Stephen’s Square Dance Blog

I was going to post this on the sd-callers email list, but changed my mind. I’m not sure why, but I felt this was a better forum. (I suspect it is because there are a number of people on that list that just like to disagree/complain and I don’t feel like listening to them today.

The topic from marketing man Seth Godin’s blog today http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/11/watch-the-money.html is “Watch the money.”

For me, the lesson came in his final statement… “Money is more than a transfer of value. It’s a statement of belief. An ad agency that won’t buy ads, a consultant who won’t buy consulting, and a waiter who doesn’t tip big—it’s a sign, and not a good one. ”

As I see it, in the 21st century, Seth is right, money has become statement of belief. I’ve seen in it politics, in religion/faith, and in the workplace. Why else would someone ask, “Care to put your money where your mouth is?”

In square dance land, it doesn’t matter if you’re talking about how much your charge for your services, how much you pay to dance, or how much you spend on records/music. What you do or don’t spend on the activity is very telling.

For this reason, I pay when I go to dances even when those in the know offer to let me in free because I’m a caller. For this reason, I buy new music that I might not use. For this reason, I subscribe to both American Square Dance magazine and Zip Coder. For this reason, I subscribe to the Palomino music service. For this reason, I don’t give my services away except in very rare (and special) circumstances. I believe in, and value, square dancing and the square dance experience.

For those that aren’t interested in the link, here’s Seth’s post:

Watch the money

“How much life insurance do you have?”

Zig Ziglar liked to say that with that one question, you could tell if someone was a successful life insurance agent. If they’re not willing to buy it with their own money, how can they honestly persuade someone else to do so?

If you’re in the music business but you never buy tickets or downloads, can you really empathize with the people you’re selling to?

My favorite: if you work for a non-profit and you don’t give money to charity, what exactly are you doing in this job? I’ve met some incredibly generous people in the charitable world, but I can also report that a huge number of people—even on the fundraising side—would happily cross the street and risk a beating in order to avoid giving $100 to a cause that’s not their own. And the shame of it is that this inaction on their part keeps them from experiencing the very emotion that they try so hard to sell.

Money is more than a transfer of value. It’s a statement of belief. An ad agency that won’t buy ads, a consultant who won’t buy consulting, and a waiter who doesn’t tip big—it’s a sign, and not a good one.

I read lots of stuff. Sometimes, I can’t stop reading. If I’m reading a novel, I really focus on it, and little else. If I’m reading about anything else, I can have several books going at once. It lets me process the material from one subject while I’m engulfed in another.

One of the books I’m reading now is called The Imagineering Way: Ideas to Ignite Your Creativity. It is a short book by the Imagineers at the Walt Disney Corporation. It’s full of all sorts of tidbits. Some are the usual creativity and leadership stuff, but there are some real nuggets in there.

On page 169 is this quote: “What we do is a kind of art-we’re in show business, like it or not. The guests pay to be entertained. Our product must include caring an passion, not just formulatic cold procedure.”

This is so true of what we do as square dance callers. I, as a dance leader, could memorize the rules of the dance and just spit them back out week after week. It’d be just like reading to people. Or, I can study my craft, and put together a dance reads like a story.

A story that has a beginning, a middle, and an end. A story that has a young hero saving someone in distress, that overcomes all odds, and is victorious at the end. Best of all, it is a story that has a soundtrack.

I may be a story teller, but the heroes of my story are my dancers. Their foe? The unknown and uncertain.

In contra dancing, the dance leader has to do their best to stay out of the way of the dancers. The contra caller must let the dance speak for itself. In modern western square dancing, the caller has much more to do. Sometimes, callers do too much and the dance falls apart. When the caller does too little, the dance never comes together.

The best callers I know are, indeed, artists. They deliver their stories while managing so many other things. Those things include the music selection, music speed, and the music volume. Don’t forget the speed and timing of the delivery of the calls. Then there’s the opening of the show to consider. Someone has to welcome everyone and, if you welcome them, you have to bid them farewell. Finally, there are all of those little intermissions where we meet/greet everyone and tell the occasional side story and even offer a little levity.

There’s so much to think about that it’s hard to think at all. However, like that quote from above, there must be passion. Without it, the dance is cold and sterile.  No matter what program you call or dance, there must be at least a little fire. Otherwise, what’s the point?

