Hi Mary,
A few thoughts about ways we seek to engage young people in trad participatory social dance:
- Belfast Flying Shoes--our local dance organization, and a 501(c)(3) through affiliation with CDSS--helps fund contra dance residencies in schools. In recent years, that's really expanded via generous foundation grants. Since our dance series inception (2005), we've been part of residencies in over 20 K-5 or K-8 schools, 3-5 Middle or High schools, and a few small K-12 schools. Most residencies are multiple visits, with a culminating school/family dance. We give out passes to our local dance via those residencies. And lately we've also been distributing teaching resources for interested educators who might want to continue dancing w the students after the musicians and I are gone.
- We had two teens on our board for 2-3 years (there were pros and cons, but it was a good step to take, and overall a big plus.)
- This past fall, by request, we sponsored a weekly 'contra class' for teens. Small numbers but high level of engagement.
And we just have a lot of young people at our dances. Our 12-21yo cohort is huge. But that's all word of mouth. Locally there is a sizeable 'alt schooling' population (Waldorf, Montessori, homeschool, other) and that may be part of it, although there are teens from the local public schools too.
- The last four years, we also have collaborated with a local youth organization (non-electronic games, such as role-playing), adding a contra dancing component to their role-playing history programs.
But... Who knows why young people attend our dances in such numbers. Clearly they're having fun. Beyond that, hard to tell.
We're building on this though, and have three new outreach programs for 2018, all incorporating young people to some degree. The one I'm most excited about is a panel discussion, which we'll record for posterity, of young people in their teens and 20s explaining more about why they choose to make contra dancing part of their social lives. I'm super-curious to hear what they have to say!
Cheers,
Chrissy
________________________________
From: Mary Collins <nativedae(a)gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, December 19, 2017 4:48 PM
To: Chrissy Fowler
Subject: Re: [Organizers] Lower attendance this year?
Chrissy,
How exactly are you reaching those young people?
Mary -Buffalo NY
On Dec 6, 2016 10:47 AM, "Chrissy Fowler via Organizers" <organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net<mailto:organizers@lists.sharedweight.net>> wrote:
Interesting data so far! Are there dances out there that have seen an INCREASE in average attendance in the last year?
Besides asking for help from the "converted", perhaps we need to increase our reach to the non-dancer community to boost the pool of potential attendees for a given dance. (Meaning, somehow become more visible to the majority of people in our geographic area - the non-dancers - so that we get our message out to those non-dancers who would want to come to our dance if they only knew about it.)
In Belfast, we've got a major component for outreach to youth (schools, youth programming) but we could do more to raise the visibility of both our series and our organization.
Any brainstorms for potential efforts to support sustainability?
Cheers,
Chrissy Fowler
Belfast, ME
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Thanks for all input so far. I expect it will help inform our board discussions.
Anyone else?
Cheers,
Chrissy (for Belfast Flying Shoes, in Belfast ME)
Hi all,
At the Rochester NY monthly Contra Planning meeting, I took the action item to post here the following requests:
1) Please make sure to include the TOWN where your event is happening, prominently listed on any flyers
2) Our flyer table is getting very, very busy...can people consider 1/2 page flyers?
We purge flyers weekly (I use the scrap, if I can, otherwise recycle it.)
How do others manage the growing tide of paper?
Bob Fabinski
We're curious about how other dance organizers handle the task of sitting at the door and taking money.
Who does it?
- organizers?
- volunteers?
- a mix?
- nobody?
- how many people at a time?
How is it done?
- scheduling people to do the task (how?)
- vetting/soliciting the vols (any parameters?)
- how long does each person sit at door on a given dance eve?
- any compensation/barter?
Other relevant info?
Thanks,
Belfast Flying Shoes board of directors
Belfast, ME
In Rochester NY, at our weekly Thursday Contra and Sunday English dances,
we use the honor system. The cashbox is at the door inside the hall, where everyone can see who is at it.
They are small-ish dances, about 50-60 people on average, and mostly regulars.
We speak to all new dancers at the break and give a "next-time-free" pass,
and use this as an opportunity to remind them to "pay this time."
We have a few different prices, for members, students, young kids, and an annual pass option,
so estimating what should be there is tricky. It usually works out when I eyeball it.
Bob Fabinski
On 12/28/17 11:22 AM, Chrissy Fowler via Organizers wrote:
We're curious about how other dance organizers handle the task of sitting at the door and taking money.
Who does it?
- organizers?
- volunteers?
- a mix?
- nobody?
- how many people at a time?
How is it done?
- scheduling people to do the task (how?)
- vetting/soliciting the vols (any parameters?)
- how long does each person sit at door on a given dance eve?
- any compensation/barter?
Other relevant info?
Thanks,
Belfast Flying Shoes board of directors
Belfast, ME
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Organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net
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bobfab(a)aol.com
Hi Chrissy,
We have a small dance part of the BACDS. 3rd Sundays 3-6pm. bacds.org/sbc <http://bacds.org/sbc>
Organizers sit the door & take money when no volunteers are available.
We solicit volunteers when they sign in for the dance. Sign in sheet has pre-dance, & Dances #1-8. We don’t ask for money after the break.
Usually one person, maybe a friend.
If there is no volunteer, then we ask the caller to ask someone who is going to sit out to sign up.
Each person sits out one dance. Sometimes someone is injured and sits all the dances.
No compensation.
Would love to see a compilation of answers or insight gleaned from this query.
Claire Takemori
South Bay Contra, San Jose CA
On Dec 28, 2017, at 12:20 PM, organizers-request(a)lists.sharedweight.net wrote:
We're curious about how other dance organizers handle the task of sitting at the door and taking money.
Who does it?
- organizers?
- volunteers?
- a mix?
- nobody?
- how many people at a time?
How is it done?
- scheduling people to do the task (how?)
- vetting/soliciting the vols (any parameters?)
- how long does each person sit at door on a given dance eve?
- any compensation/barter?
Other relevant info?
Hi all,
Both Montreal and Ottawa have seen lower attendance this fall and we
got word that it's similar in Brooklyn. Are any other local dances seeing
this too? Any idea what might be causing this? Since it happens to both
Canadian and American cities I doubt it's the political climate.
Thanks,
Marie
ContraMontreal
