17 Jul
2023
17 Jul
'23
10:58 p.m.
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.
On Mon, Jul 17, 2023 at 4:11 PM Don Veino via Organizers <
organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
A thought on the topic of dance angels...
Would it be helpful to try matching age groups of the beginners and
angels? Having a shared social reference frame (for lack of a better
phrase) could help incorporate those dancers more comfortably? I mention
this as we had a slug of incoming students from an area private school
arrive at our dance as newcomers and our friendly and helpful older crew
did the community thing - which was great but slightly put them off. The
lack of folks in their age group came up in my later conversation with them
- they had a great time but were looking to mix more with folks of their
own age. Of course that's a chicken/egg thing (I encouraged them to bring
more of their friends next time), but...
On Mon, Jul 17, 2023 at 5:00 PM Heitzso via Organizers <
organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
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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