Announcing that two brand new resources that could be really helpful to organizers of music and dance camps, festivals and events are in the first week of their development.
womenfolk spreadsheet
The first actually started in 2015 when I compiled a small set of information on instructor gender balance at camps. All wanted to see was the ratio of men to women instructors and musicians at a range of camps. I plopped them into a simple spreadsheet and exported the results (see image below.) My initial sample yielded results from good to abysmal, but only included one year for each even, so didn’t account for any anomalies Responses from people I showed it to were decidedly lukewarm, so I put it away for a couple of years. But this week another idea was put out that dovetailed nicely with my little spreadsheet, so I hauled it out of the mothballs and made it available online.
As it works now, I and a volunteer or two search out info from websites and put it in manually. However my current thinking is that it would be amazing if organizations would self-audit and either send me the results or add them directly to the spreadsheets. I just got my first self-entered stats from Crispin at CDSS (Thank you!) and would love to get more. While it’s easy to think of this as shaming to get organizations to do better, I would rather it was used to as a tool to see how organizations are doing better over time, or to tap the organizations who are doing well for more information on how they get such great results. It could also open up a larger conversation on why hiring for gender equality may not always be the ultimate goal and the other kinds of hiring considerations people are juggling.
A couple of things to know:
For now I’m not collecting information on ethnicity for this sheet.
If gender identity is unknown we list total staff members and only categorize the ones that are clearly one gender or the other as they choose to identify. Any time we aren’t sure, or a staff member has clearly indicated they don’t want to be counted, we leave them out of the category counts. That means we won’t always add up to 100%, but that also gives us important information about how gender identity could be influencing (or not influencing) hiring practices. I want to keep it simple without leaving anyone out!
We are not including unpaid staff or “service staff” (like child care providers, cooks etc.). We really want to get a sense of the way different camps and weekends think about hiring music and dance instructors and performers specifically.
The current document is here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1MjDRL3ZkHfJAsyk1p-QFTPiqVsFtiqZKEMx…
I left the 2015/16 info attached to it so you can see what results I came up with then.
If you want to enter your info, shoot me an email and I will add you in. ssgowan(a)gmail.com
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The second even more super-exciting resource is being spearheaded by A’yen Tran from Brooklyn.
Women/Black/Indigenous/non-white/LGBTQIA Music Instructor Nominee Directory
A form to nominate excellent banjo, fiddle, guitar, bass, mandolin, uke, vocal, music history and other musical teachers. This form aims to collect nominees who can be referred as music teachers with the goal of increasing representation for women, people of color and gender diversity in music camps and other musical learning opportunities. This form was created on Oct 8, 2019 by A'yen Tran with the intention of making it publicly available, particularly to music camp directors. Please feel free to self-nominate!
This will be an incredible resource for organizers to find underrepresented performers and teachers and will also be a great way for organizers to share the wealth around. Whether you know instructors who should be on this list, or want to hire more underrepresented teachers, I encourage you to take a look at both this one and the womenfolk spreadsheet and participate, if you can.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScMhZzZpzfbMkTVqSUHyFJ5YgOxxI6-EH8… <https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScMhZzZpzfbMkTVqSUHyFJ5YgOxxI6-EH8…>
Thanks,
Sarah Gowan
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I've just become the co-organizer of a dance weekend. Can anyone give
me tips on publicizing the weekend? We'll obviously bring flyers to
nearby dances and dance weekends, but what else should we do?
Thanks!
Larry
Hello all,
Changing the subject line to reflect the topic
of discussion.
Thank you, and please think and contribute if
you can. This could be a game changer.
Kind regards,
Paul
If people want to revisit the use of words,
please reflect that on a different thread.
Sorry - I did not mean to hijack this thread with discussion of gypsies - just found it curious that the term 'dance gypsy' was used in the subject line. I have not heard of anyone addressing that usage. Please return to the original discussion
Mac
On Monday, October 7, 2019, 02:46:21 PM CDT, Masha Goodman Crawford <mashagoodman(a)yahoo.com> wrote:
Becky - Excellent answer.
