On Dec 20, 2017, at 8:57 PM, Mary Collins via Organizers <organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote: thanks Chrissy, There are several things here to pursue, thanks. We have struggled for years on how to tap into our younger set. We will be looking into some of these ideas and how we can implement them in our own dance. I too am looking forward to hearing/reading the outcome of your panel. Cute story: Since we've been struggling with this for YEARS...this happened in the 90's in Ithaca.It was more than likely a Geo. Marshall dance and there were many young people in attendance. So, I suggested to the 4 or 5 people who had travelled from our home dance for this event, that when we could engage any of the young people in conversation, we should ask them how they came to contra and why they continued to come. we would report back and have a conversation amongst ourselves about it. As luck would have it, Aaron Marcus and I were paired to dance. Being the instigator of this exercise and taking it seriously, I introduced myself to Aaron and asked him "How long have you been dancing and what brought you to it?" After a brief eye contact exchange...Aaron promptly put feet to use in a lovely clogging riff, when finished stated "I grew up in it." with his very lovely smile. Hahaha, leave it to me to find the one kid there that GREW up Contra dancing. Geeze. Still love seeing Aaron on the floor and twirling with him when I can. Thanks again, Mary “Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass ... it's about learning to dance in the rain!” ~ Unknown _______________________________________________ Organizers mailing list Organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net http://lists.sharedweight.net/listinfo.cgi/organizers-sharedweight.net

Glad Heitzo reintroduced this thread, as I'd dropped the ball on responding to Alex. Responses below. And about that focus group, it was lovely. We ended up with fewer respondents than we anticipated, but what got shared was quite juicy, and it spawned a project to further document our local dance scene. I haven't had a chance yet to write the blog post about it, including posting the video, but will do so soon! www.belfastflyingshoes.org/blog Cheers, Chrissy Fowler Belfast, ME ++++++++++ *Questions from Alex Deis-Lauby: Chrissy- can you tell us more about the norms of the Belfast dance? * Yes. *Do the youth dancers dance both roles and with everyone? *Yes both roles, yes with everyone. But for perhaps obvious reasons, the teens do tend to enjoy dancing 'with their friends' and historically that has meant that one set tends to have more teens than the others. We're working on that, because we want all of the sets in the hall to be populated by the teens and their good cheer/happy energy. *Do the non-youth dancers do so as well?* Some dance both roles, but to a much lesser degree. *Thinking about ages and genders, who asks whom to dance?* Anyone. Anecdote: I once told a potential new dancer, who was inquiring about our series on the phone, "Anyone can dance with anyone, although I've never been invited to dance by a teenager." The next night, a 13 yo girl invited me for the first dance. Hah! *Are there flourishes? * Yes. *Are the young dancers playful in role swapping or in other ways? Is that mirrored among the older dancers or vice versa?* I think there's generally a playful attitude at our series, but that's across age levels. If, by 'role swapping', you mean switching roles back and forth throughout a given dance sequence, we don't have much if any of that, which I think is a good thing. Our dances always have a high percentage of new and/or easily-confused dancers, and I don't think such a practice would be fair to the other dancers. Sets would fall apart, people would be confused. I think that would be an example of skilled dancers indulging their own whims at the expense of the rest of the dancers in their set, and as I said earlier, people are generally considerate of each other at our dances. *Do the young ppl have ample opportunity to dance with and socialize with their peers?* Yes. Plenty of dancing and plenty of sitting on the sides chatting. *Is there a strong overall culture of consent? * *Is the default: “dance with who’s coming at you”?* Yes, to both. People are nice aka considerate to each other, in general. Some people are insensitive, which makes me crazy as a caller/organizer. (For example, some individuals seem to think they are being awesome dancers when they twirl themselves and other dancers indiscriminately and relentlessly. Ugh. If I were Angela Merkel, you know what my eyes would be doing.) But that is not the norm. *Do people ask what dance role preference their partners have regardless of gender presentation? * I don't know. I know that's what I tell people to do, as a caller ("Invite someone to dance, decide who's going to be lady and who's going to be gent, form a ___set.") I also know that's always a conversation whenever I, myself, get a partner, whether I'm inviting or accepting an invitation. But I don't honestly know what the norm is across the dance floor at our series, so I can't say. *Other notable aspects of your dance community? * I don't know. Um... we holler a lot? We do tend to have a lot of families who dance with their kids, parents, siblings, cousins, aunts/uncles, grandparents (maybe like Aaron Marcus, who was mentioned in another response.) And just a subtle point, I'd say it's less of a dance community and more of a community that goes to dances. Meaning that dancing is not the only reason that these people get together. They might see the same people at school, church, a talk/lecture, restaurant, art opening, concert, movie, rowing, volunteering, hiking, sledding, potlucks, etc. Perhaps a characteristic of small town, rural county life? But our monthly dances do seem to be treasured, which we on the board count as a great thing. _______________________________________________ Organizers mailing list Organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net http://lists.sharedweight.net/listinfo.cgi/organizers-sharedweight.net