The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #168985   Message #4083096
Posted By: Mo the caller
12-Dec-20 - 09:32 AM
Thread Name: Stripping the Willow
Subject: RE: Stripping the Willow
I wonder it the groom every spoke to the best man again. Sure the brides grandmother didn't.

Yes Mr Sandman. Country Dance can mean whatever you want it to mean. When I was younger I saw it as partly playacting a more chivalrous age, flirting with the knowledge that it wouldn't be taken as meaning anything. A younger generation see flirting on the dance floor as 'creepy'. And they are keen to be inclusive so some try to avoid using gendered terms. That can't be a bad thing, though it is something that some find it hard to get used to after years of dancing to gendered calling.
In any case gender-free dancing is not uncommon. At many dances women (willing to get up and dance) greatly outnumber men. If there are many young children it can be an advantage to arrange the sets differently. And soldiers and colonist danced with few women.