Quick Poll 2: Action

Martin - Improve the visibility of venues with some combo of sandwich boards and/or dance ambassadors dancing on the sidewalk just outside of said venues directing people inside.

For UT-swing specifically: The introduction of a progressive lesson series, possibly just before the weekly non-progressive intro lesson.

Heather - @Martin re. UT-Swing: this is something we discuss pretty much every year, and so far the consensus has been “There are so many great progressive lessons offered by professional dance schools, why would we want to compete with that?” So I think that a better challenge for UT-Swing would be to inspire the beginners to go out and take these lessons. I will poke the new president to keep up with this post.

For me specifically: dance as much as I can and drag new dancers out in these next few weeks before I leave Toronto. And then try to apply many of the things that Toronto does well to Edmonton’s scene.

Kevin - I could share my thoughts more freely with dance organizers when I feel that something could be improved and I could connect with DJs not named Randy to talk shop, swap songs, etc.

Alisha - @Bill – LOL – I love it!!!!!
What I could do right now is get off the couch and change to go blues dance at Pub Brouhaha even though I have a tap lesson early in the morning :)

Laura - I could be spending more time dancing at the university clubs in Ottawa. There are some really promising dancers there, and I don’t know any of them because I haven’t been making the effort to connect with them where they live.

Steve - Well, one thing I’d like to see more of is people getting involved on the organizational side of things, whether it’s supporting what your scene already has (be it a dance, class, social event, whatever) or starting something new. As Jasper noted in his comment, it comes down to finding what YOU can do and then actually doing it.

This is something we’ve been trying to do with TLH – offer up a support network to help anyone with whatever ideas they have. I’m don’t think we’ve done a great job communicating that yet but we are working on it.

So yeah, if there’s one thing I could do to make a positive impact on the scene it would be reaching out to people that want to make a difference and help them make that happen.

Brian - @Jasper we should talk more about this sometime when I’m in Toronto. While I’m interested in an upbeat dance night and something that’s not per se beginner-focused, I would be wary of doing something that’s explicitly advanced-dancer-focused and would rather try to hit the sweet spot of having something for everybody. Beginner-friendly without being beginner-focused.

We’ll have to talk and think a lot more about just how to achieve that, but one thing I’ve been told in Ottawa, which I think is true, is that jam circles are actually good for beginners. They like watching the show and it inspires them to learn more. It’s the intermediates who hate them because they’ve been around long enough not to be impressed, but don’t feel good enough to join. But then our job is to make the intermediates feel comfortable joining.

@Steve I agree that working with an existing night is better, and I would want to look into all options. Some motivations for a separate night might be (a) if we wanted a lower-cost DJ’d dance (as I understand the space at the Imperial is more suited to blues than lindy – I’ve never been there so I don’t know. Dovercourt with bands will necessarily be higher-cost. UT-Swing will necessarily be beginner-focused). Or (b) if we wanted to change something fundamental about how others work, like Bill’s suggestion of teaching the ECS basic.

Working with existing nights though, I think Dovercourt could provide “something for everyone” and even at UT-Swing, there’s nothing stopping them from playing faster music after the 1st hour. In fact I used to try to do this when I DJ’d there, only my definition of “faster music” was a lot different then than it is now!