The post on walk-throughs for new dancers got me thinking about
recruiting new dancers. This straddles dance caller and dance
organizer, but I'd like to hear people's responses.
I'm curious about people's experiences recruiting new dancers. I've
seen several dances that do a lower cost for first time dancers to try
to lower the barrier for entry. Has any group tried doing a coupon for
a discount when they come back a second time?
I feel like the venues for dances are usually such that folks don't
randomly wander in. If folks show up for a first time, they've decided
to come (or were brought). Does knowing there is a discount for first
timers help make them come? When there is a discount, how often do the
first timers know that coming in? I'm pondering the scenario where you
charge full price for the first time, when they've committed to coming
out, and then give them a coupon to come back at a discount price
their second time.
I know a lot of people who tried contra once and were hooked, and I've
seen people who try for a little bit and then never come back. Is it
worth trying to up the likelihood of a second experience, at what
fractional cost for the first? Or should the focus be on that first
experience, and making the barriers for entry as low as possible?
If a group has the resources, then it can just say that the first two
dances are cheaper, but I feel like giving someone a reminder,
business card sized, with the website to check for more information,
is a nice way of having them think about the dance at least once more.
Do callers doing one night gigs announce local dance options if they
know them? Or do you only talk about it with the folks who come up and
ask? Presumably if a caller has been brought in, the organizer of the
party knows the folks at the party and the local dance scene. Is it on
the caller or the organizer to spread information about other chances
to dance? And do you broadcast wide, or focus on the folks who seem
really in to it. I think culturally, at a societal level, we've lost
the sense that we can dance after our 20s at things besides weddings,
which is a real shame.
--
Luke Donev
http://www.lukedonev.com
Luke.Donev(a)gmail.com
Thanks for the clarification, JoLaine! This is exactly how I interpreted the concept in the first place: not an evil hazing but a good-natured game among dance-loving youth...another potentially effective vehicle like the "ants, pants" thing. This is the kind of fraternity I would have jumped at. Maybe it takes a younger guy like me to see all that, but I didn't think so.
I really like the idea of a fraternity built around social dancing rather than drinking, mischief and all the rest. In a way, I think many of us profound gypsies could say we have something of an adult fraternity, maybe making up for what we didn't have in our college experience (at least in my case).
I'm still laughing inside at the very idea of an old-school sadistic hazing-type frat taking any interest whatsoever in contra dancing. If they wanted to be evil about it, why not make them wear a skirt to a less friendly context...maybe a dance club. Then again, I could picture them getting bounced at the door, so maybe not.
Yes, folks, I'd say this is humor - not humiliation. Now the question is whether the idea of a contra fraternity might spread to other campuses...
-----Original Message-----
From: "JoLaine Jones-Pokorney" <jolaine(a)gmail.com>
First let it be said that the frat guy who came up with the idea thought the
pledges would find it fun, not humiliating. His idea was that they would
LIKE contra and want to keep coming. Why would it be humiliating to join in
a group where there are others dressed in the same way and doing the same
thing? Its not like asking a guy to wear a skirt to the mall or church.
In the conversation, there were lots of ideas thrown around. Perhaps none of
it will happen.
First let it be said that the frat guy who came up with the idea thought the
pledges would find it fun, not humiliating. His idea was that they would
LIKE contra and want to keep coming. Why would it be humiliating to join in
a group where there are others dressed in the same way and doing the same
thing? Its not like asking a guy to wear a skirt to the mall or church.
In the conversation, there were lots of ideas thrown around. Perhaps none of
it will happen.
JoLaine
We are a college town - Gainesville FL - and have had very few young people
until recently when a committed contra dancer moved here from SC to go to
school and came to dance with us. She started a club on campus and now we
have dances on campus as well as our regular dances and are having a good
turnout of all ages to all the dances.
