17 Mar
2023
17 Mar
'23
6:49 p.m.
Chiming in from up in Ottawa Ontario where we are on march break... pretty
busy with kid activities!
There have been so many wonderful points on a wiiiiide range of topics in
this discussion. I'm so appreciative and am learning lots. :)
I've written a very mixed bag of thoughts below, sometimes riffing on what
others have said (e.g., name buttons; second dance free passes).
These are quick thoughts because of the tight times during march break so I
hope I've been able to communicate these ideas all riiiiiight.... :)
- *Name tags: *I personally love them whether they are buttons (could
feel a bit exclusive to those without) or simply stickers available for
people to write their names. Not a requirement but an option for people to
connect names.
- *ID for new folks: *In Ottawa prior to the pandemic, we were
suggesting that anyone who felt relatively new grab one of the bright
colour stickers (can't remember the colour... let's say fluorescent green)
and that we'd look out for them on the dance floor, ask to dance etc..
Then those with more experience could quickly ID folks who self-identified
as new AND the new folks who wanted to, could flag that they wanted more
connection/support. These seemed to work really well!
- *2nd dance free passes: *We've used them in Ottawa for a decade - we
track how many go out and come back. Not sure how effective they are but we
do get them back and it's something for everyone. I like Sandy's idea of
handing them out during the beginner lesson... that's cool and I had never
heard of that before!
- *Timing of the dance: *I saw lots of mentions of dancers arriving
late, missing the beginner lesson. A lot of those dances start at 7. I'm
totally not sure about this but the Ottawa beginner lesson is at 730pm and
dance is from 8-11pm with visiting at a local pub after. We tend to get a
lot of people at the beginner lesson. I'm wondering if that extra 1/2hr
might just be enough for folks to finish their dinner.
- *Option to eat at hall ahead of time: * Related to the above on
timing, I was juuuuust at the Quebec City contra dance this past weekend.
They hold theirs Sunday afternoons and they publicly invite anyone who
wants to bring their lunch to the hall ahead of time and eat it there.
There were only a few people who did that but I really love the idea of
packing an easy meal, eating it on one's lap, and visiting with folks. It
gets some folks there earlier (maybe they'd help with set up?!), creates
more visiting/socializing/connection time (which is so important to
building community..... ..
- *Beginner lesson:* I've seen so so many... ... I think it's really
important to make make it as fun, inclusive, and encouraging as possible.
Lots of movement, very little standing around, feeling of learning skills
and success!
- *Dancers bringing their friends: *This has been by far the biggest
success for our local community and that I've heard over the years talking
to other organizers... word of mouth. There are lots of strategies to
encourage this (E.g., I heard of once dance that would provide a birthday
cake to dancers who would have have their Bday party at the dance and bring
friends).
- *Re level of dance (as in card/figures): * This might just be me but I
really don't mind simple dances as long as the music is AWESOME and there
is good flow to them. Much better than wading through long teaching and/or
confusion on the floor as the dance is too hard for the crowd. I could
totally be wrong on this but I think for dances with lots of beginners....
I'd try to get everyone having as much success as possible, quick teaching,
and awesome music. This also get's to Lex's point about the mental load.
Don't want it to be overwhelming for new folks or their brains will shut
off.
- *Make it as much a social/happening/community space as possible:* Some
people just come for the dancing. That's what they love. But for many,
feeling a sense of community/belonging is important. And for newer folks, I
think it can really help if the event feels like 'it's the place to
be/really happenin/lots of great energy. It's interesting... I get way
more excited about a dance if I know the energy is going to be jumpin in
the crowd and that the caller will be making it as fun as possible. If it
feels like it's 'not a happenin' place or if I feel unwelcome (has
happened
in various communities even as an experienced dancer), I'm not really
interested in going back. There's lots of strategies to up the
social/community/happenin' vibe.
I helped create this resource a few years ago... it's a collection of
flyers/posters from 57 different dance communities. Each piece of print
material communicates a fair bit about how their event feels/or not...
https://cdss.org/wp-content/uploads/resources/CDSS-inspiring-promo-material…
- *Re goofy ... leading into joy*: I loved Lex and Chrissy's points on
the value of goofyness and I think this directly relates to joy, laughter,
and connection. These things make people feel good, build community and I
think encourage people to come back.
- *Julian's points: *I really liked Julian's points about
listening/engaging youth, having a values statement (Ottawa worked hard on
updating our mission/vision statement to capture this stuff) and yes yes
yes to promoting that open to complimeents/complaints + deal with. Soooo
great! And such great points from Jeff on the challenges youth face when
joining committees.
- *Re role terminology in contra dance: *Dana wrote so eloquently and I
agree with all Dana said. Also, I was at the Quebec City contra dance,
which is small but growing and joyful contra community and they are not
only using the terms ladies and gents but interspersing them with 'hommes'
et 'femmes' (men/women) coming from the French Canadian square dancing
context (which has a LOT of young people engaged in certain communities).
