Well, I don't find this to be a difficult question at all. We seem to have a steady stream of 6-8 new dancers each evening at our dance in Lenox, MA (LenoxContraDance.org). We encourage our experienced dance community in several ways to take time to dance with the new dancers. I generally try to have 3 or so dances in the first half dancing with new people to get them off to a nice, friendly start. When I'm asked to dance during this time that I'm searching out the new dancers I simply say that "I'm dancing with new dancers for a while. Want to join me?"
Try it! Stephen Moore Lenox Contra Dance, Lenox, MA. On May 24, 2010, at 3:54 PM, Jeff Kaufman wrote: > At dances I'll sometimes skip out on the initial partnering to see if > there's someone who didn't end up with a partner but would like one. > I've done this the most at dances where I have some sort of > responsibility in the group (bida, the contra dances at swarthmore), > but I try to do it whenever I notice people getting left out. This > works pretty well at getting people in, especially new people. The > main way it doesn't work is if I get asked to dance by an experienced > dancer when I intend to be doing this. I can avoid that somewhat by > making myself scarce refilling water pitchers or whatever, but > sometimes people who are fun to dance with and will not be having any > trouble finding a partner ask me right away. I can say "I'm sorry; > I'm looking for a left out newcomer to dance with" but that's kind of > strange and a bit of a mouthful. I think what I need is a name for > this activity. Is there one already in use somewhere else? I'd like > to be able to say "sorry, not this dance, I'm [name-of-this]ing". > > Another advantage of a name is that even if the person I'm talking to > doesn't understand me at the time beyond "jeff won't dance, need to > find a different partner", if they come talk to me later I can give > more detail and it will have a name attached. > > Jeff > _______________________________________________ > Organizers mailing list > [email protected] > http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/organizers
