strathspey Archive: Gender-free dances

The gender-free dance movement in Scottish and English country dancing is
largely based on a system developed by an RSCDS-certificated teacher, Carl
Wittman, during the late '60s and '70s, in Grant's Pass, Oregon. Later,
Carl moved to Durham, North Carolina, (near me) and started a gender-free
group here. My neighbor learned SCD with them and was a close friend of Carl's.
Carl died about 1985; his group is still active here, although they
no longer dance Scottish (just English). My community owns a set of May
Pole streamers that Carl made, from fabric he dyed, and between May Days
they live in my study.
I danced with Carl's group frequently when I was learning (and they
were still doing Scottish); Mary McConnell, who teaches the Greensboro
class, drove down to Durham to teach it the year Carl was ill.
For more information on Carl's role in developing gender-free
dancing, check the archives, as there have been one or two previous posts on
this subject, or contact Mary McConnell, who has experience in teaching a
gender-free class. Mary doesn't have an email address. You can contact her
by writing the secretary of the Greensboro group or emailing Mary's husband,
Pete Campbell. If you choose to email Pete, be patient; Pete has *actually
moved* to Greensboro but hasn't yet figured out how to operate his email
from there.

Carl experimented with different terms for referring to the sides in
gender-free dancing. When he wrote his manual, he was using both "red and
green," and "right and left." Later, he dropped the colors.

This is what Carl has to say about gender-free dancing, from the
introduction to the _Country Dance Manual_ (Carl Wittman, Grants Pass
Oregon; revised 1979 edition):
"It should be noted that these dance descriptions make no reference
to gender. Throughout the 17th and 18th centur[ies] apparently it was
obligatory to dance as couples, with the men in their appointed places,
leading their women partners. This was a reflection of the complicated
etiquette and rigid sex roles of the time. Country dancing had its origins
in an earlier period, where the spiritual and community aspects of the dance
were at least as important as the courtship aspect.
"These dance descriptions, then, attempt to encourage the
'groupness' of the dances, rather than the coupling; this is very much in
the spirit of the folk idiom: dancing has always taken on the contours of
the times. And the verbal descriptions of dances in our day ought to assume
our philosophical attitudes: that one need not be married, or escorted, to
take a place on the dance floor; that we accept each other as people, and
for the moment at least leave behind the labels..." (p.1-2)

In describing which side is which, Carl says:
"The two files of dancers are on the sidelines of the set, and in
this manual are designated as the 'red' side or left side (when facing up),
and the green or right side." (p.4)

And, finally, in discussing a stress-free method of acquiring partners,
which ties to another current thread on the list, Carl says:
"The caller can say 'the next dance is for groups of six (or eight,
etc). Form yourselves into a longways.' Or, if the set is a circle, the
group can quickly establish who is one's initial partner by pairing off once
the circle is established.
"This manner of forming a set avoids all the anxiety of having to
ask or be asked to dance; everyone who wishes gets up, and then the sets are
formed. It also guaranttes [sic] that we will dance with an ever-changing
stream of faces, and the group will come together as a community rather than
breaking up into cliques. No wall-flowers...And of course, if one has a
desire to dance this one with a special friend or spouse, others will
respect that." (p.3)

The manual has gender-free instructions for an estimated 200 dances, about
80 each English and Scottish, plus a few Irish, Welsh, and American (modern
contra and Colonial).

Cheers,
Deborah
shawd@mindspring.com

P.S. The Strathspey Reel isn't dead -- it's just gestating. Gender will
be used in the description, though.