Dance Organizer's Role
Bob Stein
On Tue, 22 Apr 1997 01:43:11 -0400, Kiran Wagle wrote:
}And I may as well pose an important related question. Wearing all your
}hats in turn, what do you think the dancers', stakeholders', and
}organizers' jobs are, and should be?
(I'm home sick from work today, so I can do something that is useless and
play on the 'net...)
Well, Kiran, here we go again!
I'll take on the organizer's role. I guess I could do the others, but if
I narrow my focus, I'll make more sense!!!
BTW...I am specifically talking about contras, and to some extent square
dances. Some of this may apply to swing dancing, Scandinavian,
international, etc.
I think dance organizers take on huge burdens. Most of us who do this
fail miserably at our tasks; since doing this successfully would take a
full-time job, IMO. So, being that most of us are part-time
managers/organizers, we do pretty well!!! (Hmmm....I've contradicted
myself within two sentences....not a good sign <G>)
The Dance Organizer's Golden Rule:
"Maximize the enjoyment of the most number of people who attend the dance"
I think that for this to be effective, organizers must take care of the
details first, and then worry about the "ponderables" later:
Los Details:
1. Make sure that the hall is open and functional. Make sure that there
is an emergency person to contact who is affiliated with the hall. Make
sure that volunteers and/or appointed people are there at the hall at a
time that will enable them to perform the set-up functions that they need
to do so that the dance will actually happen on time (or at least close to
on time!)
2. Make sure that the sound system is functional. Make sure that the
set-up of the system is done early enough to do a reasonable sound check.
3. Make sure that you have a system set-up to book bands: preferably 3--6
months ahead of time for local bands, and 6 months -- 1 year for
out-of-town bands. If you have a large selection of local bands, make
sure you have a system that enables them to play as much as possible
without one band feeling slighted in regards to amount of playing time.
Leave enough spots open for out-of-town bands, especially those that are
favorites of local dancers.
4. Do the same with callers as with bands (see 3 above!)
5. Communicate with other dances (if they exist) in your geographic area
so that you may coordinate with them in terms of bands, callers, use of
space, special events, etc.
6. Advertise your dance: at local colleges, in local papers, places of
worship, local radio stations, other dance venues in your geographical
region.
7. Set up some kind of beginner's workshop at some point (before the
dance, during the break, on special event days, etc.) and keep this as an
on-going part of the dance. This will help beginners feel more
comfortable.
8. Make sure the burden of organizing the dance falls on AT LEAST one
other person besides yourself. In other words, seek help! Dance
organization is a very difficult task; there will be times in your life
where you may not be able to meet the responsibilities of your job. A
committee, or small group, or some other more-structured organization can
be a big help.
Les Ponderables:
1. Solicit feedback from your local callers, dancers, and musicians. All
information provided by people is useful; even if it is just to give you
the sense that the person who is telling you the information represents a
minority view. This will give you a sense of your dance as a whole
community.
2. Work closely with your local callers and establish a system of regular
coordinating meetings (or at least conversations!). As I think of the
Golden Rule for Dance Organizers, this certainly applies to the caller.
Try to engage them in ways that will help them build a better dance
program and have them aware of the little subtleties that make the dance
program flow smoothly and at the same time maintain the sense of
community and fun.
3. Support and nurture volunteer efforts amongst your active and
long-time dancers (Kiran would call some of these "stakeholders"). If
people have a talent in decorating, employ them for special events. If
they are good at coordinating activities, use their talents in
coordinating food, drink, etc. and events. Perhaps people would be
willing to do child-care for part of an evening. Some people might be
good at doing sound. Others enjoy doing the "grunt work" of cleaning,
sweeping, tearing down, setting up. Recognize these people, stroke them
publicly, provide incentives (such as free admission, etc.) and you will
have a loyal volunteer base.
4. TRY TO MAKE YOUR DANCE ACCESSIBLE TO ALL AGES. I cannot stress this
too much. Sure, it is fine to do a "Beginner's Night" or an
"Experienced-Only Night" once in a while. However, your main goal is to
create a true open community. Many contra dances (with the exception of a
few that I have read about in this newsgroup; LA comes to mind) are now
populated with "40-somethings"; for our dances to continue, we need to
open our doors to all people. Make young people feel comfortable; don't
condescend or condemn them for any variety of "sins". Welcome people who
are divorced, or new to the area, or single; provide an atmosphere where
they can fit in and feel that they can interact with people without
feeling the social pressure of dating. Make people in their 60s, 70s, 80s
and above feel comfortable: allow them to "proceed at their own pace".
