[Organizers] Re: How was your first experience at a contra?

I started dancing square dances in upstate New York as a kid. Every Saturday evening in the summer local musicians and callers would run the dance. It was an easy way to have contact with the girls for a shy guy. In college in the 50s was the beginning of the club dance movement. I went to

[Organizers] Re: Attracting young dancers

Purely for amusement, I offer this article from 1895 titled "Decline in Dancing" https://www.newspapers.com/clip/40820357/an_1895_analysis_of_the_decline_in/ Dave On 10/29/2023 9:54 AM, Sandy Seiler via Organizers wrote: Our community, like many others, has fewer young dancers than we would

[Organizers] Re: How was your first experience at a contra?

I eased into contra.  I do count my introduction to square dancing in grade school and junior high school gym classes, starting 65 years ago, as my gateway.  I thoroughly enjoyed the activity.  In college, my fraternity held a couple of square dances.  Fresh out of grad school in 1978, I had

[Organizers] Re: How was your first experience at a contra?

I started consistently attending international folk dancing in Austin after graduating from UT. The group had a delightful tradition—not only did they alternate line dances with couple dances, but after the break the first dance was always a contra, called by Chuck Roth. I looked forward to that

[Organizers] Re: How was your first experience at a contra?

That's a great question! I expect a lot of us will have interesting stories to share. (One thing to keep in mind in reading all of these is that they are going through a filter of which of us got enough into contra that at some point we decided to subscribe to an organizers mailing list,

[Organizers] Re: How was your first experience at a contra?

My first time, I attended at the invitation of a friend and coworker. She basically invited the entire staff at our workplace during our weekly meeting. This was in Louisville. I was recently separated, and I knew I needed some positive socialization, so I showed up. I didn't see my friend, but I

[Organizers] How was your first experience at a contra?

You all, I'm curious to hear YOUR first experiences at a contra, whether when young or not. As I think back, it took me three attempts over about 15 years, from young to less young, to get over the threshold and really start enjoying myself (not counting those grade school square dance classes).

[Organizers] Re: Attracting young dancers

Like the question. Could you start a new thread for this? Thanks. On Fri, Nov 10, 2023, 5:30 PM Robert Matson via Organizers < organizers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote: > You all, I'm curious to hear YOUR first experiences at a contra, whether > when young or not. > > As I think back, it took

[Organizers] Re: Attracting young dancers

You all, I'm curious to hear YOUR first experiences at a contra, whether when young or not. As I think back, it took me three attempts over about 15 years, from young to less young, to get over the threshold and really start enjoying myself (not counting those grade school square dance classes).

[Organizers] Request for focused conversation re: dance organizing

Hello dear dance organizers, I appreciate and value this list when it is focused on dance organizing topics, especially when members speak from their own experience. Occasionally, I enjoy posts that meander into related topics, or are an analysis or description of others' experiences...but

[Organizers] Re: Attracting young dancers

>From a quick, non-systematic look, I'd say River Falls tends to follow the traditional gender roles: - April 15, 2023 - February 7, 2015 - August 2, 2014

[Organizers] Re: Attracting young dancers

Julian, Thank you for that graph. Years ago I had read that 1 in 5 experiment and 1 in 20 end identifying LGBTQ+.  Your graph spells it out in generational detail. Thanks again. While any generation has variety, the trends, long-term, are compelling: