Organizers April 2018

organizers@lists.sharedweight.net

7 participants
4 discussions

mini-beginner contra courses - ideas? ... follow up

by Emily Addison

Hey Folks, Thanks for all the responses on the course idea! I was offline for four days so I'm catching up now... Again - if anyone has done something like this, please let me know. :) Paul -- cool you like the idea! I agree re parks&rec maybe interested... .. turns out that the two city community centres that I've talked to in the last week are both interested. It sounds doable here to get in as part of city programming! Jane -- agreed re home schools. We've tried engaging them before re our family dances but having the older home schoolers engage in this mini-course would be awesome. Great idea thanks! Simon - so true re experienced talent. Great reminder to see what we can do there. :) JD - our 'community talent dances' have been our monthly Tuesday dances where we've been building local callers and musicians (vs our 1st and 3rd Saturday dances were more pro/super experienced talent). Since our community talent dances have been going for 6yrs, some of the callers/musicians have actually built a fair bit of skills and aren't so beginner anymore. Got to rename the Tuesdays :) Merry - don't know about cost... will work with city re that. Re length... trying to keep it roughly in line with their other dance classes. Claire - Way cool idea re 'next steps'. That's kind of how we were rethinking our Tuesdays. Agree re creepy behaviour folks --- got a code of conduct and and etiquette poster for that stuff. Heitzso - couldn't see your text. :) Emily

6 years

mini-beginner contra courses - ideas?

by Emily Addison

Hi Folks, Here in Ottawa, we're brainstorming new ideas for attracting brand new people AND keeping more of those folks. We get about 15 new people each dance and we think we're already doing lots to support them (2nd dance free cards, smiley stickers to ID so regular dancers even more supportive than usual, etc)... ... still we don't retain as many of those folks as we'd like. AND since we still haven't fully bounced back from a surprise drop in attendance September 2016, we're trying to get creative. One idea we'd like to try next year is a mini beginners course. Has anyone done this before? Any stories of successes? Tips of things to avoid? Course content? Advertising? etc???? Here's are a few initial thoughts that have been rolling around our heads: - Partner with the city - have it as part of their course offerings. (Or as part of a rec association) - Approx 4-6 weeks long. - Not only about moves but knowing where to be when, transitions, timing, culture, etc. Pros/Cons of doing something like this...??? There are many but here are a few thoughts: - Pro: Despite our community being super welcome (at least we think so), some people are just TOOOOO scared to try something so new/different in a big social setting. This could address those people who have been too scared to come out. - Pro: Some brand new people are ok with the steep learning curve. Others find the intensity of learning so much so fast 'too much'. We could let brand new people know that this is an alternative to learning the ropes. - Pro: Many adults look for new activities through things like mini-courses (e.g., learn how to dance!). We'd be finding a new pocket of folks. - Con: Don't want potential beginners OR regulars feel that beginners need to take a course before they are welcome. (e.g., like MW where have to take a course before welcome at certain dances.. .... this might encourage some experienced dancers who are focused on skill-level to push beginners to 'dance better') - Con: Having a room full of beginners would remove all the supportive help that experienced dancers can provide. (Solution -- have a few volunteer experienced folks come to the course) Another thing we're working on is having our monthly community talent dances be more beginner focused so that should be neat... ... but a little different than a condensed weekly course. Thanks! Emily

6 years

Re: [Organizers] mini-beginner contra courses - ideas? (Emily Addison)

