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!