How to organize beginner couples

[Anna]

So we just had over 20 beginners sign up for a competition in 2 weeks. I'm so happy because we've never had more than ~6 join at once, but I have absolutely no idea how to handle so many people...with just a few people, the partnerships just naturally came together, but what do I do now? I don't even know all of them! Should I just sign up people together randomly?

For practices, we have two beginners classes and an organized beginners team practice before the competition, and many of them are planning to jump into advanced classes (we've warned them it won't be taught down to their level, but said that full immersion is a good thing...). We've had people compete after 2 weeks before, so they'll know enough to compete in newcomer level (where everyone else will have about as little experience).

Any other advice though?

[Throwaway Overshare]

You could pair them up... or you could register the entire group with TBA's and sort it out later. It may not be a bad idea to encourage different partnerships for different styles at least as an option, so they all get to know each other better.

Strong suggestion would be to try to have a practice opportunity almost every day - not an expection, just a "John and Jane will be practicing at xxxx, you are welcome to join them and maybe get answers to any questions you are having"... this encourages people to practice outside of class without having to formalize plans to meet with a specific partner - and it helps the group start to figure out who likes to practice a lot vs only show up for classes, which can help with sorting out partnerships. Plus if your host couples are varied, the beginners get to really know more of your incumbent team members.

[NielsenE]

Ditto on the suggestion to advertise non-official practices if at all possible. It encourages them to practice, the more experienced people will probably have some music too, which helps.

I know some schools have the captain/officers pair up people; other schools use a random partner allocation method once people have committed to attending a competition, and others leave it up to the beginners to sort it out themselves.

I know Brown's had a lot of success with their random and multiple partner method -- they always seem to really grok leading and following, but I don't know if it causes grumbling or resentment that they don't know who they're dancing with until the last minute.

MIT's used the "its none of our business how you partner up" approach and it can be a little overwhelming to the beginners leading to drama, but I suspect drama occurs everywhere. On the plus side it does allow "like to find like" in terms of dedication and practice schedule.

I think several schools use the officers assign partners, but I'm not 100% sure so I don't want to single them out mistakenly. However, this model can cause problems when beginners think that the officers are playing favorites. In some cases the professional coach has a lot of say/authority in assigning partners, often in these cases I've heard less complaints of bias, but you still hear some.

All methods work, all have their drawbacks. If you have an extreme gender imbalance, I'd probably suggest going with either the random (and different partners in different styles) approach to ensure that everyone gets to dance at least once without having to use same-sex couples (unless they want to) or the officer assignment method for the same reason.

A parting piece of advice is to make sure they know these aren't necessarily their partners for the entire semester/year. There tends to be some flux early on, and that should be encouraged, IMO, in order for people to find the best fit.

[Anna]

If you have an extreme gender imbalance, I'd probably suggest going with either the random (and different partners in different styles) approach to ensure that everyone gets to dance at least once without having to use same-sex couples (unless they want to) or the officer assignment method for the same reason.


What amazes me most about this whole thing (just ahead of the sheer number of beginners) is that with ~20 beginners, we got a perfect gender balance +/- 1. I'm just hoping all the guys will stick with it! At the moment, we have partners almost randomly assigned (with some considerations about height). I suppose we'll probably stick with that, and then shuffle up the partners after we see who stays around after the first competition.

[fluffy]

At college, we had people who naturally formed partnerships (friends/couples/fancied eachother!) and the rest we tried to pair up according to talent and height - and preference - eg. if they loved latin but hated standard . The good guys soon realise that they would rather dance with a good girl than a pretty, but hopeless one! These partnerships were not set in stone, but the dedicatated dancers usually stayed together for the first year and sometimes beyond.

[IlyZislin]

So we just had over 20 beginners sign up for a competition in 2 weeks. I'm so happy because we've never had more than ~6 join at once, but I have absolutely no idea how to handle so many people...with just a few people, the partnerships just naturally came together, but what do I do now? I don't even know all of them! Should I just sign up people together randomly?

For practices, we have two beginners classes and an organized beginners team practice before the competition, and many of them are planning to jump into advanced classes (we've warned them it won't be taught down to their level, but said that full immersion is a good thing...). We've had people compete after 2 weeks before, so they'll know enough to compete in newcomer level (where everyone else will have about as little experience).

Any other advice though?

First - congrats on lots of newbies! Second, I think most often, a successful way to go is a "hybrid system". Meaning, if some of them pair up themselves, great - the rest, pair up based on height / skill / preference for dance styles. Also, I think Eric mentioned this already, definitely for the first couple of comps get them to dance with different partners for two reasons: 1) it will help lead/follow skills 2) it will help them figure out what they want in a partner.