Just a quick follow up to my budget question...
How many or you pay for sound vs have volunteers look after that part of
your event?
And if you pay, do you pay over 150$ or under?
We pay our sound guy over 150$ as he does an amazing job and looks after
all the details. And I doubt we'll change that.... he's just too good. :)
However, I'm interested in other models that folks use!
With thanks,
Emily
Ottawa, ON
Want a local dance, but you don't want to produce it, eh?
Import it. Well, for a night or two. Approach another dance community (not necessarily the closest one), and have the organizers of that series produce an event in your town. Do lots of publicity, give a guarantee to the performers, talk it up. At the event(s), solicit people interested in "helping out". From that group, select a committee, work with them a while, and then step back.
What if you are a dancer and you love a particular dance form, but there's just none of it in your area?
AND (here's the tricky part...) what if you feel you have zero time/energy to invest in starting and maintaining a new series yourself?
Any advice for a dancer who wants a dance series to come alive in their area, but isn't able to invest their time/energy/money into creating or sustaining the new series?
- 2014 NEFFA session
** Please RETAIN SUBJECT LINE in all replies! Especially IF YOU GET THE DIGEST! ***
How does one address the problem of the band/caller that "no one" likes?
More specifically, what happens if a band and/or caller "owns" a dance series, but dancers don't want to go to their dances? (For whatever reason - they have subpar skills, they're perceived as curmudgeonly, their repertoire is not popular any more, they're passe aka same old same old, they're unfortunate victims of vagaries of constantly shifting and subjective popular opinion, etc.)
Is this really a problem that other organizers should worry about?
Why or why not?
And if yes, then what should/could another organizer do?
- 2014 NEFFA session
** Please RETAIN SUBJECT LINE in all replies! Especially IF YOU GET THE DIGEST! ***
Booking-related:
How do you manage the (sometimes) delicate task of matching callers and bands?
For example, what if you book a caller, but then find out the already-booked band doesn't want to work with that person?
Besides the strategy of first booking a caller (or band) then asking for confidential suggestions on what bands (or callers) they'd like to work with (or not), how does an organizer handle this sort of "I won't play in the same sandbox as Susie"
syndrome?
What special or particular circumstances would affect your response and/or would guide you to a particular solution?
- 2014 NEFFA session
** Please RETAIN SUBJECT LINE in all replies! Especially IF YOU GET THE DIGEST! ***
Hi folks
I was wondering if you have ever thought about the percentage of people who try out a contra dance at a regular series and come back any time within the next 6 months or so to another contra dance.
Would you say it's 2%? 5%? 10%?
Obviously, it can't be very high, otherwise you'd be overrun with dancers!
I think this topic has come up before but I'm getting tired of spending all day at my computer and searches take so long anyway.......
Paul Rosenberg
Albany, NY
Thought-provoking feedback so far. A few devil's advocate points.
(a) If it's the case of a dance that's already failing to thrive, then why should other organizers feel responsible for not conflicting? I mean, there must be reasons why it's failing to thrive. Perhaps it would be better in the long run to have that dance die altogether.
(b) There are plenty of business models that use the cooperative model (versus cutthroat competitive). Still, I don't quite see the parallel in terms of not competing. I think starting a brand new series (which may or may not succeed, by the way!) in possible competition with an existing series is not at all like, for example, the cutthroat methods of Whole Foods moving in next door to the local food co-op (which had been thriving, but just can't compete with a giant like WF and subsequently goes belly up).
(c) One could also say, if the new series does succeed and ends up bringing in lots of new dancers (as Jeff K pointed out), then it actually could improve the standing of the existing series. (By raising the profile of the dance form in the area, by having the existing series be an alternative to the new one, etc etc.)
(d) If we want to mutually support other organizers, is "not-competing" the best way to do it? If we prop up a losing proposition, then what does that do for the organizing skills of those (possibly ineffective) dance organizers? Should we instead encourage (or, by competing, make it necessary for) them to re-think and re-envision their approach to improve their chances of success?
For the sake of discussion,
Chrissy Fowler
"Dance, when you're broken open... dance, when you're perfectly free" ~ Rumi
chrissyfowler.combelfastflyingshoes.orgwestbranchwords.com
Peter, THANK YOU for posting the link to David's essay. So many spot-on points in that!
http://davidmillstonedance.com/writing/essays/35-essay-hot-dance-philosophty
One thing I have long wondered is this --- Just who is "no one" that is passing judgment? In some ways it brings me right back to 7th grade, when there were always those kids that "no one" liked (cruelly given that status, often by no particular action of their own.)
And why not have different flavors for different people? For example, there are plenty of people who strongly dislike and don't attend the series I co-organize, among them some of my favorite dance partners. But there are others who do like and attend it.
As to the question of bands/callers who own the dance, Merle's point caught my attention -- If a band "no one" likes is willing and able to put on a dance, then more power to them. Even if 15 people attend, then that's 15 people who've done something different than sit in front of their computer on a Saturday night.
And likewise, why couldn't "no one" organize an alternative dance in the area? They already don't want to go to the other dance, and probably many of them don't. Why not have another option for those other people to get out and dance too?
I read lots of David's essays, so it might have been a different one that made the point about having it be "normal" to play fiddle tunes. But I think the same way about dancing. Wouldn't it be awesome if there were so much dancing in the area that people thought it was "normal"?
One more thing about community-mindedness. I agree with Perry that this is an important aspect of our dance forms. Still, I think it's okay for people to want different things.
Yours in pondering,
Chrissy Fowler
"Dance, when you're broken open... dance, when you're perfectly free" ~ Rumi
chrissyfowler.combelfastflyingshoes.orgwestbranchwords.com
