[Organizers] Lower attendance this year?

[Jeff Raymond via Organizers]

Howdy folks,

Interesting thoughts and I'd like to add a few of my own.
I only now regularly attend our Topsham Maine 2nd Saturday dance of late
and we did have a few bumpy years leaving North Yarmouth but now we have
had an apparent increase in dancers, particularly WHEN our talent is well
known.
Moving closer top Brunswick (Bowdoin College) may have helped.

I do think dancers don't support smaller remote venues or ah less known
talent but life is short, they vote with their feet.

While I feel that the new Portland dance hasn't hurt much yet the 1st
Saturday Falmouth Maine dance recently ceased operations citing a very
expensive venue.
There may have been other reasons, perhaps Portland did impact them as the
Falmouth dance impacted another dance when they started.

One thing that comes to mind is Trump is no excuse for anything!

Keeping an open happy and welcoming attitude is paramount, some times
otherwise excellent dancers and management fall short at this.

Seeking out and  including youth is also key, our long running family dance
is a key part of that effort, some of the dancers today started over 15
years ago with their folks.

Good luck.

Be well, Jeff Raymond
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 at lists.
sharedweight.net>
*To:* Shared Weight Organizers <Organizers at sharedweight.net>
*Sent:* Tuesday, December 6, 2016 8:17 AM
*Subject:* [Organizers] Lower attendance this year?

Hi all,
    Both Montreal and Ottawa have seen lower attendance this fall and we
got word that it's similar in Brooklyn. Are any other local dances seeing
this too? Any idea what might be causing this? Since it happens to both
Canadian and American cities I doubt it's the political climate.
Thanks,
Marie
ContraMontreal

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