We have very few guys who do not do the intermediate lesson. And it's unlikely that any financial incentive would destroy their smug "I know it all" demeanour. Besides, two or three of them stand at the back looking at their watches and doing theatrical sighs if the lesson runs over by 5 minutes. The last thing I'm going to do is give them something for nothing
Getting back to the original theme of this thread . . . . and some of the posts added to it, I would just like to add my "bit"
As a female well past my first flush of youth (cough cough) and even in that first flush was nearer the back than the front in the looks department. . . . I quickly worked out that if I was going to actually do any dancing in freestyle at all I would have to learn to lead, so I did . . . I realise there are some ladies out there who don't want to dance with another female - fair enough, I don't ask them. In class - tough. But now several months on . . . I get asked by ladies, I can swop and change and actually enjoy leading, I also have great fun when some men ask me to lead them. . . If I have to dance as a follow (2 weeks ago we had sexy moves - not appropriate) the men ask me where they are going wrong. . . If I go to a freestyle and start dancing lead, I quickly get men asking me to dance as they see me as "good" Other threads have indicated that a female dancing as lead tends to back lead, but I find that I see first hand the errors that follows make and have hopefully learnt from that.
Finally pricing at the door to encourage/discourage, sorry, but the British General Public do not appreciate or put any value on something free. I used to sell food products at various shows - steam rallies, craft fairs etc round the country, a show with free entry was guaranteed to be poor, people had just gone for a free day out and very rarely spent money on anything other than lunch/drinks etc. So it won't work. I'm afraid that dancing (in whatever format) will mostly be looked at with pleasure by ladies and bemusement/dread by men
Connie. . . I have read some of your posts with great amusement, you seem to have some dancing experience anyway so are picking it up quickly . . . . . learn to lead (it's not as bad as you think) or find a different venue.
Itsybitsy
ps One of the best things about learning to lead is that I can now dance with the good follows, and from that I have learnt at close hand lots about style, timing and grace, hopefully when I get to follow I can put some of it into practice.
I love dancing with ladies. Not sure if they like dancing with me so much. I find it fun, esp in the blues room when i can just do some whatever i like moves, close up and personal and the gals who i really know, give me some real deep meaningful close ups which all add to the fun and excitment of the dancing. Ones esp good at this is Sara White, Twirly Bird, Alex - all temptresses of the dance floor regardless of ya sex.
Gender balancing, who needs it. pah
I cannot see any easy answer to this problem. The fundamental problem is that much more women want to dance (in all forms) than men. Men, in general, not the dance committed forumites here, seem to regard dancing as not a manly activity. They regard going to football or rugby matches with load of blokes or drinking in pubs with loads of blokes as manly activities but being in the arms of 12 women an hour is thought of as a fairly gay activity.
Even in my mothers 20s, when dancing was about the only social activty where men and women could meet without a chaperone, (you either went out dancing or you stayed at home listening to the radio with your parents) the complaints about there being too few men and too few good men were still prevelant.
The only time this stopped was when people started dancing the twist and the era when people no longer required a partner to dance with started. All that happened was that the women all danced togther because they still liked to dance and the guys propped up the bar until the point when they were drunk enough to think of themselves as a "pretty good mover" and they had a women that they liked enough to brave the ribbing that they would get from their mates. Ribbing from your mates was something else - it was perfectly legitimate to "dance" if it was was in pursuit of a woman but not so if it was just dancing for your own personal enjoyment.
So here we find ourselves in 2007 with 5 years of strictly come dancing on our TV publicising partner dance, showing how real men like burly cricketers and athletes can learn and enjoy dancing with women and yet still the call for "more men" is heard from the abundance of women that want to dance.
There seems to be something deep in the male mind that means they just don't want to dance with women because it is unmanly and not "cool". Until a solution to that is found then all the "bring a bloke and get in free" and "reduced prices for men" offers will just be tinkering with the deckchairs on the Titanic.
Perhaps the day will come when men want to dance more than women do. I think it would be unwise of women to hold their breath until that day arrives.
Simple solution:
Use the "scatter" method. This means that the size of the gender imbalance is not announced from the stage every thirty seconds, improving the morale of female dancers.
Complex solution:
On average, male dancers care more about dance classes and learning to dance better than female dancers. The reasons don't matter. Evidence: gender-balanced weekenders are male-heavy in classes and female-heavy in freestyles. Everyone's there for the same number of hours, and men and women tend to spend those hours differently.
In a perfect world, this would result in classes being relatively balanced, whereby the slightly greater number of women who are interested in dancing are balanced with the slightly greater number of men who are interested in dancing well. This can be seen working in other dance styles. In Modern Jive this fails for two reasons:
1. Classes are typically included free with the cost of freestyle, even at intermediate level.
2. Classes are not effective in teaching people to dance well, and people do not take them seriously.
Change these things, and you will acquire more balanced classes. The hard part is doing so without ruining the "Ceroc model" and thus profitability.
Freestyles require a different approach. On average, women are more likely to socialise with other women than men are to socialise with other men. Accordingly, promote socialising as a valid alternative to dancing, via (eg) a quiet area with nibbles and water away from the dance floor. This answers Sparkles point by providing something to keep excess women entertained when they aren't dancing.
HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA having more women than men is a bonus More 2 dance with muhahaahahahahahahaaaaaaaaa
would help if the fellas stop dancing with each other
--ooOoo--
Age is a question of mind over matter, if you don't mind, it doesn't matter
Leroy (Satchel) Paige (1906-1982)
Mickey Mouse's girlfriend, Minnie, made her film debut, along with Mickey, in "Steamboat Willie" on November 18, 1928.
That date is recognized as her official birthday.
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