Meanwhile, back at the Square Dance Land Ranch…

If the rallying cry is to take back the SD activity from those that would over-analyze it, what would you do?

If you were given magical powers to overhaul things in Square Dance Land, how would you change it to make it more accessible and approachable?

You want more dancers for your club… where do you get them? How do you compete with alternative forms of entertainment that are available today that weren’t around 20, 30, 40, 50 years ago?

What would you do to keep them? Better, what would you do to prevent them from leaving?

There is, admittedly, a finite supply of dancers. One thing that gets overlooked is the short supply of callers. What would you do to increase the number of callers? What would you do to ensure that these new dance leaders do things without “over-analyzing” them and making the dance more complicated than it needs to be? (For the new dancer, that is.)

Then, for those dancers and callers that want the puzzle to be harder, how do you treat them? In this case, treat = reward.

News from Square Dance Land… at least my corner of it.

There’s a new Callerlab committee called “New Initiatives.” I’ve been asked, and accepted, to be the chair.

Its function has several aspects. (Though, I’m still a little unsure of one of them.)

One is to continue the work of the (now disbanded – I think) Program Policy Initiative. This is a discussion of how we can actively adapt the existing programs and mold them into a system that works better on an individual/local level.

Next, NI is going to actively maintain the Winning Ways document. The idea is to make it a living document that revisits past successes to see what still works, what might not work, and what changes took place to keep things going.

As part of NI, we’re going to be soliciting new ideas for the development and growth of the
square dance community and then find ways to engage our dancing population
to implement these ideas.

The last big part of the NE is probably the most fun. “Square Dancing in 50 Years.” What will square dancing look like in 50 years? How will it evolve? How will it grow? These are all hypothetical questions that allow us to talk about change but not feel threatened by it.

If you would like to be a member of the committee, here are the requirements. You must be in good standing and be an Active Member, Associate Member, Active Youth Member, Associate Youth Member, a Lifetime member, or a Partner of any of these members.

With the blessing of the Callerlab leadership, I may try to set up a group of dancers that are not callers to get their input as well. They might not be full committee members, but dancers have a stake in some of what we’re talking about, so I’d like to create a forum where I can get some information.

If you’re a caller and want to be a member (or a Vice Chair) please contact the Callerlab Home Office.

If you’re a dancer and want to be involved with any of these discussions, let me know… stephen.cole@isquaredance.com.

Thanks!

News from Square Dance Land.

It’s been so long since I’ve worked my square dance blog, I almost forgot my password.

I’ve got a lot of things to write about that happened over the summer (and from the spring too), but I’m going to go back and fill in as I can. I’ll try to stay current with what’s going on in square dance land today, and go back to fill in (from memory) stuff that’s been going on.

I’m not a marketing guru, but I’m a big fan of one. Seth Godin has become sort of a folk hero to me. I’ve been reading his books and following his blogs and I believe him to be brilliant.

If you want to find out yourself, his blog can be found at:

http://sethgodin.typepad.com

His blog today was about the the pursuit of the Olympics and how people bend over backwards to get them into their city. It turns out that nearly every city that has ever hosted an Olympics has regretted it financially. Seth’s question of the day:  How little patience would you have for the International Olympic Committee and their politics if they didn’t have a show people wanted to watch?

Seth goes on to make some valuable comments about marketing and how given the size of the Olympic Games how commercializing it is more like strip mining. (There’s not much skill needed due to the enormity of it all.)

However, my take on his post made me consider his question in a different light.

Related to square dance land, I’d like to rephrase his question.

How little patience would you have for your square dance club’s politics if they didn’t host an event you wanted to attend?

Based on declining numbers of square dancers, I’d argue that people are having less and less patience for such politics. Our numbers are down. They were down from their hayday when I started dancing in the 1990s, but I’ve seen them dwindle more and more every year. It’s depressing.

With the smaller numbers, a few clubs have seen their politics become condensed. Several have folded under the strain.

I feel that there are a number of reforms that have to take place to increase the popularity of square dancing. However, with the best of reforms, it will be for naught if we can’t eliminate the poison that is politics.

Time will tell.

Until next time, (which I hope is soon) keep dancing!