I feel this hard. I swing dance and my local scene sucks. There’s no college club for the scene to be based around so everyone who organizes and teaches is out to make money from it. I ran my college club (which was open to community members) and I’ve had them ask me how to increase involvement and they really don’t like it when I tell them it’s far too expensive to dance around here.
I mean, make your own club. It’s as simple as finding a space to do it, inviting your friends, and putting up some posters or whatever.
But finding a space could be difficult. Many people find dancing, or especially learning to dance, in public spaces like parks to be uncomfortable. So you’ll need somewhere private, out of the public eye. You might be able to find space in a local school, library, community center, or church - but these places rarely seem to have a good vibe. Usually they have bad lighting, modernist architecture, lackluster sound systems (if they have any at all), and/or an odor that isn’t bad so much as it is vaguely off-putting. And just generally, they aren’t the sort of places where a vibrant young person wants to go to have a good time. So you probably need to find a private venue, like a bar with a spare back room. The bar might want to host you as a form of passive advertising and a way to get people in the door - but just as easily, they may want you to pay a fee for the inconvenience you cause them and for the use of their space. And fair enough - after all, they still need to make their rent.
Then, you have to actually put on the event. Picking out music, getting a good vibe going, dealing with assholes and telling them to go away, getting the word out, responding to emails, finding people to cover for you when you just can’t make it this week, etc. At which point you realize that you are essentially working a part time job, so you might as well get paid.
I would point out that I mentioned I ran a club before. The venue is the issue. It’s very hard to find somewhere we can use for free. I’m working on getting my garage set up to be able to host, but I don’t really want to open up my house to the public and it’s small anyway. I’m very aware of how to do it, it’s just not practical.
Exactly. You are limiting your ability to make things happen if you insist on making it free. If you just charge a fee, you can use it to pay a venue to host you.
Yes, more or less everything involves money. This is like when someone says “ugh, X isn’t political”, and then someone else points out that no, everything is political. If you want something that can’t just be picked up off the ground, then someone, somewhere is paying for it, in some way.
Exactly. And then we are back to the original issue of where the scene is already at. If you insist on charging money people have an excuse to not go. If it’s free people can just come to try it out. There’s a reason this problem has not been solved yet.
I mean the solution is public spaces. My city had a weekly dance in the park and yeah colleges had clubs. There should be spaces the public can sign up to use provided what they are doing is open to the general public.
As noted before, this will probably present a far larger barrier to most people than a small fee. You can already host an event like this in any given public park with no permit necessary. However, most people have a spare $5 but are highly reluctant to embarrass themselves in the town square - so charging a fee for privacy is more inclusive.
I feel this hard. I swing dance and my local scene sucks. There’s no college club for the scene to be based around so everyone who organizes and teaches is out to make money from it. I ran my college club (which was open to community members) and I’ve had them ask me how to increase involvement and they really don’t like it when I tell them it’s far too expensive to dance around here.
I mean, make your own club. It’s as simple as finding a space to do it, inviting your friends, and putting up some posters or whatever.
But finding a space could be difficult. Many people find dancing, or especially learning to dance, in public spaces like parks to be uncomfortable. So you’ll need somewhere private, out of the public eye. You might be able to find space in a local school, library, community center, or church - but these places rarely seem to have a good vibe. Usually they have bad lighting, modernist architecture, lackluster sound systems (if they have any at all), and/or an odor that isn’t bad so much as it is vaguely off-putting. And just generally, they aren’t the sort of places where a vibrant young person wants to go to have a good time. So you probably need to find a private venue, like a bar with a spare back room. The bar might want to host you as a form of passive advertising and a way to get people in the door - but just as easily, they may want you to pay a fee for the inconvenience you cause them and for the use of their space. And fair enough - after all, they still need to make their rent.
Then, you have to actually put on the event. Picking out music, getting a good vibe going, dealing with assholes and telling them to go away, getting the word out, responding to emails, finding people to cover for you when you just can’t make it this week, etc. At which point you realize that you are essentially working a part time job, so you might as well get paid.
I would point out that I mentioned I ran a club before. The venue is the issue. It’s very hard to find somewhere we can use for free. I’m working on getting my garage set up to be able to host, but I don’t really want to open up my house to the public and it’s small anyway. I’m very aware of how to do it, it’s just not practical.
Exactly. You are limiting your ability to make things happen if you insist on making it free. If you just charge a fee, you can use it to pay a venue to host you.
You’re missing the whole point. Everything has to be about money
Yes, more or less everything involves money. This is like when someone says “ugh, X isn’t political”, and then someone else points out that no, everything is political. If you want something that can’t just be picked up off the ground, then someone, somewhere is paying for it, in some way.
Exactly. And then we are back to the original issue of where the scene is already at. If you insist on charging money people have an excuse to not go. If it’s free people can just come to try it out. There’s a reason this problem has not been solved yet.
Not just an excuse, outright not being able to afford to
I mean the solution is public spaces. My city had a weekly dance in the park and yeah colleges had clubs. There should be spaces the public can sign up to use provided what they are doing is open to the general public.
As noted before, this will probably present a far larger barrier to most people than a small fee. You can already host an event like this in any given public park with no permit necessary. However, most people have a spare $5 but are highly reluctant to embarrass themselves in the town square - so charging a fee for privacy is more inclusive.