On Thu, Apr 11, 2013, Richard Hopkins wrote: > > In older contra dances, danced duple or triple proper, same-sex > right-and-left-through moves are common -- that is, a R and L through > started from a position where two men are facing two women. Through > the folk process, we have largely abandoned that practice, and either > don't call those dances or call them much modified. There may be a > number of reasons for this, but I think likely part of it has been > discomfort with the same-sex interaction in that move. The folk > process can take us in any number of directions.
I'll note that same-sex discomfort doesn't necessarily lead to the results one might expect. Square dancing is IME far more conservative about gender than contra dancing, yet I see same-sex R and L thru in my recent dancing. OTOH, square dancers have in the past two-three decades been moving very strongly toward "dancing by definition", which is what drives calling these unusual moves. -- Hugs and backrubs -- I break Rule 6 http://rule6.info/ <*> <*> <*> Help a hearing-impaired person: http://rule6.info/hearing.html
