[Organizers] Children at Contradance Festivals

The surveys from the recent Rochester Contra/Swing Thanksgiving weekend had 2 individual comments regarding children making the dancing less enjoyable. The circumstances were regarding a child (5 years old) who was *forced* to dance by his parent, in the *evening* contra and afternoon English dance. The child is capable with modest dances, but the evening dances are more complicated, and the English dance is all about timing and style. The board decided that our community wants to encourage young dancers, so excluding them from the floor was not an option. We also wanted to respect the expectations of the folks who come to a festival for higher quality dancing than is had a regular weekly dances. We decided to create a "child friendly" line at the side of the hall, have the caller announce it occasionally, and put a big sign on the wall at the head of that line. Does anyone else out there have thoughts about this? Has the "child-friendly" line been tried? Did it meet with success? Does it wind up being empty? Are there other dances where children are excluded? Thanks in advance. Bob ************************************** See AOL's top rated recipes (http://food.aol.com/top-rated-recipes?NCID=aoltop00030000000004)