(no subject)

[sorcyress]

Here is a short entry about dance. Later there will be a long entry about dance. Dance is a thing I think about a lot.

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Square dancing is awesome. Have I mentioned square dancing is awesome? It is. But I am hugely, possibly justifiably, dubious of going to any squares group that isn't Tech Squares or Boston Uncommons, simply because I like being able to dance both archy and non as the mood suits me, and I like that not being a big deal, and I *love* dancing hexes, and hell, I hear that Ted is a lot more interesting with the calls then most callers, and willing to get us into and out of formations that are simply nothing resembling normal, and would make the usual stoic sorts who dance in couples and wear matching skirts and shirts absolutely lose their shit.

Also, when he's teaching, he'll call "un-step to a wave" which makes me giggle.

Really, it all ties back into the idea that I simply need to find more queer or extremely queer-friendly, or heck, even just genderdisassociative dance groups. Not having people be "helpful" by offering to split me and a female partner is a wonderful thing, as is not having people sweetly point out that my male partner and I are standing in the wrong positions. No, I think we are standing in exactly the correct positions, you just assume that girls are always follows.

In other news, of the sort that about six of you will go "awesome" at, and the rest of you will have to consult a glossary before you can even understand what I just said, at the most recent dance, I got to dance the hex tip, by myself --not gemini with Bertha as I have been!

It was, officially, _so awesome_. I did not completely break down the hex (or at least, it wasn't *solely* my fault, and while there are still a handful of calls I don't know, and certainly several hex things I'm a little fuzzy on, it mostly went fairly well, and everyone was in the place they needed to be, and I danced a fracking HEX TIP by myself, before I've even graduated mainstream! Fuck yeah, and stuff.

Glossary: Hex = square with six couples instead of four, there is occasional partner-swapping necessitated by the calls (ie, a four ladies chain done twice gets you 2/3 around the set, rather than back to your partner). They're really pretty, and I've been dancing them as the thirteenth person (ie, gemini) the past couple weeks. Gemini = when two people stand side by side, with near arms around the other, and act as a single person. Tip = square dance term for pair of dances, one normal, one "singing", typically at Squares, there are about six tips (two club-only, two teaching, one or two review). Mainstream = the firstmost level of square dancing.

SOYES! This particular experiment, namely, will I enjoy going to Tech Squares, has been met with resounding success, and I'm not even counting all the kissable people I've been meeting. Dancing really is the *most* fun, all the time.

~Sor
MOOP!

Comments

[lonebear.livejournal.com]

Lambda Squares in DC.

National Gay & Lesbian Square Dance Convention.

Ask me one day about how much I was hit on when I went to a National G&L Square Dance Convention.

(I was dancing c3b when i stopped, can drop in on c2 and survive. c1 is easy)

[nurrynur.livejournal.com]

Pretty much any gay square dance group will at least be nonjudgmental about gender stuff. The IAGSDC (International Association of Gay Square Dance clubs) maintains a list:
http://www.iagsdc.org/main/clubs/page/listclubs.php?order=region

For creative calling/dancing, you could look for a club that advertises itself as "APD/DBD dancing".

APD is all position dancing. Like the name says, you can do a call from any position, even if you're not in the "normal" spot for your role. hmm.. like let's say, Flutterwheel - The non-APD dancer would say, "The girls chain and grab the opposite guy to bring him back to her side", because the caller has never called it from sashayed couples. The APD person would think of it as "the person on the right of the couple".

DBD is "dance by definition", and means that the caller can call something from not-the-typical formation. It means really knowing the actual definition of the call, each part, and applying it. You don't know the calls I would use as an example, yet, and I am not sure if fractionalization counts as DBD, but examples of fractions you've already heard: Scoot Back once-and-a-half, or half-Zoom.

[gravitrue.livejournal.com]

In the Boston Blues scene (which overlaps pretty heavily with the ECS/Lindy population), many females will dance lead to other females. Females will certainly sometimes lead males, and males will sometimes lead males, especially among the better dancers.

You would get asked to dance by males who would assume you were going to dance follow, but no-one would offer to "help you out" by separating a female couple or tell you you were doing it wrong if you were dancing lead to a male. Nearly all Boston instructors at least attempt to say "lead" and "follow" when teaching rather than using gendered terms.

Yale Swing and Blues Club has buttons that say "Ambidanceterous". You would have adored it there a year or two ago; not sure what the scene is like now that they've graduated half the folks I met.

Their former prez, now in NYC, teaches lessons oriented towards breaking down traditional lead/follow distinctions; I don't know if she's shooting for role swapping within a dance or operating without either person leading or what.

[ms-hecubus.livejournal.com]

I knew how to square dance when I was a kid and I remember it always being fun.

[austein]

I've found that if I go to another club with friends we can do just about anything without getting much in the way of comments. There seems to be a bit of a "Ooh young people! Let them have their fun" mentality. Also in clubs where there's a gender imbalance offering to dance the opposite part seems to be taken well. That said, I went to a dance near home alone once and it wasn't so much fun from that perspective, but the calling itself was great (I lucked out and they have an awesome caller).