Entertainment/concert venues hosting salsa/dance bands

[Pacion]

Have you ever been to an entertainment/concert venue that hosted a salsa/dance band? How did the staff cope? :lol: I ask this question because I recently went to a venue that had a salsa band and it was a real test for them :twisted: and us :oops:

They had hired 'extra' headline/security staff because they thought the event would have sold out and the staff were obviously inexperienced with the salsa crowd. I was initially told by one of the security guys we weren't allowed to dance :shock: :shock: We could not go down to the front of the stage (our tickets were not in the section closest to the stage) and then, to add insult to injury, when the security guys had us on the sides/wings, they kept trying to confine us within a set space :shock: Oh! :evil: One of them then planted himself, arms tightly folded over his chest in the 'dance area' :shock:

The House Manager had a number of complaints :lol: He was very understanding and friendly, and I think he tried to do his best after a number of compliants to iron out some of the problems there and then so that the audience members affected and staff were able to have a better evening.

One particularly funny moment was that at the start of one song, many members of the audience in the section directly in front of the stage just got to their feet as one :lol: and went in front of the stage. My friend and I were laughing, thinking, let's see these security guys deal with that now :lol:

I continued to dance on the sides and we chose to see it as an exercise for 'club dancing' :lol: If you and several couples could dance in such a confined space, then you could dance in any club space :wink:

[etchuck]

I haven't ushered for a salsa band before at a concert venue, though I have been to my fair share of bands on a stage near the dance floor at a local bar.

But usually people go to concerts to listen to the musicians, not to dance. You shouldn't be dancing because you might cause injury or be injured by someone who doesn't know dancing that well. And quite frankly the rows of chairs gets in the way.

I ushered for a Brian Setzer concert in which there was a designated picnic area beyond the grassy lawn of the venue where people could swing-dance. That seemed to work very well... especially after I was off-shift and could dance back there (while keeping my eyes out for security purposes).

The craziest ushering moment for me was the free zydeco concerts with Terence Simien. Man, he is such a great performer, but having to do "front row" security was a pain. When Terence decides he'll throw mardi gras beads into the audience, both adults and kids decide to press towards the front row and (if they're not careful) topple into the orchestra pit. Some of my cohorts experienced some weird "grinding" while working front row...

[MacMoto]

I went to Salsa Celtica's New Year's Eve concert at the Usher Hall, Edinburgh. No problem with the staff there. They removed all the seats from the stalls to create a dance floor, and dancers were allowed to take over the space as people who just wanted to listen to the band took circle seats. There were as many ceilidh/Scottish country dancers as salsa dancers, as well as non-dancers on the floor just having fun, but that did not cause any problem. What did create a problem was the floor itself -- as you would expect in a concert hall, the floor had a gentle slope down towards the stage, with two narrow bands of flat areas (one in front of the stage and one across the middle of the hall). People naturally try to occupy the flat sections, and those who started dancing on the sloping part of the floor also tended to shift towards them (gravity playing a part), which got rather crowded as the concert went on.

I hear from people who have been to other Salsa Celtica concerts that a lack of dance space has been a problem with some of the venues. Mind you, a lack of dance space is an issue with some of the regular salsa clubs around here too :lol: (who's bright idea was to plant a tree in the middle of a tiny dancefloor?).

[pygmalion]

A tree? :shock: Huh?

[MacMoto]

Yes, a full-size artificial tree "growing" through the dancefloor. Looks nice and adds to the atmosphere if you look at it from the viewpoint of the drinking crowd and people in the restaurant area upstairs (from which you can see the dancefloor), but definitely not dancer-friendly.

We also have a club with a couple of strategically placed concrete pillars to teach you about watching where you are going. :lol: