Even attendance at Glen Echo dances have been lower what they once were, though I would not say that the drop off was as dramatic as other locations, it is definitely lower than 10 years ago.
I can only surmise to why dance attendance has dropped off, but one guess that I have is that the increase of dance weekends, in my opinion, has a detrimental effect of dances are regular weekly/monthly dances. In some ways it has jaded dancers into believing that the bands/callers/dancers/dancing at the weekly dances aren't as good as those at dance weekends. We need an increase of community spirit at our local dances so we can keep getting in an influx of new dancers and get them to stay as regular dancers.
Affordability of dances is another reason (as rents and costs of talent has gone up), and perhaps saturation of dances in any one region.
Perry
From: Marie-Michèle Fournier via Organizers <organizers@lists.sharedweight.net>
To: Shared Weight Organizers <Organizers@sharedweight.net>
Sent: Tuesday, December 6, 2016 8:17 AM
Subject: [Organizers] Lower attendance this year?