Helping to shift society through dance can be powerful in local contexts
and I think it's important to also to appreciate dance communities for
which these forms of inclusion haven't come up on the radar yet or their
local societal context may be different. (And yes I know encouraging is
needed there too!) I think of my many years doing Cape Breton square
dancing and while they no longer use callers, you will VERY rarely see two
gents dancing together. (In fact, I can't remember seeing it.) Yes, they
are excluding certain people and at the same time, they are continuing
traditions that have been in their communities for decades, they are
bringing youth together with adults, and elders, they are connecting to
their gaelic roots, etc. I'm not sure how to communicate this eloquently
but I can appreciate that for those communities, that's how they currently
celebrate their traditions and to push non-gendered dancing I think
would alienate enough of the core community that their dances might not
survive. I have been calling with Larks & Robins for a bit and have
attended a positional calling workshop... attending another tomorrow in
Syracuse! So I'm working on the shift while trying to appreciating each
dance community for the positives they bring to their community. Thoughts
on this?
- *Re engaging youth... and young families: * I think it's fantastic re
engaging youth. I've seen many folks focus on the college-aged community.
At the same time, I haven't seen as much effort to engage folks with
children in the contra dance community. While not adults choose to have
children, adults tend to become less transient after college and are more
likely to stay living in a community for a longer period of time. I'd love
to chat about more strategies to engage folks in their 30-50s ... ... also
thinking ahead to how older adults have more time to volunteer (i.e., not
trying to get established in jobs, might even be retired)
- *Re the intensity of contra dance: *I feel many of us who have been
contra dancing for a long time forget how many of our accepted norms are
sooooooo far from what the general public is used to. Looking strangers in
the eye for long times, swinging closely with all sorts of people. Put on
top of that some of the intense (even super sexy) feel of some contra dance
bands and wow, I think that's likely a challenge for many new folks to
overcome to feel comfortable. I'm not saying we should change these
things but rather, acknowledge that this can be prettttty darn weird for
new folks and figure out ways to make it easier for them.
*So interesting re promo text:* I loved Joe's promo text he shared about
their upcoming dance... .... that's totally the type of language that I
think would draw folks in. soooo.... not sure why it's not happenin. I'd be
curious what others think.
I loved hearing about the dances down around Heitzso's way... .sounds like
there are some really happenin' communities which is encouraging. Sautee
Georgia sounds fascinating with it's family vibe.
Signing off from Ottawa, Ontario.
:) Emily Addison
On Thu, Mar 16, 2023 at 9:33 AM Julian Blechner via Organizers <
organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
Jeff,
I'm glad you're able to dig us into some of the particulars of the
subtopic about youth leadership in contra.
Certainly I agree that it is not as simple as I stated; my email was meant
as brief, high-level bullets, not sufficient instructions for implementing.
I think your questions are good jumping-off points, so I'll do that!
If I had to wager, I would say that your experience with youth dancers in
leadership may differ from ones that I've seen and experienced.
Like, the "I" in BIDA is "Intergenerational" with engaging dancers of
all
ages right there as a primary goal; that alone is going to affect how you
and other BIDA leaders current and past engage with potential youth leaders.
And what I've seen in BIDA's policies, what you personally and advocate
for, and what I've experienced both as a dancer and a performer at your
series contrasts with some of the negative issues I've seen come up.
So, by contrast, I draw upon experience both in dances I've been a regular
at, as well as discussions with peers and younger peers about goings-on
with various dances, in regards to how youth leaders are treated.
You wrote:
" They're initially excited and propose things, but then get frustrated as
the long-time folks explain the issues and none of their proposals stick."
Yeah, I think there's an experience gap that you allude to here and that's
real.
At the same time, it is definitely the responsibility for more experienced
leaders to mentor newer leaders, and that mentorship means:
1. Explaining issues in a way that isn't discouraging.
2. Not merely using explaining as a way to shut down suggestions.
On that latter point, I've found that - probably more often than not -
initial suggestions both in contra dance and in my professional career
working in teams usually are not the final solution.
I'm sure I'm not saying anything you don't already know, but bringing it
into this conversation here.
Yeah, new leaders to a volunteer organization have a learning curve, and
their suggestions may need work.
But, _all suggestions_ I see as frequently needing work.
A healthy committee takes those suggestions and integrates them into
whatever ultimate decisions / policies / actions they take. (Again, I'm
sure you've experienced this, but for the purposes of leading to my next
point.)
By contrast, what I've both seen and heard of from many youth leaders are
things like:
"Oh, Soandso has always done the website and that's the way they like it."
"There's no way we could implement Larks / Robins because too many older
dancers would hate it."
"Soandso has always done Treasurer"
"A special dance event would be too difficult"
etc.
The summary being that, as you said, youth leaders come in excited with
new suggestions. Yes, they may need work. But instead of a committee coming
together to form a consensus, youth leaders are shut down.
And I think it's obvious how discouraging that can be.
So, back to the purposes of this email discussion here, the suggestions I
would come for include:
1. Come with a mindset of "how can we make this work / alter the idea to
make it work" rather than "how will this idea not work"
2. Figure out a way to _try out_ ideas older members don't agree with.
3. On a youth-led idea that older members don't think are practical, do
data gathering. Larks/Robins is a great example where practical data made
it clear to the many dances who chose to implement it, as, again, BIDA
certainly demonstrated, and my own dance in Amherst demonstrated.
