Jeff, I think including a word for dancing w/ new people in the contra lexicon is a grand idea even if 'I'm dancing w/ newbies for a bit, care to join me?' is a great way to accomplish both including beginners/new folks to the community and setting an example of welcoming for other dancers. If you are looking for a simple marketing word, try "welcoming" or "welcoming newbies" or "teaching". Might not be as funny as "herding" (which is also true and I use sparingly), but it is simple and neutral in response. I'd stick w/ asking others to join you though. Tis volunteerism to give your time to new dancers, but tis community leadership to encourage others to do the same.
Noah Grunzweig -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of [email protected] Sent: Tuesday, May 25, 2010 12:00 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Organizers Digest, Vol 21, Issue 1 Send Organizers mailing list submissions to [email protected] To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/organizers or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to [email protected] You can reach the person managing the list at [email protected] When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of Organizers digest..." Today's Topics: 1. Getting left-out people into a contra dance (Jeff Kaufman) 2. Re: Getting left-out people into a contra dance (Stephen Moore) 3. Re: Getting left-out people into a contra dance (P W Marsh) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 List-Post: [email protected] Date: Mon, 24 May 2010 15:54:59 -0400 From: Jeff Kaufman <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Subject: [Organizers] Getting left-out people into a contra dance Message-ID: <[email protected]> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" 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 -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: application/pgp-signature Size: 189 bytes Desc: not available URL: <http://www.sharedweight.net/pipermail/organizers/attachments/20100524/4 18c3e16/attachment-0001.pgp> ------------------------------ Message: 2 List-Post: [email protected] Date: Mon, 24 May 2010 17:39:42 -0400 From: Stephen Moore <[email protected]> To: A list for dance organizers <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [Organizers] Getting left-out people into a contra dance Message-ID: <[email protected]> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii 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 ------------------------------ Message: 3 List-Post: [email protected] Date: Mon, 24 May 2010 20:32:27 -0400 From: P W Marsh <[email protected]> To: A list for dance organizers <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [Organizers] Getting left-out people into a contra dance Message-ID: <[email protected]> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed The term dance angel floats around. You could be an angel. Alice On 5/24/2010 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 > ------------------------------ _______________________________________________ Organizers mailing list [email protected] http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/organizers End of Organizers Digest, Vol 21, Issue 1 *****************************************
