Related to community dance organizing, I also wanted to share a story from our community dance this past Saturday here in Ottawa Ontario.  The story relates to the Belfast Flying Shoes community dances ---> They were one of the groups featured in the CDSS web chat.

Note... the story is long... apologies!

The backstory: Ottawa Contra Dance has been hosting afternoon family dances for approximately 8yrs.  These are well attended (70-100 people each time) but there is big turn over with kids aging out around 7yrs old and no bridging into our evening contra dances.  This year, we launched four community dances using a very similar model to Belfast Flying Shoes (and a few other community dances) in the hope that we could create a truly intergenerational dance that would encourage school-aged families in particular.   The timeline is as such: 3-5pm afternoon advanced dance, 5-630 potluck for all, 630-730 community dance, 730-8 beginner lesson, 8-11 contra dance. (People who pay for the community dance can stay for the contra beginners + first two dances for free; People who pay for the contra can come to the community dance for free.)

It took us a whole year to plan the new series (e.g., the timing; pricing; how the open band would work; sound; type of dances; etc).  Mostly our planning has paid off as the dances have been a blast.  We just need more school-aged families + a few more volunteers.

The cool thing:  During the planning of the new series, our Board couldn't imagine not having a beginner contra lesson before the 8pm dance.  This is a long tradition in our community and there were a number of us who felt that the skills that are built in that workshop are too important to give up and we couldn't see how else they could be taught. 

Well.... Will Mentor was calling our afternoon advanced dance as well as the evening contra dance this past Saturday and when he arrived, he suggested we 'do as in Belfast'.  Instead of running a beginners lesson, simply bridge the community dance into the contra dance with some basic dances from 730-8pm. That's exactly what we did (after checking with some Board members).  Instead of having a formal break & switch at 730, Will took over the calling from Esther (our community dance caller) and continued with those same dancers + others who were arriving in the hall.  He taught a couple of beginner contras and built the skills right in. And our all comers band got to play with Will calling contras - a great experience.

I know lots of contra dance series don't have beginner lessons AND we didn't have as many beginners that night as we sometimes have but it was so exciting to try something new to us  and that we had been unsure of, with the suggestion coming from such an experienced caller who wanted to make it happen. I love these moments in dance organizing!

Emily

PS - I don't know if we'll keep the beginner workshops on community dance nights next year or whether we'll give this model some more testing time... we'll see! :)