LInda-- I love those ideas for getting folks out on the floor. So simple. Thanks! On Mon, Jul 27, 2015 at 10:51 AM Linda Leslie via Callers < [email protected]> wrote:
> What a great idea, Alan! I hope you are able to continue this as a > successful annual event! > Whenever I find folks are reluctant to join in dances (weddings, parties, > etc.,), I find a surefire solution is to begin with a no-partner circle. I > hold hands with the “volunteer” dancers, and snake around the area, picking > up folks as we go by them. You can encourage folks with happy smiles, “Join > us!” and other exhortations….Once we have a good group, I close the circle, > and do hash calls: circle left, circle right, single file left, right, all > f&b, “everybody over 50 into the center and back”, etc., etc. I then from a > circle left, become the lead again, and spiral the circle in, then back > out. It is wonderful how this simple movement to music, and the surprise of > reversing the spiral makes people happy, From here, I would have people > pair up and do a very simple circle mixer, which gets them used to the P > change idea. Then the simple contras. > > Looking forward to seeing the other suggestions that folks offer you! > warmly, Linda > > On Jul 26, 2015, at 11:52 PM, Alan Winston via Callers < > [email protected]> wrote: > > > Over in San Jose we've just done a second annual not-really-flash-mob > dance. Symphony Silicon Valley does a free public series of Pops concerts, > get permission from them, pick one, get a bunch of volunteer dancers and a > pickup band, print up some flyers and put up a sign with the sponsoring > organization logo and URL, We put up a sign with the name of the > organization, set up in the path of foot traffic to the concert spot, and > do an hour and a half (or so) of easy contra dances, encouraging passersby > to join in and hooking them up with more-experienced partners. > > > > This is successful in terms of getting some exposure, and today we got > somewhere between a half-dozen and a dozen new people to actually try it, > and probably moved 25 flyers. Nobody got hurt, some of the dancers stayed > for several dances, etc. We flushed out some old square dancers (who of > course wanted to swing once around and wait for the next call) and some > previous non-dancers of various ages. > > > > (I was calling. First round was missing many volunteer dancers and had > multiple newbies, so I did a one-night-stand dance ("Up the Sides and Down > the Middle") rather than a duple-minor contra; then Cranky Ingenuity, > Inflation Reel, Kitchen Stomp, and Delphiniums and Daisies.) > > > > Posting to ask if people who've done this kind of thing have any tips or > tricks to get things going. > > > > As caller I relied on my volunteer dancers to do the recruiting, and > people had different comfort and skill levels doing that. Is there > something I can tell them that will increase their comfort in talking to > strangers? > > > > Thanks! > > > > -- Alan > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Callers mailing list > > [email protected] > > http://lists.sharedweight.net/listinfo.cgi/callers-sharedweight.net > > _______________________________________________ > Callers mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.sharedweight.net/listinfo.cgi/callers-sharedweight.net > -- Jack Mitchell Durham, NC