by Claire Takemori

Hi Emily! I like the idea and think it maybe helpful to some despite the Cons listed. One thing I am working on at South Bay Contra in the SF Bay Area, is to have a quarterly workshop called “Next Steps”. This happened once so far (the next quarter had a weekend workshop called "Contra College” that is about 30 min away from South Bay and has about 15 newer dancers with some “angels”). I’m hoping to have another for summer and fall. The idea came from Jean Gorrindo in San Luis Obispo CA, who runs a quarterly free workshop followed by pizza then the usual contra dance. She feels it is helping some of the newer dancers. Our session luckily had one to one “angels” helping with newer dancers, with about 20 total. I had a very experienced caller teach the workshop for 80 min before the usual dance, followed by ice cream and snacks. I had a separate band (new young musicians who are eager to play) as the usual band didn’t want to extend the gig to 5 hours. We used a large classroom downstairs of the hall, as it was affordable and available earlier than the main hall. We got the support from our BACDS to pay the band, caller and rent. The snacks were donated. I got only positive feedback from the dancers. I had really great angels (who know how to help silently and model listening to the caller, and dance both roles). The downside was that I offered the workshop for donations to get more attendance (though some would argue that paying for something makes it more valuable to some) and only got $20 from one person. The other thing I would check on is “creepy behavior” in your community. A lot of folks feel they don’t have it, but if you ask some younger dancers you might find that they are uncomfortable with a few dancers’ behaviors. Some of the offenders in our community swing just fine with other experienced dancers, but when they get a young new dancer, they hold too close and are too flirty for a stranger (both lacking consent). I’ve only discovered this by watching known offenders. Then when I see a new dancer looking uncomfortable, I ask them after the dance, and almost always I’ve gotten a reply like “that was horrible and I’m never dancing with him again”. We only just got our code of conduct re-written and lost our Safety committee board rep and our board President, so we’ve got a few folks to address in the community still. I’m not sure, but feel this might have a big impact on having new dancers return. Regards, Claire Takemori Dance Caller & Organizer Campbell CA Message: 1 Date: Sat, 21 Apr 2018 11:22:39 -0500 From: Emily Addison <emilyladdison(a)gmail.com> To: organizers shared weight <organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> Subject: [Organizers] mini-beginner contra courses - ideas? Message-ID: <CAD7WKUUd5_y5VepHfmfyvu26icZaUJBuTyye+ejAoKmAFNy+Ww(a)mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" Hi Folks, Here in Ottawa, we're brainstorming new ideas for attracting brand new people AND keeping more of those folks. We get about 15 new people each dance and we think we're already doing lots to support them (2nd dance free cards, smiley stickers to ID so regular dancers even more supportive than usual, etc)... ... still we don't retain as many of those folks as we'd like. AND since we still haven't fully bounced back from a surprise drop in attendance September 2016, we're trying to get creative. One idea we'd like to try next year is a mini beginners course. Has anyone done this before? Any stories of successes? Tips of things to avoid? Course content? Advertising? etc???? Here's are a few initial thoughts that have been rolling around our heads: - Partner with the city - have it as part of their course offerings. (Or as part of a rec association) - Approx 4-6 weeks long. - Not only about moves but knowing where to be when, transitions, timing, culture, etc. Pros/Cons of doing something like this...??? There are many but here are a few thoughts: - Pro: Despite our community being super welcome (at least we think so), some people are just TOOOOO scared to try something so new/different in a big social setting. This could address those people who have been too scared to come out. - Pro: Some brand new people are ok with the steep learning curve. Others find the intensity of learning so much so fast 'too much'. We could let brand new people know that this is an alternative to learning the ropes. - Pro: Many adults look for new activities through things like mini-courses (e.g., learn how to dance!). We'd be finding a new pocket of folks. - Con: Don't want potential beginners OR regulars feel that beginners need to take a course before they are welcome. (e.g., like MW where have to take a course before welcome at certain dances.. .... this might encourage some experienced dancers who are focused on skill-level to push beginners to 'dance better') - Con: Having a room full of beginners would remove all the supportive help that experienced dancers can provide. (Solution -- have a few volunteer experienced folks come to the course) Another thing we're working on is having our monthly community talent dances be more beginner focused so that should be neat... ... but a little different than a condensed weekly course. Thanks! Emily

6 years

mini-beginner contra courses - ideas?

by Jane Ewing

Emily - I suggest you discover all the home schoolers in your area and issue an invitation to them. There are usually associations listed on the net if you do not know anyone who is active in a group. Jane Ewing Grant, AL

6 years

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Organizers April 2018