I'm involved in two different SF Bay Area dance organizations (and call for
dances with many others).
Bay Area English Regency Society sponsors 10-a-year informal dance parties
where nobody gets paid;
Admission is $10 for a 2.5 hour dance with some refreshments. That's on the
honor system, though, and
It's a goal that nobody's excluded because they can't afford it. Reminder at
the break to kick in and sign in if you haven't; cash box stays out until the
end. Most months admission covers rent.
BAERS also runs several balls a year, where some of the musicians get paid,
rent is higher, and there are decoration and refreshment expenses. That's $15
in advance, $20 at the door, some discounts for being with affiliated
organizations ($2 discount max); two breaks, price is the same throughout the
evening, and the door probably closes about halfway through the last set.
(There's a tendency for people to come late to costume events because they're
getting their acts together, so it would be counterproductive to drop prices in
the second set.)
Bay Area Country Dance Society (BACDS) runs contras and English dances, balls,
workshops, camps.
Fee structure:
Supporter: $15
Regular: $10 on Friday/Saturday/Sunday, $9 on weeknights
Member Discount: $2 from regular prices
Student/Low-income: $5
or pay what you can.
("Special" dances with out-of-town staff might be two dollars higher, although
we don't raise the Supporter price and the student price goes up only $1. We
figure the "pay what you can" option - pioneered in our area by the Queer
Contra folks) covers the problem if the prices are too high.
The board made a formal decision in the early 90s that it was full price until
the end of the evening. (At that time we were getting tons of dancers; we
peaked about 2002, had some of our local dances fall very low, and some of
those dances have been brought back to excitement and solvency by the efforts
of committees, but nowhere near the size we were in at the height of the dotcom
bubble and before our neighboring organizations started strong programming
which provided alternatives in semi-plausible driving distance. There was an
argument about how you still had to pay the door price to get into the Freight
(local folk club) after intermission, and how the musicians had been working
all night even if you weren't there, and deserved their pay.)
The board also made a formal decision that you wouldn't get the member discount
if you didn't show your membership card.
Dance managers and people at the door generally quietly decline to do things
they think are stupid.
(Making everybody to pull out their cards (a) makes the process of getting in
really slow, and pisses people off if they miss the first dance because they're
waiting in line to pay and (b) doesn't make that much difference. We make 'em
sign in (for insurance) and check a box for the rate they pay, and we've
occasionally checked to see that the people claiming member rates are in fact
members. They almost always are.)
As far as I can tell, the general policy in actual effect at BACDS dances is
that it's full price as long as somebody's sitting the door; the dance manager
will close the box, count the money, and start doing the split for the band
sometime in the second half, and if you arrive after that it's kind of up to
you whether you pay, and with the "pay what you can" option, it's officially
okay for you to not pay at all if you can't do it now.
The rate chart given above is out at dances; otherwise, no formal discussion or
signage on the what-to-pay-if-you-arrive-late option is in sight.
On a personal note: back in 1989 I was in the Boston area for a training
course, and wanted to go to the Scout House dance. My local friend gave me
directions to Concord with a "and then just ask anybody on the street!"
trailer. It rained fiercely; nobody was on the street. No GPS, no cell phone.
(I found a phone book to look for the street address of the Scout House; I
eventually found it just flipping through pages because it was under "G" for
"Girl Scout House", so now I knew what street I was looking for.) I didn't
find the street because the street name changed at an intersection and a tree
covered the sign with the street name. I found Walden Pond three different
times. I spent three hours driving frantically around Concord in the rain. I
arrived at the Scout House as the last contra was starting, and I probably
looked like death; I was certainly haggard and pissed off. The gal at the door
refused my money and just waved me in. I would have paid full price if I'd
been asked, but it sure made me feel welcomed and helped to change my mood.
[That was the first time I'd contra danced outside the Bay Area, and I had this
bizarre feeling of déjà vu, because it was all the same kind of people in the
same kinds of outfits doing the same kinds of moves, even though all the faces
were unfamiliarity, mixed with a strong feeling of homecoming.) So I'm
personally very much in favor of not being a hard-ass about charging full
admission after about halfway through the last set.
-- Alan
