Podcast: Play in new window
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Tips and suggestions on how to grow and develop your dance scene. Here is what we are going to cover in this episode:
- How to retain students
- How to get new students
- Starting from scratch
- How to market yourself and your class
Oooh can you do a podcast about what music is suitable for swing dancing and why, and what music is not suitable (like neoswing and the like that “younger” DJs sometimes want to play) and why not?
Hi Agnes. Sure we will add that to our program list. It’s a delicate subject and of course opinions differ widely but we can absolutely offer our thoughts.
I’ve just started a swing dance community from scratch in the countryside of Japan last summer. This podcast episode told the same thing about what exactly I did. At the very beginning, I found one person who was interested in swing dance (she had a lindy hop experience). We started practising together, made a flyer, advertised our group on Facebook and Instagram, and danced at jazz live events etc… However, after 6 months, permanent dancers in our city were still two of us (Culturally, Japan would be a bit difficult country to find someone who is interested in social dance). But we have kept trying to dance in the jazz live events, gave flyers to everyone, found a dance studio, and been having regular practice sessions every week at the same place. After one year, we have now around 20 people in a group. Everyone has just started lindy hop less than 3 months and they are different levels, ages, and native languages. But they are nice. Unfortunately, my first dance partner just left Japan and I am alone who knew Lindy Hop in this city. But your podcast has many ideas to keep dancing and community. Thanks a lot for this huge work and nice talk! If you have a new episode about building a new community and how to teach very beginners, I’d love to listen!