Chiming in to note a pattern in our area that differs from what some of
these other dances report, which is that at Sautee, Atlanta, and
Gainesville (all NE Georgia) dances it is common for most new dancers to
arrive on time and for there to be about as many experienced dancers
that come early and help out with the beginners' lesson as there are
beginners. In Sautee this Saturday for ContraForce they'll probably have
so many attending the lesson that the lesson circle (at the start of the
lesson) will have trouble fitting around the perimeter of the large old
gym, with some half of those being experienced dancers.
I don't know why that is (on time, roughly as many experienced coming
early). Cultural pattern? It just tends to happen so I don't think about it.
Other notes ... re socialize before the dance ... Sautee established
itself over decade(s) as a family friendly dance. For many years they
hosted a pot luck before every dance until the core folks who did most
of the work got exhausted. I don't know their current post-covid
pattern, but pre-covid they still did pot lucks but just for the talent
and volunteers helping setup.
-Heitzso
Gainesville, Georgia
The idea I have been cogitating on for a while is to somehow change
people's perception of the starting time causing a bit of a cultural
shift. Our dance lesson is at 7:00, dance at 7:30. I would really
love it if we could get the majority of folks to embrace the idea that
everyone come at 7:00. At our last dance we had about 2-3 experienced
dancers participating in the beginners lesson. That's a challenge
with about 30 new students. I imagine new folks could easily feel
like "a tribe apart" with beginners at 7 and everyone else come at
7:30. If we could get the majority of our experienced dancers to come
at 7:00 and help teach the lesson that would be so grand.
Have any of you been successful in making that shift? Changing the
attitude to.... "dance starts at 7:00 and we spend the first 30
minutes welcoming and teaching the beginning dancers because we all
know the dance will be much more fun that way". If we could make that
leap, I think newbies would feel more welcome and likely to return.
It's unrealistic to expect everyone to show up at 7, but I am planning
to reach out to several experienced dancers to see if we can get more
of them on the floor for the lesson.
Also considering "doors open at 6:30" to give folks time to socialize
before beginning the lesson/dance at 7:00.
On Mon, Jul 17, 2023 at 4:11 PM Don Veino via Organizers
<organizers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
A thought on the topic of dance angels...
Would it be helpful to try matching age groups of the beginners
and angels? Having a shared social reference frame (for lack of a
better phrase) could help incorporate those dancers more
comfortably? I mention this as we had a slug of incoming students
from an area private school arrive at our dance as newcomers and
our friendly and helpful older crew did the community thing -
which was great but slightly put them off. The lack of folks in
their age group came up in my later conversation with them - they
had a great time but were looking to mix more with folks of their
own age. Of course that's a chicken/egg thing (I encouraged them
to bring more of their friends next time), but...
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