A Role By Any Other Name:
An Exploration of Social Dance Role Names
In this exhibit, you’ll find a variety of social dance role name pairings that have been used throughout history and around the world.
Social Dancing
In this first section, we’ll explore role names that have been used across all kinds of social dance.
Later, we’ll explore role names that have been specifically developed for contra dancing.
Homeni & Donne
Homeni & Donne
Origin: These are the role names used in the earliest known dance manual, De Arte Saltandi Et Choreas Ducendi (c. 1450) by Domenico da Piacenza. In 15th century Italian, these names mean “Men” and Women.” (In modern Italian, it would be Uomini & Donne).
Cavaliers & Dames
Cavaliers & Dames
Origin: Historical French terms for the roles. A Cavalier, literally “horseman,” was a gentleman of rank who participated in courtly activities, including dancing.
Notes: If you use Google Translate to explore French dance manuals, don’t be surprised when Cavalier is translated as “knight.” (It used to be translated as “rider”!)
Caballeros & Damas
Caballeros & Damas
Origin: The Spanish equivalent of the French Cavaliers & Dames.
Notes: Google Translate will similarly translate Caballero as “knight.”
Men & Women
Men & Women
Origin: These are the terms used in the earliest social dance descriptions in English, from Playford’s The English Dancing Master (1651). They have been in popular use ever since.
Notes: Interestingly, Playford writes out “Man” or “Men,” but abbreviates woman as “Wo.” and women as “We.”
Gentlemen & Ladies
Gentlemen & Ladies
Origin: While English country dances of the 17th century were described for Men & Women, by the 18th century, court dances were being described for Gentlemen & Ladies.
Notes: Eventually, Gentlemen & Ladies was abbreviated to Gents & Ladies, which is still a common way to describe the roles in a historical dance context today. Some modern women prefer Women to Ladies because they perceive a paternalistic implication in the word Ladies (e.g. that “ladies need to be ladylike”).
Boys & Girls
Boys & Girls
Origin: When teaching to young people, dance instructors have also used these youthful names.
Leaders & Followers
Leaders & Followers
Origin: An early gender-neutral way of the describing the roles.
Notes: The term “leader” first entered the social dance lexicon as a term for someone who leads a group of dancers, e.g., the leader of a Grand March or German. Only later was it applied to one of the roles within the couple.
Leads & Follows
Leads & Follows
Origin: Similar to how Gentlemen was abbreviated to Gents, Leaders & Followers has since been abbreviated to Leads & Follows.
Notes: Leads & Follows have several benefits over Leaders & Followers: (1) they are shorter and more efficient to say, and (2) being slightly removed from the common English words “leader” and “follower,” which have many connotations that become problematic when applied to social dancing (e.g., “leaders” commanding and “followers” obeying), Leads & Follows are new words that can be given their own, more-social-dance-appropriate, meanings. Thus, Leads & Follows are the terms we use in our classes and dance descriptions.
Contra Dancing
In this next section, we’ll explore role names that have been
specifically developed for modern contra dancing.
Bands & Bares
Bands & Bares
Origin: In January 1989, caller Chris Ricciotti introduced the gender-neutral terms Armbands & Barearms (Bands & Bares for short) at the Jamaica Plain (JP) Gay & Lesbian Contra Dance in Boston, Massachusetts. The former “Gents” (or dancers on the left side of the couple) wore armbands, and the former “Ladies” (or dancers on the right side of the couple) did not.
Notes: While historically important, and in use for many years, these names have mostly been replaced by other gender-neutral alternatives, like Larks & R—ns (see below).
Larks & Robins
Larks & Robins
Origin: In 2014, Frannie Marr and Susan Michaels were trying to come up with better role names for the dances they led, and came up with Larks & Robins, choosing Lark to represent the dancer on the Left of the couple (traditionally, the “Gent”), and Robin to represent the dancer on the Right of the couple (traditionally, the “Lady”).
Larks & Ravens
Larks & Ravens
Origin: In late 2014, several Bay Area contra dance groups were looking for alternative role names, and talked to Frannie Marr, who suggested Larks & Robins, or alternatively, Larks & Ravens, if they thought Robins might be confused with the “Mad Robin” figure in contra.
Notes: The use of Ravens has become controversial in some dance communities because of the importance of ravens to indigenous people, particularly the Tlingit people of Southeast Alaska, one of whose moieties (a grouping of clans) is named after the Raven. As a result, proponents of the bird names have mostly returned to the original Larks & Robins.
Larks & Owls
Larks & Owls
Origin: A third iteration on the Larks theme, developed in response to the Ravens controversy.
Notes: Larks & Robins is much more common.
Jets & Rubies
Jets & Rubies
Origin: An alternative to Larks & R—ns, developed around the same time. Jet is a precursor to coal that can be polished into gemstone-like appearance and used in jewelry.
Notes: Some have proposed Gems & Rubies, as Gem is more widely understood word than Jet, but given that Rubies are a subset of Gems, Jets & Rubies is usually preferred. The similarity of Jets (and Gems) to the traditional Gents, and Rubies to the traditional Ladies, can be a plus or a minus, depending on who you ask.
Elms & Maples
Elms & Maples
Origin: Another proposed alternative to Larks & R—ns in contra dancing.
Notes: An alternative to this alternative is Oaks & Maples.
Lefts & Rights
Lefts & Rights
Origin: An obvious solution to taking gender out of a positional dance like contra would be to refer to the dancers’ positions within the couple.
Notes: While this is an obvious solution, the challenge is that left and right already have multiple other means in contra dancing, e.g., rotation (“circle left”) and handedness (“right hand star”). So you’d end up with potential confusing calls like “circle left, rights allemande left, right hand star, lefts allemande right.”
Ports & Starboards
Ports & Starboards
Origin: Like Lefts & Rights, these are positional role names.
Notes: While it solves the “left” and “right” confusion, Starboards includes “star,” which is a family of contra figures.
1s & 2s
1s & 2s
Origin: Another seemingly obvious solution: if you have two roles, number them.
Notes: While obvious, in contra dancing, 1s and 2s already refer to the two couples who interact with each other, so using the same terms to refer to the two dancers in each couple would likely cause confusion.
As & Bs
As & Bs
Origin: If numbers don’t work, why not use letters?
Notes: While we mostly use Leads & Follows, since we mostly do dances that have that dynamic, we also sometimes use As & Bs, for example, if we’re doing an exercise where both dancers will do the same thing in series and we need to designate one of the two dancers to go first.
Giraffes & Lions
Giraffes & Lions
Origin: It’s unclear if this was ever actually used on the dance floor, but it appeared in a spreadsheet created by Ron Blechner to compare various gender-neutral role name options.
[positional calling]
[positional calling]
Updated: June 2026
First Displayed: June 2026