Seconding a lot of what's been said.
My wife, Jennifer Horrocks, and I hosted 2 regional organizers
retreats back in '17 & '18 and have our next this upcoming
weekend. This came up in the two pre-covid retreats with some form
of dance angels the most common mechanism used to integrate the
new dancers. (informal ambassadors or formal special name tags
varied). I agree that 60% new dancers is difficult; that's a
higher % of beginners than what most dances deal with.
My reason to chime in is to flag the variation in demographics
for both your experienced and inexperienced dancers affects the
dance.
This upcoming Saturday ContraForce will play at Sautee's dance in
N Georgia (in the middle of nowhere) in a very old gym. Many of
our retreat folks will take that evening off to attend. It is a
dance at which it's not uncommon for 20+% to be new dancers. The
most successful callers (in my opinion) have, after the lesson,
started off with easy but not trivial contras and steadily built
up from there which takes advantage of the experienced dancers
knowledge and doesn't bore the experienced dancers to death.. 20%
is not 60%. Mentioning because there are always beginners at that
dance and not all callers handle them well.
I believe it's important to know the age and hence physical and
mental capability of the new dancers. Sautee's dance tends to be
family oriented so the new (& experienced) dancers range in
age from teens to seniors. I went to a ContraForce dance at
Clemson University several years ago. The % of new dancers was
around your 60%, but the new dancers were entirely college
students. The caller was a student and not a solid caller. The new
dancers took incredibly quickly to the dance. 60% beginners?
No problem!
I was at a River Falls Lodge pre-covid dance packed with so
many lines of dancers that it was easy to get confused with what's
up and down and sideways. Dancers were mostly students (under 25?)
and, I'd guess, 40% beginners. Caller came late so no beginners'
lesson. The caller just started everyone off with a simple contra
and built up from there. No muss. No fuss. Worked quite well. I
believe the caller's calmness and just doing it worked ... never
any question that it wouldn't.
Another data point is Lake Eden Arts Festival which, pre-covid,
had 5,000 people attending. Their gym, "Brookside", had contra
dances with (at peak) some 400 dancers. Many (??%) dancers are
drunk/high beginners who drop in since they're already there
enjoying the weekend. They have fun for awhile then leave. Don't
know what to say about it. It is what it is.
Another data point that I've heard about is a tourist oriented
Virginia city in which the contra dance location was, for awhile,
downtown in the tourist district. They struggled with older
non-contra tourists overwhelming their small dance. I believe
their solution was to move the dance out of the tourist center.
Wishing everyone well as we keep the dance going,
-Heitzso
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