Above all: Welcome young children and their parents. Kids (I'm taking
some liberty here and quoting an age range: 4--10) LOVE to dance; they
love interacting positively with adults; their sense of accomplishment and
mastery is an amazing thing to behold when they feel that they can dance
well. Their parents are RELIEVED to find an activity in which they can
interact with their peers AND their own children. You may be creating a
life-long dancer by welcoming a child into the dance community. Which
leads to the next "ponderable":
5. GENTLY take a role in facilitating positive behavior and community
feeling at your dance.
a. If you notice a certain gentleman or lady acting in an inappropriate
manner ("wolfism", overly aggressive dancing that could lead to someone
being hurt, offensive language or inappropriate flirting--you would have
to figure out for your own community what these things are), and other
dances are complaining about them, talk to them privately and see if you
can make them aware of the impact that they are having. BTW...there is no
guarantee of successful intervention here: people are people and bring to
any interaction their own peculiarities. The worst thing that could
happen is that the person will be aware of this and do nothing to change
their behavior. If necessary, you can ask the person to leave the dance
and not return if the violations are egregious. I would say that this is
a worst-case scenario; most people are open to change if you present to
them the problem in a respectful and gentle manner. It may take some
time, though...
b. If you notice people being intolerant of children at a dance, and the
children are not behaving inappropriately, talk to that person (again,
with respect and grace!) and make clear to them that the dance is a
community dance and is open to all. Make alternative suggestions that
they could do: dance in a different line, come later in the evening when
less children will be dancing (due to sleeping or that their parents
leave!). Best of all: you may ask them to think of themselves as big
brothers or sisters so that they will take a role in helping kids learn to
dance better. Nothing like a 1000-watt smile from a 6-year old who can do
a swing or a ladies chain and end up on their feet!!!
c. Conversely, if you notice parents not supervising their children
closely, so that the kids are running wild through the dance, talk to them
about the safety issues in letting their kids run wild. Mention the fact
that it diminishes the rest of the community's fun if kids are caroming
off walls like energized electrons. This problem may be alleviated if you
can set up a child care space somewhere in the hall where kids can be
kids, and adults who LIKE working with kids can supervise. (This is a
difficult issue; I have only seen this successfully done in the Princeton,
NJ dance community. It usually means that the community is particularly
close and friendly. Not always possible in big urban dances, but I think
there are ways around this.)
d. Come up with ways that dancers can have a say or a vehicle to express
their opinions to the organizers and the community members. (Kiran and I
had a great discussion at NEFFA this past weekend in which we talked over
these issues. My suggestion was to have a large easel, or pad in which
people could give input on the "Question of the Week"--example: "What is
the role of the stakeholder, organizer, etc, etc." If the organizers pay
attention to this, they may glean much information. Dancers will feel
that they are being heard and have a stake in the direction the dance
community progresses.) There are many ways in which you could elicit
this. General meetings, floating pot-lucks at different houses, secret
ballots....once again , your community should be the judge.
Well....
I rambled on quite a bit, didn't I? I'm sure that this list is not
complete; I invite all people who visit this newsgroup to give their input
on this question.
Happy dancing!
-Bob S
--
============================================================
Bob Stein, squeeze at voicenet dot com
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"Grits, like potatoes, are inexplicable to anyone who doesn't have
the sense to like them."
--Roy Blount, Jr.
Nobody
On Tue, 29 Apr 1997 12:14:31 -0400, see-m...@nospam.com (Bob Stein)
wrote:
>Well, Kiran, here we go again!
[snip] etc etc
My wife and I are dance organizers. We, luckily, don't often have
live music and live simply. My wife teaches, I don't know how. When
she got sick, I had to take over. We had the greatest day that day.
My approach: Get the technical means there, let the dancers supply
everything else. Amazingly, it worked. Your mileage may vary....