Many men fear the D-word ("dancing? err....") Women who want to invite men should say "Hey, want to come to a PARTY with me?" -------------------- Lindsay Morris CEO, TSMworks Tel. 1-859-539-9900 lindsay(a)tsmworks.com On Thu, Apr 29, 2010 at 1:47 PM, Luke Donev <luke.donev(a)gmail.com> wrote: _______________________________________________ Callers mailing list Callers(a)sharedweight.net http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers

Luke and everybody, Several communities have ways of doing this. Some let first-timers in for free, and yes, there are dances that give coupons for the second dance free (Glenside, PA does that, and so does one of the Glen Echo dances, I think). One thing that has worked for our dances is giving free admission to any experienced dancer who brings a newcomer to the introductory lesson (and all newcomers get in free at the intro lesson). This policy does two things: it encourages people in general to make it for the lesson, and also gives experienced dancers an incentive to bring friends who don't dance. Most of the people I know who got hooked on contra dancing came when a friend brought them. I think a beginner usually has a better experience when they're there for the intro session, too, so we hit two birds with one arrow. -Dave On Thu, Apr 29, 2010 at 1:47 PM, Luke Donev<luke.donev(a)gmail.com> wrote:

Thanks for all the input on walk-throughs -- lots to think about! I know that this is slightly off-topic, but I wanted to share a different angle on recruiting new dancers -- the slow way! We started a monthly dance a few years ago. As our principal goal as an organizing group was to build community, right from the first dance we made it VERY family-friendly: - we offer a local-foods vegetarian dinner as part of the price of admission (soup, bread, cheese, prepared by rotating local volunteers, often with ingredients from different folks' gardens, root cellars, etc) - we built the schedule around families: dinner served any time from 530-7:30, family dance from 6-7:30, dessert potluck and break 7:30-8, contra dance 8-10:30 - during the break we sometimes feature local kids performing traditional music, or a jam - we charge $8 for the evening (dinner and/or dances, whenever you arrive), but kids and teens (18 and under) are free - we have a local business sponsor (compost and recycling company) who sponsors the cost of the hall and some of the PR - we have worked hard to be cool for area high school students, using whatever connections we can - we send out little poetic reminders each month, and have benefitted from a very supportive local press On the plus side, this strategy has resulted in strong consistent participation in our family dance, with many of the high school students going on to play in their own bands and dance regularly in their new college towns (including two who are doing a trad music tour of Ireland as I write!) We have found that our dance is particularly appealing to Waldorf School families and home-schoolers, but we have also enjoyed strong participation from families of the small public schools in our rural region. We have recently been asked to join our local sustainability initiative, as an example of using the arts to build community sustainability. I feel really great about the new dancers I believe we are churning out into the world and I hope that many of you find it easy to recruit them to your dances! On the challenge side, we have had a harder time building momentum with the contra dance part of our evening, though I have to say, we have always had enough folks for a fun dance. With the mixture of new dancers, lingering families, high school age folks, we haven't been able to provide the kind of scene dance gypsies seem to prefer, but we have had some very kind and generous experienced dancers frequent our dance and they seem to enjoy the challenge of keeping it all moving. I have considered booting the kids out during the break when we switch to contra dances, but many of them are becoming good enough dancers that it just doesn't feel right, though I am aware that this shifts our dynamic away from appealing to singles, etc. Instead, our committee has made a big push to pull in people who don't think of themselves as dancers, ex the sustainability crowd, or the church choir crowd, and so far that's keeping the lines pretty full. Delia <>:<>:<>:<>:<>:<>:<>:<>:<> Delia Clark PO Box 45 Taftsville, VT 05073 802-457-2075 deliaclark8(a)gmail.com _______________________________________________ Callers mailing list Callers(a)sharedweight.net http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers

It's the hot-shots who turn up their noses at anything less than the perfect contra dance experience, and you can do without them - I expect there are plenty of other places they can go.

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 dancers visiting or recently moved here from out of state, where they had danced before. 2. I don't know if I have ever head a new dancer say they came because of an ad in a newspaper, a poster in a store or library, or an announcement on the radio. A positive TV report, or front page newspaper report may bring a few, but those reports are usually few and far between. Word of mouth from existing satisfied dancers is really the primary way that new dancers arrive at out dances. 3. Because word of mouth is so important, small dances are already at a disadvantage because there are fewer dancers there who might bring friends. Children (and grandchildren) of existing dancers are sometimes the key to developing a group of younger dancers at a dance. This has often been the case here. 4. The biggest dances here are those that have attracted a lot of younger dancers (high school, college age, 20-somethings). Younger dancers almost always come with friends, or plan to meet them at the dance. Kids who are too young to drive will usually bring their parents or older siblings. Finally younger dancers always add a lot of energy to a dance. They almost always make a dance livelier and more attractive to other and older dances. It seems to be almost always the case that if you can get the younger dancer to come to a dance, others will follow. 5. So, how do you get the younger dancer to come to a dance, and keep them coming back? I think that one key is to help them think that the dance is THEIR dance. Let them join the band and play some of the music. Teach them to call, if they want to do that. Email them flyers to post at school or to give to friends. Ask them to design a flyer for the dance. Lower the price for students and kids, or make it free for those who bring a friend for the first time. Ask them what dances and tunes they prefer, and do those dances. 6. I think that some of our contra dances here are the first place where many teens speak with adults on an equal basis. It's a social situation where they have some control over what they do and what happens, perhaps the first in their lives. That is if the dance organizers allow them that control and also ask for their help in making the dance fun, and a success. If the caller or dance organizers appear more like a teacher or disciplinarian, they may not come back. 7. That said, we must also remind dancers, both young and old to keep things safe for all. Keep time with the music, and watch out for dancers who might be out of place, or a little slower , such as a young child, someone with an injury, or an older dancer. Don't talk down to the younger dances or single them out; simply remind everyone that we are there to have fun, and we must also watch out for the safety of others. That's all that's necessary 99% of the time. Finally, we hope to show how this has happened a number of times at one dance here as part of the retrospective at the Ralph Page Dance Legacy Weekend in January. Watch for a new website for the weekend shortly. Enough for now, Rich Hart. Luke Donev remarked on 4/29/2010 1:47 PM: ______________________________**_________________ Callers mailing list Callers(a)sharedweight.net http://www.sharedweight.net/**mailman/listinfo/callers<http://www.shared…

So what's the best way or ways to recruit younger dancers. We have a college community, or more than one, here. I have tried to think how to attract them but it all seems lame. The best I can come up with is a flash dance on common ground. The colleges aren't geared to our types of music or dance so it's hard to approach it from that aspect. Ideas??? ~ When I dance, I cannot judge, I cannot hate, I cannot separate myself from life. I can only be joyful and whole, that is why I dance. ~Hans Bos~ ~ > ________________________________ > From: Greg McKenzie&lt;grekenzie(a)gmail.com&gt; > To: Caller's discussion list&lt;callers(a)sharedweight.net&gt; > Sent: Thursday, September 22, 2011 12:41 AM > 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

Just to set a record straight, I believe it was Spider Vetter who came up with the "Ants-Pants-Contradance" idea. My kid went to UChicago about the time she started the UChicago dance, and I heard the story back then. It was such a great idea I've been bragging on her ever since, and feel she should be given a whole bunch of credit from us! Here's what she said when I checked with her about it: That's absolutely true. I came up with the Ants-Pants-Contra dance promotion idea in November of 2001, and put it into circulation for the Hyde Park contra dance in the first week of January 2002. We accompanied the flyer with a huge campaign of sidewalk chalk, all around the University of Chicago campus, which Jena Barchas Lichtenstein and I spent several hours doing one cold January night in the snow. The flyers went up the same night. The guerilla approach to advertising was a huge success--the next day, people were talking about it nonstop, and I believe we had almost 80 attendees at the dance, most of them just interested parties who didn't have any idea what the event was. This was, incidentally, right around the time that we started holding the Hyde Park dances consistently every month, so the Hyde Park dance is now almost 10 years old. I met Julia Nickles only once, at a New Year's Eve party at the end of 2004. At that time, she was interested in new ideas to promote the dance at Brown, which she had just become involved with. I told her about my experience with the Hyde Park dance, and about some of my ideas, and I suggested that she try something like that. Julia asked if she could use some of my ideas and I said "sure, they seem to have worked in Chicago." Not a Big Deal, and Julia deserves a lot of credit, too, for getting the idea well-promoted. Spider also taught me NOT to tell people that "contra dancing is sort of like square dancing." Sometimes, she won't even tell people what it is. "You have to show up to find out," she'll say, or "it's fun dancing to live music." M E _______________________________________________ Callers mailing list Callers(a)sharedweight.net http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers

Luke, While looking through old email messages, I found your query about new dancers