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I have danced a half-dozen times at the "David on Fridays" Greenfield dances, with the gender ratio both against me and in my favor. Always as an occasional visitor. Although there is the occasional sophmoric a-hole (someone who has just learned to dance fairly recentlky, cant tolerate anything less, and plays it safe by dancing only w/ known commodities) to be seen, I've always found the dance welcoming, whether dancing w/ "rookies" or "regulars". It starts w/ David's attitude.
Phil Katz Seattle
Greenfield is not my local dance, but I have danced there many times and generally enjoy the dances very much because of the high level of the dancing, but I think that it is not a kind dance, especially to beginners and it does seem to have a terminal case of "center-setitis".
One weekend, I danced both the Friday and Saturday dances and observed Greenfield at its meanest. In this case, unusually, there was a superabundance of women. It was last May and probably one of the colleges had finished exams and there was an enormous influx of beginner women. The local experienced dancers, instead of asking them to dance, circled the wagons in the center set, and left everyone they did not know to struggle with the beginners on the sides. The set by the door was made up almost entirely of these beginners with a few experienced women dancers like me struggling to avoid a total train wreck. It was the same both nights.
Since I always dance every dance, I danced every dance at Greenfield, but it was heavy going instead of the fun it could have been if the experienced dancers in the center set had not been so selfish. On another occasion, I did hear one of the Greenfield regulars say something that explained the basis of this behavior. Explaining why he never went to David Millstone's dance in Norwich, he said that David called too many of the old dances which had too much standing around. I understood that what he was really saying was that he was unwilling to sacrifice so much as a moment of his own pleasure to assist the enjoyment of others. (After this conversation, I put him on my "Little List", but I did rather pity him for foolishly depriving himself of one of the finest moments in contra dancing, that perfect moment of anticipation when the active partners' eyes meet just before the balance and swing in Chorus Jig.) Sadly though, it is this man's attitude that often seems pervasive in the center set at Greenfield.
Greenfield is a wonderful dance, but it is very hard on newbies, strangers, shy and unagressive partner seekers.
Marj Power
David Kaynor wrote:
Hello Everyone,
I am sorry to hear that so many experiences of booking ahead have been so bad. I wish I could figure out how to run a dance so that everyone would always be completely content, but I still don't know how. Like many callers and organizers, I try different things and observe results which tell me one thing or another. I do feel that discussions like this can help.
If I'm to make use of remarks like Bruce Freeman's, I need
clarification. Bruce writes: "Greenfield is a mean dance! I had one
experience there and surely won't go out of my way to go THERE again. I got two dances, one of which with the woman I arrived with, and not
one more after that, not for want of asking."
I'd like to know which Greenfield dances Bruce attended. Who was playing? Who was calling? Was it a Friday night or a Saturday night? Was it a Sunday event?
At the Guiding Star Grange Hall, there are at least 8 contra dances per month. There are 10 dances in months with both a 5th Friday and a 5th Saturday. If you count Sunday events which have specific themes but still involve people from the contra dance crowds, there are more than 10 dances per month. It may be valid to ascribe some commonalities to all of these. However, I believe that we organizers all strive to achieve distinct characteristics at our dances. In recent years, I've often wished the term "The Greenfield Dance" would fall out of common usage.
The term "The Greenfield Dance" is no longer especially useful, nor is it entirely fair. Some people who strenuously expound on the sins of "The Greenfield Dance" have never attended a third Saturday Greenfield dance, a series for which Jim Fownes and the Blue Sky band have worked hard in pursuit of a welcoming and entirely inclusive atmosphere for dancers and musicians alike.
For years, in hopes addressing not only booking ahead, but other concerns and goals, I've tried a number of prompts, advisories, admonitions, and full-blown rants. In order to assess their efficacy, I need to hear about experiences like Bruce's. Because of my stake in dancing at the Grange Hall, it's important that I hear of these experiences, regardless of when they occur; thus, it's somewhat helpful to hear that they occur at "The Greenfield Dance". However, the only behavior and policies I can change are my own.
Also, I'm concerned about unwarranted generalizations. For example, "The Greenfield Dance is Too Crowded; Don't Go". This bothers me greatly because although healthy in numbers, my dances and others are seldom overccrowded; there is nearly always room to dance comfortably. But people spread this assumption after attending Wild Asparagus's crowded dances, whereupon people stay away from others' which are considerably roomier.
On a broader scale, I worry about statements like "Contra Dancing Is
______(negative assessment of your choice)" when in fact, only some
contra dances are "_______". You can hear and read things like
"Contra Dancers are _______" and it strikes me as tarring with a
similar brush. Contra dancing is a vast body of experience and contra
dancers are a vast population of individuals with many commonalities
but many differences as well.
It's important to acknowledge that I'm deeply invested in, and very loyal to, the Connecticut River Valley dance scene as a whole and my own dances in Greenfield and Montague Center in particular. That said, let me say that long ago, I lost count of the occasions, both ordinary and exceptional, on which the crowd at my Greenfield dance has demonstrated exceptional kindness and generosity. The same can be said about other dance crowds. Much of the antipathy and dismissiveness toward contra dancers in general and toward Greenfield dancers in particular is written by people who weren't present on these occasions.
Behaving well in the past doesn't entitle us to behave badly now. But let's strive for perspective! Let's clarify what's wrong with the current picture, but let's wrk on a new one. What do we want it to look like? Can we paint it without mining the past for good elements as well as bad? Let's not confine our discussion to shortcomings which support our complaints; let's examine achievements and successes which could support our future hopes. It's unproductive, as well as unfair, to discount things which have made us happy and proud.
Let's hear more accounts. Let's hear more feelings. Let's not merely
ACCEPT public response; let's call for it! Let's welcome it! Scrutiny and challenge are important to the process of debate, and I
believe we need real debate if we're ever to figure what is really
going on and what to do about it.
Best wishes to all,
David Kaynor
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