The worlds of competition dancing and social dancing don’t overlap too much. Sometimes the studios where they learn do overlap, though. Wilddancer and wife took many lessons from another Senior Champion, James Kleinrath, at the now-extinct Imperial Ballroom in Redwood City, CA, where we frequently saw Winston and Lily Chow practicing. Their devotion and discipline were admirable, and it paid off when they won a Senior Championship. James told us that to become really good dancers, one needs to enjoy practicing. Perhaps that separates competition dancers from social dancers, because we did not have the time nor the attitude to do that much practice. And we wanted to be able to do a wider range of dances than most competitors can do, enabling us to dance in a wide range of venues to a wide range of music. Plus, the social dance floor is a whole different place, with dancers of all abilities that need to be avoided, while competitors normally can expect other competitors to obey the “rules of the road”.
Tag Archives: dance studio
Don’t Call them Drones
On December 13, 2013 we opined in our blog post that Drones—which we will subsequently call UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) because of the negative image of military aircraft used to seek and kill enemy soldiers (especially terrorists)—could be used productively to record videos of dancers moving around the floor. Although we have yet to see any dance studios use one, the venerable Parrot AR Drone 2.0 (it would be a good idea for Parrot to stop using the emotionally-charged name for this mostly-toy model) in the right hands could give serious dancers and dance teachers some great camera angles not previously possible. In fact, during the UCWDC championships Wilddancer spoke with professional videographer who was taking videos of the whole floor with a fixed camera, but who had used a much larger professional model for other applications. However, in the meantime a bunch of companies—including Always Innovating (which may not yet have commercialized their MeCam), Transition Robotics (with their Quadshot), and Rotor Concept (with models HPQ-1 and HPQ-2)—have started offering alternatives to the Parrot model.
Debonair Dancers Survey Helps Boost Membership
It takes effort to keep ANY group intact and lively. This goes double when there is natural attrition that requires replacing members. But what KIND of effort is best? Wilddancer’s mission is to advise and suggest ways to maintain or increase membership. One of the best ways is to tap the members themselves for ideas, and Wilddancer helped the Silicon Valley-based Debonair Dancers dinner-dance group do just that in a survey of their members during the first calendar quarter of 2013. (Debonair Dancers’ membership had fallen well below their long-term 100-couple level (they formerly had a waiting list), so concerns were growing.) The results of that survey are at survey. The last page of that report lists more than 25 ideas, and the board and members have already followed up on several of them, resulting in a membership boost of more than 20% during the ensuing six months. In effect, the survey acted as a catalyst to remind members of the situation and energize them to act.
Why Some Dance Studios Prosper
Wilddancer’s research into the social couples dancing industry so far suggests that the overall demand for dance lessons is either declining or not growing enough to say so. We spent a couple of days visiting studios in Las Vegas, and came away with some impressions. Dance studios are small organizations and the owners are usually busy teaching, so there wasn’t time for lengthy, in-depth discussions. But a few things stood out. First, like any other business, the better the quality and quantity of effort and thought you put in, the better the results you get. Second, as the nature of the demand changes you have to change with the times and make your offerings match the demand. (The best example here may be Hip Hop. There isn’t any standard version of this. But likely some of the pieces will end up coalescing into a meaningful whole or changing the look of some of the other “street dances”. In any case, it seemed that the more successful studios all offered Hip Hop; we didn’t have time to sample their offerings, but we suspect that they were quite dissimilar.) Third, with all the other things competing for the mindshare of dancers (and prospective future dancers), you have to be opportunistic. (We were particularly impressed with the “Wine, Dine & Dance” event held subsequently by DanceCenter on May 25 that “did well by doing good”, raising over $1,200 for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.)
Wilddancer Helps Survey Debonair Dancers Dinner-Dance Group Members
Couples dancing is social dancing. Even for long-married couples, romance is in the air. And the opportunity to enjoy a nice meal (and drinks) while talking with old friends or making new ones is a wonderful prelude to an evening of dancing. But it takes some effort to keep a dinner-dance group intact and lively. One such group is Debonair Dancers, located in Silicon Valley (where there are lots of other things to do). We at Wilddancer served as their consultant to survey their members during the first calendar quarter of 2013. You can see the results at survey.