I recently asked a younger dancer, in his teens, what role he preferred dancing. His response was that he likes being a robin best because he loves spinning, but it depends when in the evening it is. He said he…
I have all but abandoned contra dancing regularly because of deep frustration about the gendered role expectations I was feeling from partners and neighbors at dances. These perceived expectations bothered me on their own but it made me even more…
At my local dance, some callers have begun using positional calling and some still use the role terms men and women. There is also often talk of attracting more young dancers. One evening there was a young dancer and the…
I was still fairly new to contra, I (a woman) was dancing with my friend (also a woman) and two men who were sitting out came up to us and told us we should split up and dance with them….
When I first started contra dancing a few months ago, I happened to be at the same time in the process of questioning my gender. During the pandemic I spent a lot of time alone (as did we all) and…
I am a non-binary dancer who dances both roles. Especially since the pandemic started, I have mainly been attending dances that use gender-free calling (whether positional or larks/robins). Recently, I traveled to attend an ECD event where they called dances…
I am a woman in my mid-twenties who found contra dancing this year and quickly fell in love. Language played a part in that. After our first dance, a friend and I talked about how cool it was that the…
Being small, dyslexic, and a dancer of many years, I feel quite awkward dancing the traditional role of male partner. I like “the man” to be the leader, so that I can carouse and play and horse around without having…
“The things one takes seriously are one’s weaknesses”, Charles Ludlam, Manifesto. Becoming Angela For over 70 years I have mostly been called Jim (or Jimmy originally); at least when people were being polite. Jim is a fairly common name. One…
I’m genderfluid, and our kid knows that gender can change and that some people are neither gender, or both. He himself is usually both. It’s going to crush my heart a little if I have to explain to him that…