The first time I heard the term "gypsy" for the dance move, I happened to be living among Roma in Europe and was back in the states on a short visit.The part that seemed particularly offensive to me was that the move was taught with the emphasis on gazing flirtatiously into the other dancer's eyes - something that would have been absolutely taboo among the people I had been travelling with. I suppose the name came from someone's mental image of a Flamenco dancer circling, and some idea that Gypsy = Flamenco? who knows. I discovered, much to my dismay, that many of my well-educated American friends thought "Gypsies" were just a fictional group or general term for folks who travel, hence the "dance gypsy" slang. They are a proud and very real ethnic group with a centuries-old language, customs, and a long history of being marginalized and persecuted.In your mind, take any other group with a similar history, and substitute it: Would you teach dancers to do a "Xxx", and tell them that it means to behave a certain way with strangers? (Becky gave one good example, I can think of others as well.)Can we just DROP the term "gypsy" altogether, please?- Masha(dancing and calling since 1978)
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Hi Shared Weight organizers,
A quick email about CDSS resources for organizers!
The Fall 2019 issue of Shop Talk marks the first anniversary of CDSS's free
e-newsletter for organizers of traditional dance, music, and song.
The issue includes highlights from this past year. Check it out here:
https://conta.cc/357h9yI
You can check out past Shop Talk issues and sign up to receive future
issues (FREE) here:
https://www.cdss.org/resources/how-to/organizers#shop-talk
Also in 2018, we launched an Organizers Resource Portal which contains as
many of the best resources for organizers as we could find. You can check
out the portal here: https://www.cdss.org/resources/how-to/organizers
We’re currently working on expanding the portal to include resources for
callers, dance musicians, song leaders, and more. We’ll be announcing the
launch of those resources through Shop Talk sometime later this fall or
early winter.
Feel free to pass this information onto other organizers in your area if
you think they might be interested.
Thanks!
Emily Addison
<http://www.avg.com/email-signature?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_cam…>
Virus-free.
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At our last contra dance this past Saturday (Playing with Fyre &
Charlotte Crittenden)
we had two adult couples who came to the dance because their teen
children had
been attending and their children (and their teen friends) were so
juiced by our contra dance
that their parents chose to check it out. That makes me happy!
For those of you who have transitioned to ungendered dances, was the transition slow or was it abrupt? Was a vote held by the membership or by the dance committee. Did you experience an increase in attendance or a decrease. We’re the changes due to new dancers coming, members returning or leaving. Any information on the transition would be appreciated.
Thank you
Stan Prince
Tampa Friends of Old~Time Dance, Inc.
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Jack makes a good point - not all crooked tunes are crooked in the same way - so unless you can get the tune structure ahead of time and then look for a dance it won't mess up too bad this will be a difficult thing to do
Mac McKeever
On Thursday, June 27, 2019, 10:56:17 AM CDT, Jack Mitchell <jmitchell.nc(a)gmail.com> wrote:
I once worked with a band that had some crooked Quebecois tunes that they wanted to do. One was A-A-B-0.5B -- so the last phrase was half length. I found a dance that had something that didn't move the dancers anywhere -- long lines, circle L 1x, etc -- in the right place and just removed that from the dance. They also had the crooked version of Fleur de Madrigore which has an extra bar at the end of the A2. I did that with a dance that was not written for crooked tunes, but has an extra allemande 1/2 right there that people are always late finishing. With that tune, the dancers were right on time and everything worked. Beyond that, though, if you have a band that wants to do crooked tunes, learn a few visiting couple squares or southern patter squares that don't need to be right on the phrase and have them use those tunes for the squares.
On Thu, Jun 27, 2019 at 7:46 AM Mac Mckeever via Organizers <organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
There are a couple dances out there written for crooked tunes that are crooked in a specific way (often 2 extra bars in the B part). I tried one once and it just did not feel right. Running a swing longer is also awkward because crooked tunes feel (to the dancers) like the phrase will end at the normal time an then it doesn't - so some will try to move on too early.
Explain this to the band - there are so many great old time tunes that are not crooked.
Mac McKeever
On Thursday, June 27, 2019, 05:46:39 AM CDT, Karlsruhe Contra Dance via Organizers <organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
Hi List,
first, thanks for all of your good input about my 'swing workshop' brainstorm. Have taken note and will definitely use some of your ideas.
My next question is perhaps less of an organizational question and more of a calling question. I hope it is still appropriate here. Do you know of any callers/bands who will play/call to crooked tunes. I have some old-time musicians who like to play for me but don't seem to understand why I insist on them playing straight tunes... (you would be correct in assuming that they are not dancers). Also, it has started to make me feel like a party pooper because they loooove their crooked tunes and want to play them.
I have stayed firm, but I wonder if there is a way I could humor them. I mean, if the swing corresponds to the crooked part, the swing just goes a bit longer, but eee. As a dancer, I just can't image it working. Or maybe I have danced to crooked tunes without even knowing it... Does anyone do this?
thanks,Rebecca Sass
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