4. (In regards to your point B) Specifically solicit ideas from youth
leaders. Actively ask their opinions. Realize that experienced leaders have
an innate power imbalance and that is a big reason why new / younger
leaders don't speak up.
" they don't feel like they've accomplished anything and don't feel
useful."
5. Set them up in areas of success. Even little stuff, like, "We had to
decide how to set up the fans in the room as we opened back up after the
pandemic shutdown" was an opportunity where our group could just ... let
newer+younger group members decide and do it with no need for
full-committee approval. (Jeff, I think this basically is your "giving
people responsibilities")
6. Let them fail a little. This is kind of a repeat of #2, but ...
mentoring new leaders means letting them make some mistakes. They need to
be able to take some risks.
6a. When they fail, continue to encourage and frame that failure instead
as "trying something out and learning as a group".
I think your last point is a good one, too.
There's a 20-something / 30ish led new Fusion dance in the Pioneer Valley.
And while one of the organizers has some significant committee experience,
they're one of the least in-charge-y types on that dance's committee.
So, lots of potential lessons for the OP and other readers on the group,
and this email is hardly an exhaustive treatise on mentoring youth leaders.
In short though, I have experienced and seen the dismissal of young
organizers as a repeat, chronic, and widespread issue in contra dance
organizations.
It will take active work from older and more experienced leaders to change
this.
Best regards,
Julian
On Wed, Mar 15, 2023 at 11:12 AM Jeff Kaufman <jeff(a)alum.swarthmore.edu>
wrote:
On "Listen to youth, put them on your
committee, and implement their
suggestions", this is pretty tricky and is something I've seen several
organizations get wrong.
Let's say you're an established organization with a lot of
institutional knowledge and a built-up system of how things are done, and
you add an enthusiastic young dancer, musician, or caller to your board.
They probably don't know much about how the organization works, and they're
initially not going to know much about what needs doing. When they have
ideas about how to do things differently they often won't understand the
practical issues that led to things being the way they are. So you can
easily get one of two dynamics:
a. They're initially excited and propose things, but then get frustrated
as the long-time folks explain the issues and none of their proposals stick.
b. They stay quiet because they understand how much they don't know, and
don't end up contributing much.
Then, when their initial term is up they don't stay on because they don't
feel like they've accomplished anything and don't feel useful.
I've been the excited young person in this case, and can think of several
other friends who have as well. In retrospect I think most of us wish we
had said no to the invitation.
I don't think the solution is as simple as "implement their suggestions",
though: not every suggestion will be a good one (none of us, young or old,
have only good ideas).
What I've seen work well is giving people responsibility, especially in
areas where they can quickly learn what makes the dance work. For example,
if your dance has a person who does/oversees setup and/or cleanup, teach
them how to do this. Get them filling out the end-of-dance financial
sheets to figure out who gets what money. If you're putting on a new
one-off event get them on a small committee with 1-2 other friendly
organizers. Then when they propose changes they'll be better ones (less
likely to propose something infeasible) and the changes are more likely to
be well received (in a do-ocracy people respect the people they see putting
in work).
There's also a completely different path, where the enthusiastic young
person gets together a group of people and starts something independent.
They can make their own mistakes, without making more work for people on
the committee. If they want to make their new dance gender-free, half
squares, all open bands + open calling, or something else that might get a
lot of pushback at an existing dance, they can just go ahead and do it.
When these work well they draw a new crowd, pulling from their own networks
instead of mostly drawing people away from the existing dance, and you get
a healthier community with more options.
Jeff
On Wed, Mar 15, 2023 at 8:49 AM Julian Blechner via Organizers <
organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
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Lots of good suggestions from a lot of people.
I think I can boil down success keeping new dancers to:
1. Listen to youth, put then on your committee, and implement their
suggestions.
2. Have a written values statement, which all of your other policies
follow.
3. Make it clear you want to hear from dancers with compliments or
complaints. And actually deal with complaints. Over and over, the biggest
reason I hear people not returning (other than just not liking the dance
form) is unhandled and ignored complaints.
In dance,
Julian Blechner
On Wed, Mar 15, 2023, 8:10 AM Chrissy Fowler via Organizers <
organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
_______________________________________________ *“Getting back to the subject of repeat visitors,
perhaps the biggest
difference of all is a caller who brings the fun and the inclusiveness, the
type who can laugh with you when something goes goofy. (… . ) I'm
tremendously grateful to everyone organizing contra dances, and to all the
people trying to make their dance a little bit better each week.*
*Lex Spoon”*
Hear, hear!
(And I think it’s also the organizers who can bring that fun and
inclusiveness and set the tone for embracing the goofiness.) Let’s face it,
even though some folks forget and take it all a bit too seriously, these
dances we love are *incredibly* weird. Beautifully so, but definitely
on the silly side of joy.
I’m also grateful for all you folks sharing ideas and experiences
openly and nonjudgmentally. What a gift!
Chrissy Fowler
Belfast Maine
*Where we are digging out from the latest nor’easter (ah the joys of
finally getting winter weather in March)*
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