Dancing in the gray zone

[opendoor]

Reading carefully all those threads in this forum for several years I find that dancing actually seems to be a buisiness thing out and out: dance learning takes place in commercially run dance schools and studios as well as social dancing happens in night clubs, discothéques or other kind of commercially run venues.

So what role does the non-profit dance sector actually play in your life and in your part of the world?

Is there a considerable self-organized dance scene?

Do you learn from each another instead of from professionals (i.e. those who live on teaching)?

So I find myself home in all these intercultural district initiatives, cultural corner shops, and community halls of my home town. Our non-profit dance sector is remarkably growing, and sometimes got a better quality than the commercial one.

 

[tanya_the_dancer]

I believe you need some critical amount of population in order to maintain this sort of grass-roots movement. There is a non-profit organization USA Dance here, one thing it does (among others) is that it has local chapters throughout the country which are supposed to do the sort of thing you're describing. However, IME a local chapter needs a critical mass of local members to sustain itself and eventually grow. We tried to organize one in our town (total pop. ~100,000) some years ago when we were lacking opportunities for social dancing open for everyone, but it fizzled after a few years (when said opportunities were no longer needed, as there became a studio which holds a weekly party open for everyone). The dance community wasn't large enough to maintain the initial momentum when the initial purpose was fulfilled by someone else. In theory, we could have implemented some kind of dance outreach program, but nobody was interested in taking that up - it's a lot of organizational effort involved.

And, as far as learning goes, personally I prefer to learn from experienced professionals at this point in my life.

 

[toothlesstiger]

Really, now, what activity is not commercialized? If you have a passion for it, and you have enough knowledge and skills to teach it, why wouldn't you do so for money? And, yes, there may be a few menschen out there that do it for free, but not enough. And if you have the resources to pay, would you want to learn from an intermediate level amateur for free, or from a highly skilled professional?

If you have enough dance friends, you could always throw your own dance parties.

 

[mjnemeth]

Reading carefully all those threads in this forum for several years I find that dancing actually seems to be a buisiness thing out and out: dance learning takes place in commercially run dance schools and studios as well as social dancing happens in night clubs, discothéques or other kind of commercially run venues.

So what role does the non-profit dance sector actually play in your life and in your part of the world?

Is there a considerable self-organized dance scene?

Do you learn from each another instead of from professionals (i.e. those who live on teaching)?

So I find myself home in all these intercultural district initiatives, cultural corner shops, and community halls of my home town. Our non-profit dance sector is remarkably growing, and sometimes got a better quality than the commercial one.

Basicly I do all my dancing at non-profit group ( http://www.centraljerseydance.org/
and http://hhishag.com/Home.html ) . I certainly learned Carolina shag at the hhi shag club! While I did have a Private teacher ; I certain learn a few dance CJDS , like lindy hop and
improved all dance I know there. Ive been to a couple of chain studio dance and they
were awlful ; songs cut to two minutes and very small turn out.

As far as self-organized dance scene , first I want to mention that many colleges have clubs which are open to the public. I see a number of AT groups around. Now if you want to and Country western, contra and square dancing, there is a lot of self-organized clubs around.

Another point is that there is a lot community dance lessons around , either a part of the towns continuing ed program or the Y or other organizations . And there are community dances around too.

I total disagree with you're "business" premise !

 

[fascination]

I think it is a fair argument that, in this country, the bulk of dance opportunity has been monetized...I think one is being myopic to claim otherwise...whether or not monetizing it is a positive or negative is a matter or personal values...but the fact that the opportunities here are more monetized than in other countries is fairly obvious...having said that, there are certainly exceptions...I counsel engaged couples...as part of that process, I alwasy introduce myself to couples and share a bit about myself...and, in so doing, they often mention how they'd like to learn a few steps in order to look better at their wedding, and it is not uncommon for me to show them a step or two for free...likewise, in our neighborhood every summer, neighbors often sign up to share skills for a week or two at no charge and dh and I have opened the house to a dance party with a few salsa steps shared or whatever...it happens...just not as visible or prevelant as in other places

 

[opendoor]

...We tried to organize one in our town (total pop. ~100,000) some years ago when we were lacking opportunities for social dancing open for everyone, but it fizzled after a few years..

In other words you think that the self-organized sector is due to the absence of professional facilities. I thought that the non-profit scene was a reaction on the over-commercialization of the dance business.

 

[tanya_the_dancer]

In other words you think that the self-organized sector is due to the absence of professional facilities. I thought that the non-profit scene was a reaction on the over-commercialization of the dance business.

I'm just telling you what we wanted here, in this particular corner of USA. 8 years ago or so we had no regular opportunities for social dancing which were open to everyone (as opposed only to people who took lessons at a particular studio). I've posted the story several times on these boards, so I don't want to repeat myself, but this was our reason why we tried to form a chapter - so that we have a regular dance social available to all who would pay a small admittance fee. When this need was filled by a studio (and it has been continuously filled by a dance studio since 2005), the chapter fizzled.

 

[tanya_the_dancer]

Adding: So in our particular case non-profit effort was a reaction to lack of commercial service (in this case, a regular dance social).

 

[bia]

I've participated in community ballroom clubs both in my former mid-sized city and in the small city an hour away from my current little town. Both have regular social dances (weekly for the bigger one; monthly for the smaller) which have bigger turnout than the studios' regular socials (though not more than the studios' big events). Both also offer instruction, but a lot of the members take lessons at studios -- either they started with studio lessons and added the club for additional social dancing, or or they started with the club classes and moved to a studio for higher level instruction as they progressed. I think the clubs play an important role in the maintenance of a city dance community, and in these two cities, they seem to have a balanced relationship with the studios, rather than competing. (In the small city, there's only one studio anyhow, and the club classes are held there, and the membership is almost identical, but the governance and money are separate (though involving many of the same people)).

 

[lorenzof]

This lack of a convenient place to dance socially on weekends was one of the reasons we went in on opening a new ballroom studio.
We do have an active non-profit in the area (USA Dance) but the socials were not frequent enough for us, and not always convenient to get to.

I tried starting up a ballroom club at my last job, and we got a few people coming, and got a few instructors to come. But when you already have a job and other responsibilities, you don't really want your hobby to become a job, too.

 

[Wolfgang]

There's a community center with a weekly dance held by a local organization, they charge a nominal fee, which goes towards rent of the space and getting the occasional band to play there.
You can attend weekly Country Line Dance lessons at a night club for free, cover doesn't start until later.