9 Aug
2023
9 Aug
'23
7:58 p.m.
For quite a long time my local contra dance had a lower admission price for the first half
hour, with teaching during that time, to encourage everyone to come for the teaching. (I
think it would have worked somewhat better if the reason for that had been more explicit,
something like your suggestion.)
Read Weaver
Jamaica Plain, MA
http://lcfd.org
On Jul 17, 2023, at 6:58 PM, Sandy Seiler via
Organizers <organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
The idea I have been cogitating on for a while is to somehow change people's
perception of the starting time causing a bit of a cultural shift. Our dance lesson is at
7:00, dance at 7:30. I would really love it if we could get the majority of folks to
embrace the idea that everyone come at 7:00. At our last dance we had about 2-3
experienced dancers participating in the beginners lesson. That's a challenge with
about 30 new students. I imagine new folks could easily feel like "a tribe
apart" with beginners at 7 and everyone else come at 7:30. If we could get the
majority of our experienced dancers to come at 7:00 and help teach the lesson that would
be so grand.
Have any of you been successful in making that shift? Changing the attitude to....
"dance starts at 7:00 and we spend the first 30 minutes welcoming and teaching the
beginning dancers because we all know the dance will be much more fun that way". If
we could make that leap, I think newbies would feel more welcome and likely to return.
It's unrealistic to expect everyone to show up at 7, but I am planning to reach out to
several experienced dancers to see if we can get more of them on the floor for the
lesson.
Also considering "doors open at 6:30" to give folks time to socialize before
beginning the lesson/dance at 7:00.