25 Oct
2012
25 Oct
'12
4 a.m.
Bob (and everyone)
This is a great observation, I think from a visitor to your dance
perspective, your dance has a fairly good number of younger dancers. Our
dance for instance has not as much, although we've had an insurgance of
"college age" people in the last couple of years. It's been really nice to
see and dance with that energy! I like the idea of a child caregiver and
might offer that to our board as an option but wanted to share here my
childhood experience with dance. We always went to the local grange hall
for the "dance". It truely was the sort of thing you see in movies and TV
shows, everyone brought food, the band was on a small stage and the caller
"sang out" the dances. Mostly squares but I remember some dances in
lines. We kids played around the fringes, talking, running, eating and
sometimes getting into a dance. The adults didn't worry about
"entertaining" or containing us in an area or even making sure we had
adequate water or food. We all survived, some of us still dance or play
instruments. A return to the old ways may be the best idea, but having
someone to care for the children may meet the needs of the modern parent
better, AND it makes a great advertising opportunity. Where else can you
go, have fun with other adults and not have to worry about what is
happening at home, at an affordable price.
Another thing to note here, get the kds in the dance, engage them. They
may be better dancers than anyone else there! As long as they can follow
direction I say get them on the floor!
Mary
On Tue, Oct 23, 2012 at 1:45 PM, Kalia Kliban <kalia(a)sbcglobal.net> wrote:
One issue that can be a show stopper is that many
dance halls simply don't
have a place that _can_ be a "kid area". A dance series that's lucky
enough to find an affordable hall with a good floor is likely to stop
looking right there. They're ahead of the curve. If the hall has a
kitchen, then that's a major bonus. Any additional social space is a
further bonus, but often unavailable.
It can be fun dancing with folks with babies on board, and one of the most
amazing hambos I ever saw involved two parents with toddlers in backpacks.
If a dance has a space that can be available for kids, then yes, I think
it's a great idea to encourage families to attend and to help them come up
with ways to make the child supervision work within the framework of the
dance. But it's also true that not everybody is wild about toddlers. For
some folks going out to a dance is an adult social activity. Each dance
community needs to find the balance between making the dances accessible
and enjoyable for all the folks, with or without kids, who want to attend,
and that can be a tough balance to find. Sounds like the Gainesville group
has come up with a good system, with an in-house childcare person. What
have other groups done to make it possible for folks with kids to keep
coming to dances?
Kalia
On 10/22/2012 9:15 AM, Andrea Nettleton wrote:
I would not want to see the current crop of
twenty somethings all drop
out for seven years at a stretch once they marry and have kids. I would
love the hear a discussion of creative ways to encourage them to stay.
Some ideas I have had include allowing them to pay less if they cannot
stay to the end or have to take turns sitting out, making a space for kids
available, having community members who know they will not dance all night
sign up to keep an eye on the kid area...
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