{"items": [{"author": "Hollis", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/699353922012?comment_id=699355608632", "anchor": "fb-699355608632", "service": "fb", "text": "It seems as though the grumbling and anger and unhappiness make this a professionally risky maneuver for callers who want to be hired again, no?", "timestamp": "1418344127"}, {"author": "Hollis", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/699353922012?comment_id=699356047752", "anchor": "fb-699356047752", "service": "fb", "text": "This... is true.", "timestamp": "1418344370"}, {"author": "Richard", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/699353922012?comment_id=699357654532", "anchor": "fb-699357654532", "service": "fb", "text": "Well, since I have a rather consistent record with regards to being hired again, I'd be willing to risk the following maneuver. I'd ask everyone not in the cool hip set to sit down at the sides for a minute, run the dance two times through for the cool hip set, thank them for their demo, and ask everyone in that set to invite someone sitting out to be their partner for the next dance. (My consistent record--at least outside the PA-NJ-NY area--is that I'm not hired again!)", "timestamp": "1418345368"}, {"author": "Aleksandra", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/699353922012?comment_id=699386791142", "anchor": "fb-699386791142", "service": "fb", "text": "Another strategy is for the caller to tell the dancers that the dance will require a lot of space, thus urging them to split into shorter lines without directly commanding it. Some people respond better to indirect rather than direct coercion.", "timestamp": "1418347568"}, {"author": "Robert", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/699353922012?comment_id=699403417822", "anchor": "fb-699403417822", "service": "fb", "text": "And some people are oblivious to hints. :-) Then there's the trick a caller who shall remain anonymous once used at a dance somewhere in the Northeast when he was frustrated by the crowding in one set relative to all the others: he announced a 4-facing-4 dance, and after everybody had lined up in two 4-side sets, \"changed his mind\" and called a different dance, thereby obtaining four more or less equal lines. But you can't do that more than once.", "timestamp": "1418358289"}, {"author": "John", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/699353922012?comment_id=699404894862", "anchor": "fb-699404894862", "service": "fb", "text": "The caller could say - I'm calling Chorus jig and to make the lines short we will dance across the hall instead of down it.", "timestamp": "1418359272"}, {"author": "Ron", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/699353922012?comment_id=699411242142", "anchor": "fb-699411242142", "service": "fb", "text": "Gretchen Caverly, I went to Warren Wilson a couple months ago. The cliquey set there made Concord's tame by comparison. Step 1 is your organizers need to admit there's a problem. Have they?", "timestamp": "1418365700"}, {"author": "Rachel", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/699353922012?comment_id=699414405802", "anchor": "fb-699414405802", "service": "fb", "text": "I posted a note on this on a different thread, but something I've noticed about all these discussions (as someone who studies theories of social behavior and behavioral modification) is that most of the solutions offered are negative and somewhat punitive - tricking dancers into shorter lines, shaming them or calling them out on mic, passive-aggressive threads on public forums aimed at a specific community, ect. Negative feedback is effective only in the short term for behavior modification (e.g., getting people to migrate to different lines for one dance) but leads to much longer-term fallout (such as resentment of callers that do that, insistence on staying in cliquey lines because they've been forced out before, ect). I would love to see more focus on how to incorporate the people who are perpetuating the problem instead of publicly chastizing them. There's still a desire to be part of the larger community in those sets, and often people are aware of the problem but not how their specific behavior perpetuates it. A little kind education via conversation and an initiative to have an entire community cooperate to change the feel of the dance seems like it could go a long way... but doesn't ever tend to be brought up in these conversations.", "timestamp": "1418370383"}, {"author": "Richard", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/699353922012?comment_id=699416077452", "anchor": "fb-699416077452", "service": "fb", "text": "I appreciate Rachel's thoughtful comments. To answer Jeff's original question in a non-joking way, I guess one thing a caller can do--if they have learned this skill--is to call a grid square. That might feel positive to everyone, and does mix up the hall for at least that dance.", "timestamp": "1418374014"}, {"author": "Jeff Kaufman", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/699353922012?comment_id=699421157272", "anchor": "fb-699421157272", "service": "fb", "text": "@Rachel: Do you see dividing an isolated set into two parallel sets or encouraging rumbling between similar sets to be punishment? I think of both of them as allowing people to dance with their friends as they want, but in a less crowded way.
(One positive response to dance culture issues is founding another dance. This a big piece of why BIDA was founded.)", "timestamp": "1418386884"}, {"author": "Andrew", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/699353922012?comment_id=699425773022", "anchor": "fb-699425773022", "service": "fb", "text": "There's only so much a (visiting) caller can do. It's a real problem - at the NEFFA Thursday dance it's a horrible problem. Visitors to our dance look on in awe. Last night, a musician took a picture of the fireplace set segregating itself at the edge of the hall (when the rest of it was mostly empty).
I think it's shameful to be so exclusive in a community where people gather together every week. It's like going to a park every week and leaving your garbage on the ground after you leave.
