Organizers February 2018

organizers@lists.sharedweight.net

9 participants
4 discussions

Re: [Organizers] Lower attendance this year?

by Chrissy Fowler

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 _______________________________________________ Organizers mailing list Organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net<mailto:Organizers@lists.sharedweight.net> http://lists.sharedweight.net/listinfo.cgi/organizers-sharedweight.net

6 years, 9 months

Sad news regarding Linda Leslie

by Luke Donforth

Hello all, This has already gone around on the callers page for shared weight, but I thought the organizer page should hear it as well for anyone not on both. Linda Leslie passed away this past weekend. Her husband has requested that this not go on FB; but instead be shared via e-mail and word of mouth. I'm one of several people incredibly saddened by this loss. Linda was a fount of warmth and encouragement. Chris Ricciotti spoke eloquently about this tragedy: To the dance community: It is with great sadness that I am passing on the news that Linda Leslie passed away Sunday evening (Feb 11). She called on Thursday night at the Concord Scout House, Friday evening at the Rehoboth Contra Dance, and then again on Saturday evening at our own contra dance in Jamaica Plain. She called an amazing dance program for all of us those evenings! Linda had been having difficulty breathing during the past week or so, particularly after walking, and this became increasing worse over the past few evenings. On Sunday evening, she was taken by ambulance to her local Emergency Room and she passed away in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. Her husband Bob Golder has requested that Linda’s passing NOT be posted on Facebook. Email and word of mouth is fine, but he prefers this not to become a Facebook event. As a caller, she took the love and the joy she experienced as a dancer, and transformed the dance community every where she went, touching us all with her lovely soft spoken presence that would make you feel embraced with that love she had when she danced. To many of us, she was like our dancing “mom” or “grandmom”, always a warm smile, always ready with humor, always looking out to make sure everyone was having a good time, and feeling safe within the room. In our community, she was a bridge builder, and a role model of what good dancing and community building are all about. She was also a HUGE advocate of gender-free dancing. She was one of the key people who helped us connect with and be an accepted part of the greater community of dancers, and encouraged us to share our love of dancing with others as a way to help build those connections. She was also a part of helping us to build the strong relationship we have with NEFFA, being a support to our fundraising food booth, being present at meetings we had with NEFFA as we worked on being more of a part of the greater dance community, helping us to navigate the issues that were occasionally a part of this process, as she helped us to better understand the greater dance community, as they came to know us At our dance camps, as many of you know, her presence was always a welcome treat, whether she came as a dancer simply because she loved our community so much, or when she would come as a caller to build our community, and the bonds that go with it, as she shared her passion and love of music and dancing. And of course, we cannot forget her delightful husband Bob, who has also been a warm personality, much loved in our community, also sharing his love of dancing with us, not only as a dancer, but as a caller, having written some of my favorite dances along the way. Bob has also being a great NEFFA advocate helping us many times along the way. His warm smile and delightful presence has brought a lot of joy to us a lot over the years, and he continues to be a part of the family that makes our dance a special place to be. I know we will all miss Linda very much. It’s very difficult to lose someone who has had such a presence in our lives and who has brought us so much, and who was a big part of our dancing family. As we find out more information about memorial service arrangements, we will let you know, along with any memorial dances that may be organized in her honor. In the mean time, when we come together to dance, let us honor her memory by sharing that joy she brought to each of us, with each other, and let us dance in honor of all our friends and loved ones who have gone before us. It is moments like this that are so precious – and Linda was certainly one of them! In sorrow and gratitude for having the honor of knowing Linda, Chris Ricciotti Linda's husband Bob wrote in to the callers list: Thank you everyone for your kind words and warm memories of Linda Leslie, and your concern for me and the rest of her family. I am alternating between grieving, setting priorities on behalf of our family, and quickly making many legal, financial, and remembrance decisions. It is an extremely challenging time, but I have family with me and supportive friends nearby, and will ask for assistance as needed. Our folk arts, music, and dance friends have always been a great source of joy for Linda and me. There are no immediate observances or memorial services. At some future date measured in weeks, or a month, or more from now, there will be a celebration of Linda Leslie's life. … Bob Golder

6 years, 10 months

Re: [Organizers] Organizers Digest, Vol 37, Issue 1

by Claire T

Emily Hope you will post notes from your session for those of us not able to make it to the Flurry. Thanks Claire Sent from my iPhone On Feb 14, 2018, at 1:16 PM, organizers-request(a)lists.sharedweight.net wrote: Send Organizers mailing list submissions to organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://lists.sharedweight.net/listinfo.cgi/organizers-sharedweight.net or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to organizers-request(a)lists.sharedweight.net You can reach the person managing the list at organizers-owner(a)lists.sharedweight.net When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of Organizers digest..." Today's Topics: 1. Heads up -- organizers discussion group at the Flurry this weekend! (Emily Addison) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Wed, 14 Feb 2018 12:56:19 -0500 From: Emily Addison <emilyladdison(a)gmail.com> To: organizers shared weight <organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> Subject: [Organizers] Heads up -- organizers discussion group at the Flurry this weekend! Message-ID: <CAD7WKUUSaRix+0K+Eao0+q+RXx_fe=5Ddiurj1Q7bU6+BYHrQA(a)mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" Hi All, If you're heading to the Dance Flurry this weekend, I wanted to give you a heads up that I'll be leading a one-hour dance organizers discussion session on Sunday from 11:15am-12:15pm in Hilton Broadway 4. This year, we'll be focusing all on upping attendance!!! When everyone listed their major concerns at last year's session, attendance issues were the most common. Thus - we'll be really digging into this and sharing our best practices. :) Hope to see you there! Emily in Ottawa

6 years, 10 months

Heads up -- organizers discussion group at the Flurry this weekend!

by Emily Addison

Hi All, If you're heading to the Dance Flurry this weekend, I wanted to give you a heads up that I'll be leading a one-hour dance organizers discussion session on Sunday from 11:15am-12:15pm in Hilton Broadway 4. This year, we'll be focusing all on upping attendance!!! When everyone listed their major concerns at last year's session, attendance issues were the most common. Thus - we'll be really digging into this and sharing our best practices. :) Hope to see you there! Emily in Ottawa

6 years, 10 months

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Organizers February 2018