Square Dance Council of New Jersey
Hints

The Charles Dickens Classic begins, "It was the best of times.....It was the worst of times." Watching square dance clubs' reactions and results in their periodic attempts to attract new dancers often reminds me of those words and that image.

For a few clubs, open houses are an exhilarating, highlight-of-the-year experience, their panning for gold rewarded by lots of shiny nuggets. For all too many other clubs, it's just another frustrating, futile effort, doomed before it began. Everybody knows you can't get classes any more, 'cause nobody's interested and everybody's way too busy. Yes, we'll make a token effort, but only because we're expected to, and we all already know how it's going to turn out. And, surely enough, having prepared all the rationalizations and excuses and the mindset to expect and accept failure, the prophecy is inevitably self-fulfilling. Another year without new dancers is, of course, another step closer to the club's demise. And Modern Western Square Dance's population continues its steady decline, as its aging, exiting dancers consistently outnumber the incoming, new participants.

I am privileged to belong to one of those clubs squarely in the first category above. For Do-Pas-O in Lancaster, PA, open houses in September are immensely exciting occasions: At last we get to find out how many curious, adventurous, fun-seeking "nuggets" all our publicity and recruiting efforts attracted this time! And we're usually gratified and grateful when we see the actual numbers that did turn out. Add to the pure numbers the fact that we're also bringing in both youth and a good many folks who wind up becoming quite passionate about MWSD, and we feel very fortunate, indeed!

In our own and nearby associations and the surrounding states in which we dance regularly, and at the festivals to which as many as three squares of us travel, Do-Pas-O is earning a reputation and some respect for its recruiting successes and growth, and its dedication to and enthusiasm for MWSD. We are constantly asked what our "secrets" are. While we doubt that we have any startling or truly unique or different revelations to share, we gladly reveal anything and everything we do.

Our willingness to share is rooted in a strong belief all dancers and all clubs need each other, and all have to support each other's endeavors for our marvelous activity as a whole to survive. We all share equally the responsibility in halting MWSD's decline, nurturing its recovery, and leading its resurgence to renewed vitality and popularity.

Our results weren't always something to write home (or anywhere else) about. In 1996, our class numbered four (two still dancing). In 1997, the class had eight new people, with four still dancing. In 1998, we crashed and burned! Only three couples started in class. Two of them left soon with injuries or health problems, and the third just couldn't seem to get it, so we pulled the plug. It was the first (and last) time in the 15 years I've known Do-Pas-O that there wasn't a class. It turns out maybe that was the best thing that could have happened to this particular club!

We didn't blame our failure on factors beyond our control. Instead, we became determined we would never again go a year without new dancers. The Club's leadership weighed long and hard all the things we could possibly do to create public awareness of the joy of square dancing, its physically and mentally healthful benefits, and its availability and accessibility right here and right now. Most important: How could we convince people to come out and try it, at least once?

What resulted? Here are some of Do-Pas-O's facts and figures since 1998:

• We open to new dancers once a year, in September.
• We hold two open houses, the first is either the third or fourth Saturday in September and the other is the Monday nine days later. Saturdays are the typical "date night", and Mondays are our regular "new dancer" nights year around.
• As our promotional efforts got better, so did the number of new people we drew each year, growing from 30 to 40 and 50 and then 60, reaching 80 in 2004.
• Obviously not everyone is suited (or motivated) to become a square dancer. We're finding roughly 25 to 30% of those who come to the open houses can be enticed to continue on.
• The smallest class we've graduated since 1998 is ten; it has usually been at or near 20 most years. For instance, from 2001, 19 graduated and 17 dance today. From 2002, 18 graduated and of those 15 dance with us regularly and two others plan to return. 2003 was another big year with many teenagers included. Conflicting activities for some of the teens and a rash of health problems has limited the number who have joined the Club to date, so we can't tell yet how many will eventually be counted.
• At the end of December, 2004 we have over 20 new dancers going strong with every indication all will graduate in April.
• The Club's annual paid memberships grew from 75 in 1998 to 121 in 2003, a better than 60% increase. Just to clarify, students/new dancers are not counted in each year's paid membership totals.
• On our "new dancer" Monday nights, we typically have seven to eight squares, made up of the 20 to 24 students and 36 to 40 angels. With that many squares and angels, the new dancers feel like they're at a dance every week, rather than in a class.
• It's rare when less than at least one square of youths (defined as under age 20) is dancing with us; often it's closer to two squares.
• Because we don't pry into our member's actual ages, we can't give the exact figures, but the Club's dancers' average age has plummeted with the steady influx of both new dancers and the youth.

Our encouraging numbers aren't limited to just our new dancer programs. We're told these are also enviable statistics:

• Our monthly plus level dances average 12 squares. 14 squares are not unusual; 10 squares is a disappointing night.
• Our new dancer and mainstream dances average seven to eight squares (similar to what we get on Monday nights).
• At Do-Pas-O's memorable 50th Anniversary dance two years ago, we hosted 400 dancers (that's 50 squares) and 350 of them dined with us.

We hope the reader will understand the motivation for sharing all of this and what will follow is neither to blow our own horn or pat ourselves on the back, nor even to draw any attention to ourselves or our Club. It's simply this: we have been asked so many times what it is we do that we decided to put it into writing in order to share it with anyone and everyone who cares. Frankly, we're not totally satisfied with our results. We do see them as a nice beginning, and as encouragement to keep on setting higher expectations and goals. We also see the results as some affirmation that real determination and honest efforts have their rewards.

Another motivation is our belief that many of the things that work for us could work for other clubs, also. Maybe they just didn't think of some of the things we do; or maybe they've given up because they're convinced it can't be done.

It can be done! Our results are proof! Even if your club can do only half of what we do, and you get only half the results, wouldn't that be a worthwhile step forward?

To try to keep things to reasonably readable lengths, we'll relate the key details of just what we do and how we do it in several monthly installments. Next month we'll share the specific things we do to attract people to our open houses. Obviously everything begins with our getting them there in the first place. THAT IS ABSOLUTELY THE KEY! Anything else is completely meaningless unless we can get them to come out and try it at least once.

The following month, we'll reveal how we keep them once they've come. We do everything we can to make square dancing the thing they most look forward to each week, and the square dancers they meet the people they most want to spend their discretionary time with. As long as square dancing remains a fun, friendly and satisfying experience, we know they'll keep coming back. If it becomes in any way just another commitment or obligation, another chore or irritant in their lives, they're gone, never to be retrieved.

Our last installment will make a case for our belief that Do-Pas-O's approach is a far more effective, realistic and lasting hope for MWSD's survival, when contrasted with the American Callers' Association's scarily simplistic, one-trick-pony solution: just dumb it down! Strip the guts out of the present basic/mainstream/plus programs and simultaneously turn all dances below the Advanced level and the main floors of all festivals into "dancing for dummies". Supposedly this will miraculously cure all of MWSD's recruiting, retaining, retrieval and festival attendance problems. We'll tell you exactly why we find that to be not only a colossal crock....but also a dangerous and destructive strategy from which far more harm than good will come, especially in the long run.

If you think any of this could be interesting or helpful to you, stay tuned. If you're already doing better than we are, or you're using something that might help us, please share with us. Healthy, growing clubs everywhere are a prerequisite for healthy, growing MWSD. We're all in this together!

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*As published in American Square Dance Magazine March, 2005.