It was a little slow at first. The on-campus dances would have more
"geezers" than young people, but as long as there were several young people,
that was enough to keep them interested and coming back. The thing that got
the most young people coming was the techno contra. We would always have
techno contra at the break with blacklight and mirror balls and glow-stick
bracelets, etc. Last month, they held their first all techno dance and had
100 people, many from other universities across the state.
The young folks are coming up with all kinds of great ideas now. One guy is
in a fraternity and they are going to require their new pledges to come to a
contra dance in a skirt.
We also have a young person who is becoming a really fine caller and also
young musicians. We try as often as is possible to get the young caller and
band for the campus dance. For the others, we are looking at the most
high-energy bands. One band plays a medley of Beatles tunes that is always
a hit. Others have electric guitars, or other electronic instruments that
interest the young people.
Early on, we talked about a flash-mob on campus, but all agreed that it
would be counter productive if all the flash mob participants were
"geezers." We might as well hang up a sign that said: "Demonstration of
what you wouldn't be caught DEAD doing this weekend!!!" If you're going to
do a flash-mob to attract young people, you must have young people doing it!
I love the "ants-pants-contra dance" idea! We'll use that on campus!
One thing that I am very pleased about is that our dances are now truly
inter-generational. We have children through seniors and everyone dances
with everyone.
--
JoLaine Jones-Pokorney
"We are as gods and might as well get good at it!"
- Stewart Brand
-----Original Message-----
Date: Thursday, September 22, 2011 12:41:25 am
To: "Caller's discussion list" <callers(a)sharedweight.net>
From: "Greg McKenzie" <grekenzie(a)gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Callers] Recruiting new dancers
Thank You Richard for this topic.
You did a great job of describing the situation. Word of mouth is key. All
of the other methods of "getting the word out" are ancillary at best and
should be regarded as serving to support the word of mouth effort. Flyers,
for example, are there to remind folks of what they heard from someone else
and substantiate the reference they have heard. This is one reason I think
flyers should be limited to only the vital information needed to
participate. Flyers work better when they do *not *attempt to persuade
anyone or tell them *why *they should attend. In a similar vein flyers
should also not attempt to describe or define the dance. Assume that the
reader has already heard about the dance from a friend or an acquaintance.
Using some reverse psychology is important. If the reader thinks the flyer
is "begging" for new participants it can be a turn off. In this respect
small dances might consider setting an exclusive tone in the sense that it
is a "best kept secret" rather than a poorly attended dance. I have seen
this work for small dances in our area. When dancers "discover" a small
dance and view it as a private secret other dancers become very interested.
Some dancers will keep the secret for fear that lots of new people will
destroy the "charm" of the small dance. This also works for newcomers.
You are absolutely correct about the role of young people. Here in Santa
Cruz, CA the area dance society has welcomed young people to become key
players in the dance community. Several are on the Board of Directors,
several are musicians at dances, and at least one is a caller.
I don't, by the way, view this process as one of "recruiting" new dancers.
I view it as a way of opening the dance events to the wider community. That
is a different perspective. If we view the dance as a community social
event the goal shifts from one of attempting to convert newcomers into dance
enthusiasts to one of simply opening the dance to a more diverse and
interesting community of participants. An effort to "convert" people or
"get them hooked" requires too much energy and is not consistent with the
explicit message that "all are welcome" and "no experience is needed."
- Greg McKenzie
On Wed, Sep 21, 2011 at 8:21 PM, Richard Hart <rich(a)harts.mv.com> wrote:
> Luke,
>
> While looking through old email messages, I found your query about new
> dancers and the thread of responses. I'd never read them until now (think I
> was away then), so forgive me my considerable delay in responding. I attend
> and call a number of dances in New Hampshire, and a few in Mass. and VT, as
> well. Some are fairly small, while others are much larger. Here are a few of
> my observations on this subject of attracting new dancers.
>
> 1. I have often asked new dancers how they heard about the dance and came
> to try it out. At least 95% of the time, the new dancers say that they came
> with a friend who recommended it to them. Most of the rest were existing
> da
--- Luke wrote:
I'm now wondering how many active contra dance callers are out there... I'm guessing
somewhere between 100 and 1000 (for an order of magnitude).
