Jeff Kaufman wrote a paper on regional variations in contra dance. Here's what he found <https://www.swarthmore.edu/sites/default/files/assets/documents/linguistics/2007_kaufman_jeff.pdf> for wrist-grip stars (page 31 of the link). Basically, they're common everywhere in the US except in some parts of the South. This is based on data from ten or more years ago, so I'm not sure if that's still true. I would not be surprised if it isn't-- there's enough cross-contamination that wrist-grips could have taken over even in the South. We do have people from Georgia and North Carolina on the list; hopefully they'll chime in.
-Dave Washington, DC On Mon, Oct 10, 2016 at 4:31 AM, John Sweeney via Callers < callers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote: > Hi all, > I have been to contra dances and festivals all over America and > everywhere I have danced everyone automatically uses a wrist-lock star > (unless the caller has specified hands-across because of the subsequent > choreography). > > But I am constantly challenged in England by people claiming that > wrist-lock stars are not the standard in America. > > When I go to somewhere like The Flurry and see 600 people from all > over the country all doing wrist-locks it seems to me that it must be the > standard way of doing things. > > And obviously it has been common in America for a long time; this > video is from 1964 in Northern Vermont and shows wrist-lock stars: > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZubTju7g_s > > So, are there still significant communities that don't use > wrist-locks? > > Is the wrist-lock the de facto standard? > > Thanks. > > Happy dancing, > John > > John Sweeney, Dancer, England j...@modernjive.com 01233 625 362 & 07802 > 940 574 > http://www.modernjive.com for Modern Jive Events & DVDs > http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Dancing in Kent > > > > _______________________________________________ > Callers mailing list > Callers@lists.sharedweight.net > http://lists.sharedweight.net/listinfo.cgi/callers-sharedweight.net > -- David Casserly (cell) 781 258-2761
