Bob Kanefsky interview cont'd

Dancing

When I tell filkers that my other major hobby is gay square dancing, they often ask, "How could that work? Isn't that a contradiction in terms?" And my answer is, "Funny, they ask me the same thing about science fiction folksinging." Square dancing is a puzzle I get to work with seven other people to solve to the beat of the music, and I no more think of the "gent" and "lady" in a square as having anything to do with gender than I would try to role-play the "king" and "queen" on a chess board. In Challenge square dancing, you spend much more time thinking about being in the center of an ocean wave or the box inside a galaxy than about whether you're a lady or a gent, which only matters for a few calls.

That's how I usually think of it, anyway. At other times I think that's a lie. Ever since I first square danced in second grade, I've gotten a special kick out of Gents Star Left (or was it an Allemande Thar?), the only time the boys got to touch each other. To this day I still especially enjoy that call when I'm dancing as a gent, at least if the other gents also happen to be men. I sometimes think I'd rather be in an Allemande Thar with a guy I like, with both of us dancing as gents, than to be his partner. So much for my claim about ignoring the gender roles.

I only know about four other people who are both square dancers and filkers, but just to show that I don't write my songs with mass appeal in mind, I've got one filksong about square dancing: “Star Tip” . Although it portrays intolerant paleo-square-dancers oppressing paleo-pagans, one verse is almost entirely comprised of modern square dance calls. Few people will appreciate it, but I couldn't resist. Maybe I was practicing for “Tribble Gumbo” .