Thanks, Chris! Oh boy, I have been thinking a lot about this lately!!
Our format is:
5:30 -- dinner (soup/bread/salad, locally made by a member of our
dance committee, with help, local ingredients)
6:30 -- Family dance
7:30 -- Break, dessert, often music, either kids performing or adults
jamming
8:00 -- Contra dance
We charge $8 for meal/dancing; kids and teens are free. We get a
consistently great turnout for the family dance and a very spotty
turnout for the contra dance, sometimes big enough feeling, but often
barely enough for one short line, depending on how successful we are
at seeming cool to the local high school kids on that particular
night. Also our after-8:00 experience level varies hugely. We use
the same band (Old Sam Peabody) and caller (me) each month, unless I
need to travel for work and then I get a sub. We're coming to the end
of our second year.
My # 1 thing that I wish I had known:
When we let kids stay on and dance the first few dances of the contra
dance it drives away some of the adult dancers, so we tend to either
have a depressing-feeling mass exodus after the 2nd or 3rd dance as
the families leave, or dance gypsy types come once, see that we're
still doing Family Contra or Haste to the Wedding after 8 and don't
come back. If we had had a cleaner transition from family to contra
dance, right from the start, (as I believe you do so effectively at
your Belfast dance, Chrissy) OR if we had just gone with our big
strength and made it a family/community dance I think it would have
helped.
#2
Besides the wonderfully loyal and growing family following, we tend
to get our best adult participation by inviting local friends who are
new to contradancing but like a good time. I wish I'd anticipated
that this would be one of our best avenues for attracting dancers and
maybe started out with a class or something. We tend to get a very
uneven experience level so it's hard to find enough easy but
interesting dances. We're about to reach out to the trad music kids
at the high school and see if we can pull them in more regularly.
#3
Our committee has been by far our biggest asset. One guy's business
sponsors renting the hall each month; a woman cooks the whole meal
each month, one woman is homeschooling her 6 kids and they regularly
help with set-up, slicing/dicing and desserts, our band is
represented on the committee, etc. I feel really lucky to work with
these great folks but I wish I had thought through a little more the
importance of having diverse folks who can help draw in a wide range
of community members.
Bonus: #4
I wish I had thought through that adults don't want to eat dinner at
5:30 unless they're bringing kids, so we should have advertised from
the beginning that dinner is served through 8 so folks could arrive
at 7:30 and eat. It's hard to change now, since we made posters for
the whole year, and we're in a set pattern.
Can't wait to read everyone else's 3.
Thanks,
Delia Clark
On Dec 11, 2009, at 7:14 PM, Chris Weiler (home) wrote:
Hey everyone,
I was thinking back to when I got started organizing my own dance
series a few years ago. Mostly about how much I didn't know what I
was doing. It worked out well and the series is still going, albeit
without my involvement now.
So what I'd like to do is hear from people and find out what they
know now that they wish they had known before they became involved
with organizing dance events. Pick the top 3 things (or more if you
want) and send them to the list. Afterwards, we should have a
pretty good list of information for people who are interested in
getting started.
Here are mine:
1. I would have liked to have a better understanding of how broad
the responsibilities of the organizer are. You need to be skilled
in negotiation (booking), finances and budgeting, marketing, risk
management and people management. I'm sure that I missed some, so
feel free to add yours.
2. I didn't realize how much work it was to put on a dance series,
so I should have been more proactive about recruiting help. I
burned out after a year an a half and handed the series off to
other people. Now I serve on three committees that put on either
monthly or weekly dances.
3. I had thought some about the purpose of my series (to give me
more experience as a caller), but didn't think as much about how it
fit into the community and the vision for how it could contribute.
A well thought out vision would have guided me towards better
success and away from second guessing myself.
Looking forward to hearing people's responses.
Chris Weiler
Goffstown, NH
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Delia Clark
PO Box 45
Taftsville, VT 05073
802-457-2075
[email protected]
