Building a high school ballroom team or club...

[KevinL]

In the High School and College Ballroom Teams thread, Genesius Redux wrote:
But high school arts programs are generally funded and administered at the local level, so yes, you can get directly involved in creating and sustaining a program in dance if you want to. It's a battle, but it can be done.

Generally, after a program has been established, that's when state and fed officials take notice. For people who are teaching in high schools and also on the forums, the opportunities are vast. But you usually have to start up the program on your own, to cut through all the administrative red tape you would ordinarily have to go through. Invite some teachers from a local studio to the school for a demonstration and an introductory class, get the kids behind it, have them tell their parents, let the parents bug the admin about it.


Does anyone have experience with developing a high school or college ballroom team? What was successful, what wasn't? Any advice for how to go about building such a team or club? Perhaps even what worked for building some other kind of club would work, even if it wasn't dance related.

At some point I would love to start teaching in high schools, but until I can get rid of the day job it won't be an option. Having the information ready to start school programs would be very useful when I finally make the switch, though!

Kevin

[etchuck]

Uh... well... not starting-up one, but I am the advisor for two college dance clubs (Duke and UNC). But I'm also the advisor for a couple of other student organizations. At any rate, pretty much the same rules apply.

Success depends on the enthusiasm of a critical mass of people. I wish there were an easy way to find that critical mass, but you have to know your opportunities. If we're talking high school, there are plenty of high school kids there that would love to do swing dancing or salsa. Depending on where you are, they probably know some. The goal is to find a small group of kids who can rally their friends and (with their enthusiasm) do everything you want them to do to practice or organize dances or go to dances. If they don't love what they're doing, you're not going to be successful getting people.

My role as advisor is to make sure they don't get into trouble spending money, taking advantage of others, or doing anything that could be dangerous. I try to facilitate them in planning events, including getting money and administrative support for what is done. But you have to be a counselor, a teacher, and sometimes a friend. That's the best part.

[LindyKeya]

I started my high school ballroom dance team, so hopefully I can be of some help....

Here's how things happened.
First, the regular dance teacher started teaching what were called "Social Dance" classes. There was also a Social/Ballroom Dance club. Both had kind of spotty participation, but it was a good start. My junior year, some people started a swing team. Members were chosen by the people who started it. We had one performance, and not much happened. So the next year, I took over, we expanded to include ballroom dance, and took things a little more seriously.
In the meantime, the previous dance teacher left, and the new one knew basically nothing about ballroom dance. I TA'd some of her classes, and she and I frequently met together before class so I could teach her the steps she would then be teaching the students of her classes. (A lot of people learned BAD habits because of her ignorance. A very sad situation. One boy I know, who took her classes mulptiple times just found out that Waltz is supposed to move down LOD. He thought it was a stationary dance! :shock: )

So, we had a team. We didn't have enough interest to have auditions, but we did end up with 8-12 couples. Out of those 20-some-odd people, about 6-8 regularly showed up to practice. We had a lot of fun, about 3 or 4 performances, and things went well.

The next year things improved, with increased interest and participation.

Then the next year, it was discovered the the Junior High school dance teacher had been on BYU's ballroom team, and the previous team someone convinced my high school's administration to get her to teach the social dance classes at my high school, and be in charge of the team. This was a total fiasco! She really didn't have the time, and honestly didn't care a whit about the team either. So, it basically ended within the first month of school.

The next year, through dedication on the part of one of the past presidents, the team came back. It is currently going strong, with a lot of interest. (And we are currently rehearsing an Alumni Routine for their Spring Show).


The major problems throughout have been:
Lack of interest
Lack of a real instructor (I was the highest authority the team had while I was there, with very little experience)
Lack of dance space
Lack of funding

Ideally, I believe a high school team would do best if the committment is linked to grades- i.e. I think the team should be a class, during the day, possibly and probably with outside rehearsals as well, like most normal modern dance companies in high school are run.
This way students interested would be required to be at practice, have to take it seriously, and wouldn't have such a problem with finding time to practice. Also, it would ensure a consistent practice place (we often ended up in the cafeteria, in the hall outside the gym, etc.). It's difficult to seriously practice with people walking by, when you are in a small, open space.

But as etchuck mentioned- Swing is a really good place to start. It is popular for performances in assemblies, and kids have a natural interest in it. It's pretty hard to get your average teenager excited about the Waltz.

Oh- one really popular thing we did: One of the service clubs held a fundraiser dance. At the beginning, they had us teach some swing basics, and the first hour or so of the dance was swing. We also did a performance during that hour, which was well-received. After that, the dance lasted another couple of hours, with just general high school dance type music. Handing out flyers at such a thing is a great way to get people interested, and to your stuff.

If you need any more advice, comments, etc., I'd love to help. Good luck with the future!