Delaware Valley RSCDS: Social Outreach

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January 2003 -- Alfred's summary

The Branch's Teacher's Committee, in response to concerns aired at the last annual meeting, established the Social Outreach Committee to consider how our Branch welcomes, or fails to welcome, newcomers and out-of-towners to our balls (especially) and to other events such as classes and social parties.

At the time it was established, most teachers felt that they should be teaching individual dancers how best to behave on the dance floor so that everyone has the most fun possible. Upon subsequent consideration, the committee found that organizational arrangements and even the shape of the dance hall have a good deal of impact as well. These observations have been passed on to the Executive Committee for action.

At the outset of our deliberations, one fundamental reality was clear: the members of this Branch are as civilized, courteous, and warm-hearted as dancers anywhere. Nothing written here is intended to suggest otherwise. We would like to suggest a few things, however, with the focus mainly on balls:

In the happy confusion of hanging up coats and changing into ghillies, make an effort to say "hello," or even just "hi!" to folks who are strangers to you. Few acts make people feel as welcome at the outset of the evening.

On asking and being asked....

We all want to dance with our friends and will continue to do so; that's only natural. But let us spare a couple of dances for people we don't know, including those we see only from time to time and older dancers who don't move as quickly to find a partner. The latter are usually well able to execute the figures of a dance even if their steps are somewhat less than perfect.

• Be considerate when you yourself are asked to dance by a stranger. Take a chance! Be open to a new connection!
• If you must decline because of a previous commitment, soften the rejection by saying so. (You might even engage for the next dance since you are taken for the current one.)
• If you decline, saying that you want to sit a dance out, do so regardless of who else asks.
• If there is an easy dance coming up, that is a prime opportunity to respond to an experienced dancer's invitation with: "Thank you, but this is an easy dance so I'm going to find a beginner." Perhaps they will take the hint. Then go and find that beginner, etc., and have a grand time helping him/her succeed.

Enjoying your set

1. Before the set has been counted off, make spaces for couples who want to join in. If they are fine dancers, that's one kind of a plus; if they are not so fine, helping them have a good time is another kind of satisfaction.
   
2. Make sure everyone is introduced to the others in your set; a country dance is a team effort and that momentary focus on all the others in the set will draw you together.
   
3. If you have a name tag or button, try to wear it. Magnets hold them on without making holes in your nice silk dress.
   
4. After having been counted, it is perfectly all right for a couple who is feeling a bit uncertain about being first to invite a more experienced couple to initiate the dance. If the uncertain couple don't know the other couples in the set, the more experienced among us can offer, with vast polite diffidence, to take their place.
   
5. Mistakes happen. The world goes on turning. The mark of an experienced dancer is the ability to recover and to help others recover. Work as a team to resolve the confusion; victory will pull the set together. The technique that makes SCD so attractive to most of us takes time and effort to learn. A beginner's shame at making a mistake is a powerful demotivator. Don't let it become an issue.
   
6. When dances are encored, those who are willing to sit down instead of repeating the dance should hold up their hands (typically when the MC invites them to) and make welcoming eye contact with those who didn't dance the first time so they can enjoy, at least, the encore.

We are also going to encourage our teachers to teach waltzing so more can enjoy this way of warming up before a dance and cooling down afterwards.

These are a few ideas that should make our balls more fun for everybody. Fundamentally, they are based on the truth that helping others is simply another way of enjoying oneself. Our balls, social dances, and classes can be, for all of us, a mix of that kind of satisfaction and the usual pleasure we get from dancing with old and capable friends.

Alfred Hurd, Chairman