Good thought. And I liked Jack's idea of how to incorporate this in the teaching if you had time.
When partner changing, gender swapping, we should consider if the other person in the pairing is willing to dance with someone other than they said yes to. I don't think you'd get that far in the workshop (partner swap) but it is a part of play. Sometimes at a weekend we'll have an occasional chaos line where anything goes, as I'm sure you have done/seen too. Key for swapping is - know what your doing, and don't put an insecure or inexperienced person out there. Locally we do as was already noted at regular, and even special dances - watch the line and switch back if someone is a bit homophobic or if it will be confusing. Knowing your community is key. Or get to know the community you are visiting. The interesting thing is people don't get confused, or don't typically get confused, if its a pair of ladies dancing together, they deal with the position. It's only when the genders are crossed that the eyes get crossed, or if its a pair of gents. I think its a good thing to help newer folks stay familiar with the position rather than the role and rather see that than full protection from exposure. If I see its a newer dancer when I approach another lady I say, I'm dancing as the gent as I approach, and then they are okay. Sometimes newer male dancers ask me to twirl them or turn them so they can understand how it feels. Laurie --- On Fri, 9/11/09, Jerome Grisanti <jerome.grisa...@gmail.com> wrote: From: Jerome Grisanti <jerome.grisa...@gmail.com> Subject: Re: [Callers] Callers Digest, Vol 61, Issue 6 To: call...@sharedweight.net List-Post: callers@lists.sharedweight.net Date: Friday, September 11, 2009, 9:36 AM Following up on Mark Galipeau's note: In a workshop, it may be good to offer a little context on when gender-role-swapping is appropriate (or inappropriate). For example, at most dance weekends your neighbors will welcome or at least understand. At many monthly dances, there are neighbors who may become confused either because they are new, rigidly devoted to traditional gender roles, or any number of other reasons. Some may even try to correct us (if they don't know us). Before swapping, I look ahead in the line to be sure that our next neighbors will be part of the "game" and not put off by it. (Mark indicates the idea of there being a time and a place for this, I merely offer an additional tip). --Jerome > > Message: 3 > Date: Wed, 9 Sep 2009 15:27:15 -0700 (PDT) > From: Mark Galipeau <red72imp...@yahoo.com> > To: Caller's discussion list <call...@sharedweight.net> > Subject: Re: [Callers] Gender Swapping > Message-ID: <964380.63567...@web83604.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 > > If the group is alert, what my dance partners and I occasionally enjoy, is > memorizing both roles in the dance, then each iteration when there is a > swing your partner, we swap gender roles. > ie: first swing I lead, then the next time we come back to swing my partner > immediately takes the lead role and swings me.? Some dances are challenging > and if the grey matter is slow, or it is late in the evening this can really > snafu the line. > ? > Chris Ricciotti has a great web resouce on Gender Free Contra on this web > site. > http://www.lcfd.org/Articles/GFManual/index.html > ? > Mark Galipeau > Queer Contra Dancer > We swing both ways, and then some. > > > -- Jerome Grisanti 660-528-0858 http://www.jeromegrisanti.com For the good are always the merry, Save by an evil chance, And the merry love the fiddle And the merry love to dance. ~ William Butler Yeats _______________________________________________ Callers mailing list call...@sharedweight.net http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers
