To the Flurry Community:
In my closing speech at the Flurry, in attempts to use humor, I made a negative comment about my distaste for using larks and robins as calling terms, and used an ironically meant dance call that normalized the sexualization of contra dancing.
Though this was not my intention, this made some dancers feel less safe, and because of my prominent role as a founder, raised questions about the Flurry’s commitment to gender-neutral calling and to a consent-based dance culture. I am sorry to have had these effects on members of a dance community that I founded and care about deeply.
For the last 50 years, my way of coping with a scary and distressful world has been to insert humor to keep my sanity and to keep community dancing joyful and light. In most of my experience, this approach has worked to help put dancers into a jovial state and to deflate their – and my own – anxiety. I now realize, though, that those specific kinds of humorous remarks are not appropriate at any public gathering and I apologize for being insensitive.
I place a high value on fostering a diverse, consensual, and inclusive culture at the festival, and recognize the importance of using language that is supportive of that. I have been a decades-long supporter of gender neutral calling (though I do prefer the “positional calling” approach), and personally introduced “armband” gender-neutral calling to the Flurry in the 1990s.
Many people have worked for a long time to make the dance space safe from unwanted advances and promote a consent-based environment, and I do not want to send us backward in that process.
I have drifted away from calling at contras, but it has been an honor to call the final dance at the Flurry every year, a tradition since 1988. As a result of my soul-searching and discussions with my support system, it is time for me to “let go” and end the tradition of giving a Flurry closing message and calling the final contra.
Paul Rosenberg, May 2025
Who is Paul Rosenberg?
For decades Paul Rosenberg has been an activist for social justice and peace, and determinedly passionate about the way dance can bring people together in community. In 1986 he founded the DanceFlurry Organization (originally the Hudson Mohawk Traditional Dancers), whose mission is to “present and promote live traditional music and dance and to expand participatory dancing opportunities in the Capital region,” and served as its president for 11 years. Paul was a contra dance caller from 1986 to 2010. He now calls for school residencies, family dances, community dances, and private parties, and has run a monthly Family Dance series in Albany since 1994.
Paul started the Flurry in 1988 with support from the local dance community, and served as Program and Administrative Director until 2005. From Flurry’s founding, Paul has worked to make it a haven for diversity. Among early programming was African dance, middle eastern dance, storytelling, and dances and music from Latin America, Asia, and Indigenous cultures, which were supported by grants Paul applied for yearly from the New York State Council on the Arts.
As the festival grew, Paul added programming aimed at bringing in more families and teens, including hip hop dance and contras danced to hip hop music, the Vanaver Caravan teen performance troupe, and regional youth fiddle groups. Starting in the early 1990s, Paul began calling gender neutral dances, and brought this tradition to Flurry. While continuing to perform as a family and community dance leader at the festival and acting as advisor to the planning committee, Paul has also been a constant cheerleader for Flurry throughout the years, connecting the festival with media and funding opportunities, and currently serving as honorary chair of the DanceFlurry Organization’s Endowment Committee.
The Flurry Managers Reflect:
Paul’s words at the end of the 2025 Flurry touched nerves for some folks, and we want to acknowledge this and recognize that public-facing language is inherently powerful, and can be received in differing ways depending on personal context. What is poignantly humorous for one may cut deeply for another, and words that may sound natural at one point in time or to one identity can feel labored or inappropriate in another era or to different ears. We as Flurry organizers value how our community’s feedback and constructive criticism create opportunities for reflection, dialogue, and growth, just as we encourage consideration for differing personal contexts, and appreciation for the intentions behind the words. Those who know Paul know that respect for the experience of all, inclusivity, and a culture of belonging are fundamental to his worldview and vision for the Flurry, regardless of the specific language he chose.
The Flurry Festival is fundamentally about building community through dance and music, and diversity, curiosity, and engagement are what keep communities vibrant. From Flurrygoers who have been with us since the first festival in 1988 to those newly attending, the festival has touched thousands of people’s lives throughout the years. Contra dancers in particular have seen all sorts of customs and verbiage come and go, as the genre continuously adapts to meet the needs and norms of the current moment. As in any dynamic community, each change will feel welcoming to some and confusing to others; comfortable, liberating, or stifling based on one’s prior history with the dance form, personal characteristics, and local community. The place of Flurry in our lives and our hearts is unique to each person, and it’s this earnest coming together of so many differing investments and interests – sometimes harmoniously and sometimes in turbulent motion – that strengthens the Flurry community and makes it such a marvelous place to call home for a weekend.
Over the past few years, Flurry has chosen to adopt Larks and Robins terminology for contra dances, recognizing that these terms foster the broadest inclusion of participants while remaining adaptable to anyone choosing any role. Changes in other dance genres are also taking place organically, at the pace and under the direction of those most steeped in them. Some callers or dancers prefer alternate nongendered terms, and some prefer positional calling, all of which have the same inclusive objective. Others find greater comfort in traditional gendered calling, a personal preference we understand, even as we no longer use it for contra at Flurry.
While mindful of each attendee’s distinctive relationship with this festival, there are common values we as organizers strive to promote: being welcoming of anyone who wants to participate – regardless of age, ability, identity, politics, or dance preferences; and prioritization of the safety and wellbeing of all our members through an emphasis on thoughtfulness, communication, and consent. Even as many of us hold differing opinions on what “tradition” means and how they should evolve, we recognize that traditions are meant to serve their communities, and must continually reshape themselves to approximate the best fit for the particular moment in time, place, and community we share. In this spirit of evolving traditions, Flurry is exploring new formats for Sunday’s closing session.
Respect is the north star to guide interactions within all aspects of the Flurry community – on the dance floor, bumping into each other in the hallways, and in our conversations throughout the year. We hope you will tell your stories to each other, listen closely to those that are different from yours, and remember that Flurry is something unique to each person that you meet, yet likely as dear to them as it is to you. We encourage community members to cultivate patience as you ask about and reflect on the experiences of others, honoring their hopes, wants, and needs with the same care you expect others to honor yours. Flurry is a festival of constant motion and many voices: not always in harmony, but always turning toward each other as friends and neighbors, ready to take hands, listen, value each other, and learn.
The Flurry Festival’s Culture of Consent policy is located at https://www.flurryfestival.org/about/culture-of-consent/.