Here's a link to the blog post with the video from our January 31 outreach program (film at the Belfast Free Library followed by a focus group discussion with local teen dancers.)
http://belfastflyingshoes.org/teens-talk-contra/
We're delighted to share the insights of these five teens; we deeply appreciate their contributions, as well as the support of the program's funders, co-sponsors, and recorders.
For the Belfast Flying Shoes board of directors,
Chrissy Fowler, secretary
Here's a link to the blog post with the video from our January 31 outreach program (film at the Belfast Free Library followed by a focus group discussion with local teen dancers.)
http://belfastflyingshoes.org/teens-talk-contra/
We're delighted to share the insights of these five teens; we deeply appreciate their contributions, as well as the support of the program's funders, co-sponsors, and recorders.
For the Belfast Flying Shoes board of directors,
Chrissy Fowler, secretary
Wow!
Ammmaazing ideas so far.
Thanks so much to Chrissy for that mass of articles + Jonathan and Jennifer
too!
Here is a link to the recent CDSS Canadian survey I was involved with. Pg
40 of the report relates to this question --- some nice quotes!
https://www.cdss.org/images/community/CDSS-Canada-Organizer-Survey-Report-F…
Here's what's come from the FB OCD group's discussion so far... more for
folks to consider. :)
[[[Others shared these]]]]
http://goodtimes.sc/columns/wellness/santa-cruz-contra-dance/http://www.southfloridacontradance.com/what-is-contra-dancehttps://www.pinterest.ca/canadiansquarea/impact-on-health/https://www.pinterest.ca/canadiansquarea/press-contra/https://www.pinterest.ca/canadiansquarea/contra-dance/http://www.nhmagazine.com/September-2017/Swing-Shift/#.WgsFdHg5ANI.facebookhttps://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/29/well/walk-stretch-or-dance-dancing-may-b…
Emily
On Thu, Mar 8, 2018 at 12:56 PM, <organizers-request(a)lists.sharedweight.net>
wrote:
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> Today's Topics:
>
> 1. Ideas/resources on the benefits of contra (and generally trad
> social dance) (Emily Addison)
> 2. Re: Ideas/resources on the benefits of contra (and generally
> trad social dance) (Jennifer Sordyl)
> 3. Re: Ideas/resources on the benefits of contra (and generally
> trad social dance) (Chrissy Fowler)
> 4. Re: Ideas/resources on the benefits of contra (and generally
> trad social dance) (Jonathan Sivier)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Thu, 8 Mar 2018 11:33:56 -0500
> From: Emily Addison <emilyladdison(a)gmail.com>
> To: organizers shared weight <organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net>
> Subject: [Organizers] Ideas/resources on the benefits of contra (and
> generally trad social dance)
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> gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
>
> Hi fellow shared weight organizers :)
>
> I hope you're doing pretty well. It's snowing here in Ottawa but the
> red-wing blackbirds showed up in our yard this morning for the first time
> so spring is pushing through!
>
> I was wondering if any of you have resources that provide information on
> benefits of contra dance (or trad social dance generally). This could be as
> simple as your list of benefits, it could be newspaper articles, videos,
> scientific studies... or other!
>
> Why? It's interesting generally I thought we might all enjoy as tools for
> advocacy. However, the question initially came up for me as I am working
> on letter to our Finance Minister in Canada about some issues around
> non-profit taxing ($50,000 income we have to charge tax.... ugh... it's
> turned out to be quite difficult for our organizer which is all voolunteer
> run and already cash strapped.) Anyway --- would love to hear your
> ideas!!! :) :) :)
>
> I've also posted this question on the FB Organizers of contra dance group.
> So if you're on both, you'll likely see it there too.
>
> Thanks so much!
> Emily Addison in Ottawa
>
Hi All,
Apologies for the delay in getting these out!
Attached are the discussion notes from the dance flurry. It was a pretty
great discussion!
I found that I knew about some of the ideas but others were new or were
tweaks to something we do in Ottawa but could do better.
Hope you find some interesting ideas enclosed as well!
:)
Emily Addison in Ottawa
The 20th Annual New Year's Extravaganza in Topsham, Maine was about the
same as last year but down by about a dozen people from the 18th. NYE. It
has much to do with band and caller selection as it does weather and
competing events.
When we started we were the biggest New Year Dance deal in three states
with a Pad Thai dinner for openers and 3 bands till 2 Am and had 140
people... But now there's marvelous contra fun to be had in lots of halls
and that's OK.
We had 85 dancers last time.
So there's none data point for you.
Jeff
On Mar 5, 2018 10:16 PM, "Alexandra Deis-Lauby via Organizers" <
organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
Are there any ball organizers on this list?
If so, have you noticed any attendance trends? Someone mentioned to me
today that they heard ball attendance was down this season.
Thanks,
Alex
Sent from my iPhone
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Are there any ball organizers on this list?
If so, have you noticed any attendance trends? Someone mentioned to me today that they heard ball attendance was down this season.
Thanks,
Alex
Sent from my iPhone
I'll be leading a discussion session at the 2018 New England Folk Festival
addressing low or no-cost tech tools you can use to leverage the efforts of
your limited volunteers towards greater effect. Have any great ideas to
share? Let me know ahead of time and I'll try to ensure they're covered in
the session materials or just come along and share in the session.
It's on the grid for High School Rm. 177 -- 6:00pm to 6:50pm Saturday April
21 -- Festival session listing is at
https://cgi.neffa.org/public/showevent.pl?E=S_1800_177 .
I created a Facebook event for the session at
https://www.facebook.com/events/179376749342433/ .
Hope to see you there!
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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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
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:
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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!
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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
