[Organizers] Re: Attracting young dancers

Marie-Michèle, Hietzo, Marie-Michèle wrote: where male-presenting people almost all dance one role and female-presenting people almost all dance the other, no matter what role names they use. Hietzo, do the rural Georgia dances with strong younger participation fit this description? Thanks, --jh-- On Wed, Nov 8, 2023 at 11:15 AM Marie-Michèle Fournier via Organizers &lt;organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net&gt; wrote: I took over as main organiser in Montreal when I was in my late 30s and the people who decided to join the organizing committee after that were all my age or younger except one. Gradually after that, our age average became younger and younger, however part of that is unfortunately because we lost several older dancers. I don't know exactly what it is we did that made older dancers less likely to come back and younger dancers more likely to, except for being very strongly non-gendered, even before we switched to Larks and Robins after the pandemic. But I can tell you that I haven't yet found a dance with a strong younger core where male-presenting people almost all dance one role and female-presenting people almost all dance the other, no matter what role names they use. Marie-Michèle, Montréal, Québec, Canada On Wed, Nov 8, 2023 at 9:58 AM Joe Harrington via Organizers &lt;organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net&gt; wrote: Is Will Loving in the house?  Or anyone from the Amherst, MA, Wednesday night contra?  He was the ONLY person on the board over 30 in the years after he founded it, and it was largely a college/post-college crowd, the few times I was privileged to attend.  He told me that was his formula.  Maybe he can give details. This was in the mid-2010s, I think. To me, there is a big difference between events run by and for younger dancers and broad community events with a predominantly older crowd trying to make up for our lame recruiting/retention efforts a few decades back, so we can keep our dances from dying as we age out, or to bring some energy into them, or out of some principle of inclusion. Or whatever our real reasons are for focusing so heavily on recruiting younger dancers (which, guilty, I do for their energy). --jh-- On Wed, Nov 8, 2023 at 9:27 AM Chrissy Fowler via Organizers &lt;organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net&gt; wrote: Thanks Dana, for this reframing of the conversation! Shakes things up a bit in my mind. Love it. In Belfast ME, where our demographics have skewed toward a majority of dancers in teens-early 30s, we recruited board members in that age range because they already were the majority. (See https://www.belfastflyingshoes.org/board-of-directors) I’m curious what other organizers have experienced when they recruited people in teens/20s in order to increase that demographic among their dancers. Cheers, Chrissy Fowler Belfast ME <><><><><><> chrissyfowler.com <http://www.chrissyfowler.com> dance leadership westbranchwords.com <http://www.westbranchwords.com> academic transcription belfastflyingshoes.org <http://www.belfastflyingshoes.org> participatory dance & music ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *From:* Dana Dwinell-Yardley via Organizers &lt;organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net&gt; *Sent:* Monday, November 6, 2023 11:13:16 AM *To:* A list for dance organizers &lt;organizers(a)sharedweight.net&gt; *Subject:* [Organizers] Re: Attracting young dancers And I forgot to note that my dance is Montpelier, VT! On Mon, Nov 6, 2023 at 10:56 AM Dana Dwinell-Yardley &lt;danadwya(a)gmail.com&gt; wrote: I'm coming in late to this discussion with a thought from the Form the Ocean dance weekend in 2019. They held a community discussion at that weekend structured around the idea of starting at "Point D." As in, with big conversations in our communities, we so often churn round and round on points A, B, C: "how do we get more diversity?? we're so [white/old/middle class/etc]! but we need diversity!" What if, instead, we started at point D and bypassed those first few questions that we always start with? I would suggest that Point D for this conversation about young dancers might be: *"Our dance *already has* age diversity. How shall we be with the people already in the room?"* rather than scrambling to say "we need morrrrrrrrre young dancers!" I'm 36, an in-between sort of age in the contra dance world. I started dancing 19 years ago, when I was 17. I absolutely started dancing because it was a place to hang out with my friends. And, I could tell which adults would talk to me like I was a fellow dancer, and which ones talked to me like I was a Young Person. I still have friendships with the ones who treated me like a person to this day. Get to know your young dancers like you would get to know anyone else you don't know yet! Don't be overbearing! Be friendly, ask them to dance, learn about their lives, but also leave them alone to do their own thing and hang with their friends. Treat them like humans and not A Class of People We Need for Diversity. People can tell when they're being tokenized. (My friend group and I had an experience about 4-5 years ago at our local English dance where the dance organizers/regulars practically *pounced* on us as we walked in the door and were like "wow! young people! so nice to have young people! can we give you a discount? will you come back again? will you bring your friends?" and we were like "...um we're just here to English dance?" It was very off-putting and made us LESS likely to come back again!) I also have lots of thoughts about fostering a culture of consent, non-gendered role terms, young people on your organizing committee, etc, but I'll save them for another day! Thanks, Dana On Sun, Oct 29, 2023 at 10:55 AM Sandy Seiler via Organizers &lt;organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net&gt; wrote: Our community, like many others, has fewer young dancers than we would like.  I am wondering how different factors influence that and what we can do. Does the night of the week matter?  We dance on a Saturday night.  Would Friday be better? Does frequency matter?  We dance once a month? Does location matter?  We have a college (University of Kansas KU)  Would a dance location closer to or on campus matter? Are outreach strategies effective and what has your community found successful? Thanks, Sandy Seiler Lawrence, Kansas