I agree with some of this.
People on here (and probably outside of the forum) are always looking for that great dance, but 'great' can mean different things to different people. For me a weekender is about accessing those 'amazing' dancers that I never see the rest of the time (these could be teachers in the 'teachers' area in the main room, it could be people i've seen dancing the way i'd like to dance, or it could be looking out for forumites that i've heard great things about. And often at a weekender, I feel a bit disappointed with good dances until I've hit that one 'amazing' one (usually by midnight on the Friday), then everything seems on a high after that.
Unfortunately cliques do exist, often accidentally (eg the forum group) but for some reason it impacts me more in the blues room. In the main room, I'm not going to let myself be held back by being scared to ask someone to dance if people are in a hotshot group (for me those seemingly unobtainable people are hotshoty there, but the blues room feels more cliquey because people generally congregate round tables there/socialise more so it's harder to tell when they're ready to get up and dance).
I wouldn't say I'm intimidated or feel inadequate due to my standard of dancing, but it's like anything...finding that way to approach a group - whether it's in real life or the dance world. I don't know that there's much a 'clique' can do to avoid the label, as a lot of it may be down to perceptions of the person looking in.
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