colinhume.com/american.htm For many dances in England, the norm and custom is to dance with the one you came with, for the evening. You may well understand that this norm permits a great deal more flexibility for the caller for the program to have non-partner-swing contra dances, and even whole genres of dances, over the course of the evening. Our current American customs of changing partners often is one component of the several influences that tend toward a particular kind of uniformity. Another community custom most of us are familiar with: all contra dances for the evening. I'd like to note Caller Tony Parkes's post to the news group "rec.folk-dancing" entitled "Absolutely no Contras" which was posted Thurs, Mar 2 1995. His post may well give perspective on our usual customs and the community that comes with it. See (long URL): http://groups.google.com/groups/search?q=absolutely+no+contras&hl=en&; All of our customs took time and effort to create and sustain. Any changes in custom will take a similar kind of effort, and might require the effort to create completely new dance events, and new community to support those new events. ~Mark Jones