--- end of quote ---
The higher end of your range is probably correct. The Dance Gypsy lists 534 individuals
as leaders of contra dance. Charlie Seelig's dance pages shows just under 500
callers, though that list includes some who are not in the US and some who are
callers of squares or English country dance but not contras.
As an interesting pint of comparison, to illustrate how excited the Danes have
been about contras and traditional squares, in that country of about 5.5. million
people, over the last 30 years about 500 people have been trained as callers.
In any given year, there are about 60-75 active callers.
David Millstone
Lebanon, NH
Hello all,
I was wondering what fraction of callers have called for festivals? It seems
like nice information to have for folks as the develop as callers, and
Shared-Weight seemed a good place to do a quick informal poll.
To prevent flooding the list with lots of responses, please respond directly
to me at
Luke.Donev(a)gmail.com
I'll compile all the answers I get and send a summary to the list once the
responses peter out.
I'm going to arbitrarily define a festival as six or more hours of dancing,
and I'm interested in folks who have called for at least an hour (as opposed
to open mics and such, which are great, but different).
If this information has already been compiled, please respond with that
information.
Thanks!
--
Luke Donev
Luke.Donev(a)gmail.com
Perhaps if someone is curious enough to dance in virtual reality then they
might be curious enough to try it in real life. I guess the challenge is
to get them to step away from their computer. Uummm, I'll step away in
just another minute...
Donna Hunt
"Life may not be the party we hoped for, but while we're here we should
dance." -unknown
In a message dated 9/19/2011 5:36:01 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
cmbaker(a)tiac.net writes:
On Sep 16, 2011, at 12:51 PM, Chip Hedler wrote:
> (Bizarre aside: anyone remember Second Life? Wouldn't it be cool if you
> could program avatars to do dance moves and have a virtual contra dance,
or
> test dance sequences? Actually, forget that! It's totally against what I
> value about real dancing! )
I sent the following e-mail to the MWSD caller's list on April 1, 2010...
Begin forwarded message:
> From: Clark Baker <cmbaker(a)tiac.net>
> Date: April 1, 2010 12:37:41 AM EDT
> To: sd-callers(a)all8.com
> Subject: Square Dancing in Second Life
>
> With the box office success of Avatar, you may be interested in my
experiences taking square dancing to Second Life. In this virtual world, users
(residents) can interact with each other through avatars. Residents can
explore, meet other residents, socialize, participate in individual and
group activities, and create and trade virtual property and services with one
another, or travel throughout the world.
>
> Second Life has an internal currency, the Linden dollar (L$). L$ can be
used to buy, sell, rent or trade land or goods and services with other
users. L$ can be purchased using US Dollars and other currencies on the
LindeX exchange provided by Linden Lab, independent brokers or other resident
users.
>
> I put two and two together and created a square dance hall and offer
square dance lessons. People pay in L$ but I have made enough to make more
teaching dancing in Second Life than at some dances in the real world! I
know that some of you are going to say that teaching square dancing in virtual
reality doesn't count, and that the computer users should meet and
interact with real people. However, I believe that they are square dancing, and
any kind of square dancing is better than nothing.
>
> Let us know what you think.
--
Clark Baker, Belmont, MA
cmbaker(a)tiac.net
_______________________________________________
Callers mailing list
Callers(a)sharedweight.net
http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers
7 years ago, I sent out the first invitation e-mails asking people to
join a new discussion group called SharedWeight. Since then, the site
has become about much more than helping new callers. We've added lists
dedicated to helping organizers and musicians. And yesterday we added
the WebContent list that already has 40 members in the last 26 hours.
Seth and I are beyond pleased that so many of you have found the lists
to be valuable resources and have built a supportive community dedicated
to sharing information. Thank you all for your participation (even if
it's just lurking!).
So, Happy Birthday to all of us! With many more to come.
Chris Weiler and Seth Seeger
SharedWeight admins
