Thanks for all the input on walk-throughs -- lots to think about!
I know that this is slightly off-topic, but I wanted to share a different angle on recruiting new dancers -- the slow way! We started a monthly dance a few years ago. As our principal goal as an organizing group was to build community, right from the first dance we made it VERY family-friendly: - we offer a local-foods vegetarian dinner as part of the price of admission (soup, bread, cheese, prepared by rotating local volunteers, often with ingredients from different folks' gardens, root cellars, etc) - we built the schedule around families: dinner served any time from 530-7:30, family dance from 6-7:30, dessert potluck and break 7:30-8, contra dance 8-10:30 - during the break we sometimes feature local kids performing traditional music, or a jam - we charge $8 for the evening (dinner and/or dances, whenever you arrive), but kids and teens (18 and under) are free - we have a local business sponsor (compost and recycling company) who sponsors the cost of the hall and some of the PR - we have worked hard to be cool for area high school students, using whatever connections we can - we send out little poetic reminders each month, and have benefitted from a very supportive local press
On the plus side, this strategy has resulted in strong consistent participation in our family dance, with many of the high school students going on to play in their own bands and dance regularly in their new college towns (including two who are doing a trad music tour of Ireland as I write!) We have found that our dance is particularly appealing to Waldorf School families and home-schoolers, but we have also enjoyed strong participation from families of the small public schools in our rural region. We have recently been asked to join our local sustainability initiative, as an example of using the arts to build community sustainability. I feel really great about the new dancers I believe we are churning out into the world and I hope that many of you find it easy to recruit them to your dances!
On the challenge side, we have had a harder time building momentum with the contra dance part of our evening, though I have to say, we have always had enough folks for a fun dance. With the mixture of new dancers, lingering families, high school age folks, we haven't been able to provide the kind of scene dance gypsies seem to prefer, but we have had some very kind and generous experienced dancers frequent our dance and they seem to enjoy the challenge of keeping it all moving. I have considered booting the kids out during the break when we switch to contra dances, but many of them are becoming good enough dancers that it just doesn't feel right, though I am aware that this shifts our dynamic away from appealing to singles, etc. Instead, our committee has made a big push to pull in people who don't think of themselves as dancers, ex the sustainability crowd, or the church choir crowd, and so far that's keeping the lines pretty full.
Delia <>:<>:<>:<>:<>:<>:<>:<>:<> Delia Clark PO Box 45 Taftsville, VT 05073 802-457-2075 [email protected]
