<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=us-ascii"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;">Alan,<div><br></div><div>I went to the demo contra last year. I had only been doing contra for a year and found it a little intimidating to ask strangers out of the crowd to join us. </div><div>For me, it would've been great to add in the FB announcement a little blurb about having experienced dancers ask the crowd to join before each dance. That way those of us who might be intimidated by that can prepare a little mentally for the task..... I love the ideas Linda wrote for an initial crowd gathering technique. </div><div><br></div><div>I'd also really LOVE to do a REAL flash mob contra sometime, and maybe we can get someone to do a nice video for BACDS. Could be a fabulous promo. </div><div>It would be cool to start with a violin and 2 couples , then have folks/musicians dribble in by 1s or 2s. Obviously everyone knows the first dance by heart already. Then the caller comes at the end to start a new dance! </div><div><br></div><div>Thanks for doing that again Alan! Looks like a great time. </div><div><br></div><div>Claire Takemori </div><div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>Message: 1<br>Date: Sun, 26 Jul 2015 20:52:13 -0700<br>From: Alan Winston via Callers <<a href="mailto:callers@lists.sharedweight.net">callers@lists.sharedweight.net</a>><br>To: <<a href="mailto:callers@lists.sharedweight.net">callers@lists.sharedweight.net</a>><br>Subject: [Callers] "Flash Mob" dances<br>Message-ID: <<a href="mailto:55B5AAED.4020808@slac.stanford.edu">55B5AAED.4020808@slac.stanford.edu</a>><br>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"; format=flowed<br><br>Over in San Jose we've just done a second annual not-really-flash-mob <br>dance. Symphony Silicon Valley does a free public series of Pops <br>concerts, get permission from them, pick one, get a bunch of volunteer <br>dancers and a pickup band, print up some flyers and put up a sign with <br>the sponsoring organization logo and URL, We put up a sign with the name <br>of the organization, set up in the path of foot traffic to the concert <br>spot, and do an hour and a half (or so) of easy contra dances, <br>encouraging passersby to join in and hooking them up with <br>more-experienced partners.<br><br>This is successful in terms of getting some exposure, and today we got <br>somewhere between a half-dozen and a dozen new people to actually try <br>it, and probably moved 25 flyers. Nobody got hurt, some of the dancers <br>stayed for several dances, etc. We flushed out some old square dancers <br>(who of course wanted to swing once around and wait for the next call) <br>and some previous non-dancers of various ages.<br><br>(I was calling. First round was missing many volunteer dancers and had <br>multiple newbies, so I did a one-night-stand dance ("Up the Sides and <br>Down the Middle") rather than a duple-minor contra; then Cranky <br>Ingenuity, Inflation Reel, Kitchen Stomp, and Delphiniums and Daisies.)<br><br>Posting to ask if people who've done this kind of thing have any tips or <br>tricks to get things going.<br><br>As caller I relied on my volunteer dancers to do the recruiting, and <br>people had different comfort and skill levels doing that. Is there <br>something I can tell them that will increase their comfort in talking to <br>strangers?<br><br>Thanks!<br><br>-- Alan<br></div></div></body></html>