Dancers can behave that way, but it makes for a toxic atmosphere. It's not a visiting callers' place to fix it, the fix has to come from the community itself, with discussion among the dancers, started either by the dancers or by the organizers. As in other interventions, \"the first step is to admit that you have a problem.\"", "timestamp": "1418390736"}, {"author": "Aleksandra", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/699353922012?comment_id=699426282002", "anchor": "fb-699426282002", "service": "fb", "text": "Rachel - The approach that I mentioned isn't punitive - It's cooperative. It's saying 'hey, this is really the kind of dance that needs shorter sets. Let's cooperate to make this a safe dance.'", "timestamp": "1418391318"}, {"author": "Victor", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/699353922012?comment_id=699426651262", "anchor": "fb-699426651262", "service": "fb", "text": "Some of BIDA's efforts to change dance culture have only been marginally successful. For example, despite signs advising otherwise, a lot of the dancers book ahead. At the last dance, I danced with three beginners in a row, which was fine, but when I then tried to ask experienced dancers, they tended to be booked ahead. Jeff, you're right when you say people want to dance with their friends.", "timestamp": "1418391704"}, {"author": "Ron", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/699353922012?comment_id=699427564432", "anchor": "fb-699427564432", "service": "fb", "text": "Booking ahead is honestly a much worse problem in Concord than the fireplace set. I dance maybe once a month now in Concord, and I see many age ranges represented all over the hall.
However, if I so much as go get water, there's a significant chance I can't get a partner there. You blink, and people are partnered. Angela DeCarlis, dunno if it's the segregation of the set itself specifically you had in mind as the main problem, but my opinion is rallying needs to be focused against booking ahead even more.", "timestamp": "1418392467"}, {"author": "Victor", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/699353922012?comment_id=699428522512", "anchor": "fb-699428522512", "service": "fb", "text": "I don't think booking ahead is necessarily a problem. My point is that it is hard for dance organizers, even with a new series, to create a culture. Not getting a partner is very much related to gender role imbalance.", "timestamp": "1418393029"}, {"author": "Andrew", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/699353922012?comment_id=699429216122", "anchor": "fb-699429216122", "service": "fb", "text": "Ron - the booking ahead and the exclusive set are two sides of the same coin. It's about being exclusive. If everyone books ahead and only dances in their clique, and they always have partners lined up before the end of a set, it excludes all the outsiders.", "timestamp": "1418393694"}, {"author": "Ron", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/699353922012?comment_id=699443008482", "anchor": "fb-699443008482", "service": "fb", "text": "Gretchen Caverly, regarding booking ahead, I quit cold turkey and have never regretted it. Yes, there are occasions when I see a friend from out of state and it is near the end the evening and I want to make sure I dance with them. I will book ahead then, & I even find this to be needed maybe 1 out of 4 evenings.
if somebody is a good enough friend where I want to dance with them frequently, then they are a good enough friend for me to have a conversation with them about how awful booking ahead is in making newcomers and less popular and less attractive dancers left out.
If I need to dance with fewer people in order to help shatter booking ahead practices with my friends, then I will do it. Fortunately, that has not even had to be the case.", "timestamp": "1418404299"}, {"author": "Gawain", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/699353922012?comment_id=699450044382", "anchor": "fb-699450044382", "service": "fb", "text": "The amount that a caller can do alone is limited, and the dancers' reaction depends heavily on the tone used when addressing the problem. One of the most effective strategies I've seen is from George Marshall, who will approach a foursome on the floor and say \"Can I invite you to join the new set over here?\" which gives people the option of staying, but applies a significant amount of pressure to move. The dancers, in Greenfield anyway, usually respond positively to this. I don't know how that would work in Concord.
With regard to booking ahead, I agree that it is another side of the same problem. Earlier this year when I was new to the community, I was frankly appalled by how hard it was for me to get a partner if I didn't ask during a dance, and often had to sit out several dances in a row because of this. Now I try to avoid booking ahead as much as possible, but at some dances it is the only way to be sure that I'll be able to dance at all. Plus, since people typically book ahead with people they already know, booking ahead is a surefire way to exclude newcomers.
I think the only real solution is for the entire community to agree that this sort of thing is a problem, and raise awareness about how particular behaviors, such as booking in advance, perpetuate it more than they often realize.", "timestamp": "1418409370"}, {"author": "Ron", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/699353922012?comment_id=699459555322", "anchor": "fb-699459555322", "service": "fb", "text": "Gawain, while I agree that the whole community coming together is a solution, I have had success in opening people's perspective on booking ahead through one on one chats.", "timestamp": "1418413318"}, {"author": "Gawain", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/699353922012?comment_id=699461197032", "anchor": "fb-699461197032", "service": "fb", "text": "Absolutely Ron, I think 1-1 conversations have much more overall impact than being \"yelled at\" by a caller. But in order for any real change to happen, the message has to get to everybody one way or another, and everyone has to be willing to change their behavior. I am thankful to people like you who work to spread these thoughts around.", "timestamp": "1418413733"}]}