Starting and Maintaining a Dance Practice  
By Lady Ursula von Bremen  (copyright 2001 Jerome Quillen)

You had a great time at the post revel dance last weekend, and now you’re fired up about starting a regular dance practice in your area.  Here are some thoughts on what you’ll need to make it happen:

Are You Ready?  
Don’t start a practice just because it sounds like a good idea.  You should be prepared to run a practice that will make people want to come back.  Never forget that everyone that comes to your classes is missing out on something else to be there.  Their time is valuable - don’t disappoint them by being unprepared.  If your practice is going to survive, you must establish good reputation.   A good thing to keep in mind is that you don't have to accomplish this entirely on your own.  Other people can help with finding a site, scheduling, handling the publicity, lesson plans, teaching, and planning special activities.  

Teachers  
It’s a good idea to locate everyone in your area that’s willing and able to teach dances, so that you have a pool of substitutes in the event of an emergency.  In Atlantia, L'Academie Atlantienne de la Danse (AKA “The Academy”) has a listing of teachers and contact information by region.  Also, to keep your practices interesting and to avoid burnout for the main teacher, consider scheduling a guest instructor for something like one class per month.  Networking at events and wars could get you guest instructors from out of barony or out of kingdom.  Keep an eye out for potential teachers among your students.  Last month’s newcomer may be able to run a class next month.

Dance Instructions Online
There are many great resources with dance instructions available online.  These sites are a good place to start:

Greg Lindahl’s SCA Dance Cheat Sheets http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/dance/The_Cheat_Sheets.htmlhttp://www.isenfir.org/academie/contacts.htm

Greg Lindahl’s SCA Dance Homepage
http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/dance.html

The Atlantian Dance Links Page
http://moas.atlantia.sca.org/topics/danc.htm

Recorded Music
Be aware that although a disc might contain the tune you want, the version on this particular disc may be played too fast or too slow, or it may not have the correct number of repeats to finish the dance.  It may also be an irritating recording.  Personally, I can't stand MIDI files (audio files of synthesized music), although if you have nothing else, at least you can use them to get to know the tunes.  Ask other teachers to let you borrow their CDs and listen to them.  Then you can decide which ones to get.  Some good sources are listed on this web page:  http://sca.uwaterloo.ca/~praetzel/CD-offer.html 

Boom Box 
If you have any doubts that your boom box is loud enough to be heard in a large room, you may consider doing a sound test in advance in the actual practice or revel room.  If your box is a dud, you’ll need to borrow or buy a better one.  A boom box with a remote controller is very useful.

Repertoire and Teaching
You’ve got instructions, music and something to play it on, but can you teach the dances?  As I mentioned at the beginning, preparation is crucial.  Knowing a dance and teaching it are two different things.  Make a list of the dances you know.  Get the music for them, then practice explaining the steps out loud, and then calling the dances over the music.  You may want to write your own set of cheat sheets for the dances you will teach that will work the best specifically for you.  Notes on 3x5" or 5x8" cards are the easiest to use in a class, since they're compact and they don't flop around.  Build your repertoire by attending other practices, attending dance revels at events, and taking classes at Universities, Collegiums, Wars, Dance Symposiums and so forth.  When you’re ready, take the plunge and teach at some of those events too.  Read instructions for dances you don’t know and figure them out.  Keep lists of:

*  Dances you can teach off the top of your head.
            *  Dances you can teach smoothly with the aid of cheat sheets.     
            *  Dances you could teach if you studied the instructions.
            *  Dances you’d like to learn.

Play your dance music at work, in your car, at home, etc., so that you know your music well.  You’ll learn new dances faster and teach more smoothly when you’re familiar with the music.  Never stop learning.

Lesson Plan
You should always prepare a lesson plan, and that plan should be flexible.  You should have plenty of dances for individual couples in case only one person shows up.  Dances like Bransle Charlotte, Maltese Bransle, and galliards can be danced by individuals.  Many of the Italian Balli are for groups of 2-5 people.  If you have only a few people you can also work on learning or perfecting individual dance steps.  As soon as you see how many people you have, you should immediately adjust your plan to fit the group and plunge into your class with a minimum of dithering.  At the end of the class, ask people if there any dances that they’d like to learn or work on at the next practice.  If you get their minds working on what will happen next, they'll be more likely to show up the next time, for you will have demonstrated that their fearless leader has a plan.

What Practices Are For
Besides the enjoyment of social interaction, there is one other good reason to hold a dance practice, and that is to get people ready to dance and teach at events and demos and so forth.  Your people will be more fired up if they can help create some good excuses to use what they've learned.  Spice up your practices by sponsoring some dance revels in place of some of the practices - four a year or one for each season would be good.  Have people come in garb and have loaner garb for newcomers and those without decent garb.  Have people bring refreshments.  Appoint a team to decorate the place.  Get a bunch of electric candles.  (Nothing ruins the mood more than fluorescent lighting.)  Don't do it all for them.  You should constantly be looking for ways to have your people take an active role in making things happen.  Have your people volunteer to teach at events.  Have them put together performances at events and demos.  Have them take classes, and research and learn at every opportunity, and remind them that they can teach just about anywhere - not just in their local group and barony.  Finally (not really, but at least in the case of this paragraph) don't forget to give a presentation every once in a while at your local group meetings.  This will give your group some advertising and may get you some new dancers.

Creative Solutions (Do you really need a regular site and time?)
If getting a regular practice site and time has been a huge hassle, you may want to consider whether or not you really need one.  Although having a regular site and time can be useful, I’ve seen that this doesn’t guarantee a long-lived local practice.  You may want to consider a more creative approach.  Decide how far you're willing to travel to teach a practice.  Contact the seneschals of the groups within that area and find out what groups have dance practices and upcoming events with dances.  Call the people that are running regular dance practices and offer to guest teach on a particular date.  Many groups also have Arts and Sciences classes at the end of their business meetings, and some have regular Arts & Sciences nights.  You could get on the calendar to teach a dance practice at one or more of those sessions.  You can also teach dance at events during the day and in the evening and alongside fighter practices and baronial meetings.  It would not be difficult to get at least one practice a week on your calendar in this manner.  The key to making this work is….

Publicity
Rule number one:  The Internet is Your Pal.  A good web page can make even a movable practice work, but only if it contains useful information and is kept up to date.  You can set up a free page on http://www.geocities.com in minutes.  If you’re not comfortable setting up a page, then ask a friend or the person that maintains your local group’s web page if they can set one up for you.  A good page would include:

            *  A calendar of local practices and dance-related happenings for the next 6 months.

            *  A brief description of what will be covered in the practices.

            *  Detailed directions to every one of these practices and happenings, including parking information.

           *  A list of dances that the group has covered, dances that the group is currently working on, and dances that you plan on covering in the future.

           *  Contact information for all dance folk in your area.

           *  An archive of reports on each practice and dance event.  (The reports should include:  how many dancers attended, who taught the class, what dances were done, when the dancing started and ended, any difficulties encountered and how they were dealt with, any other comments, and, if there was live music, the names of any musicians who played for the dancing.  Keep the comments constructive.

           *  Information on upcoming dance-related projects and a journal of past projects.

           *  A photo gallery (These should be good shots that show that dancing is fun!  Also, make sure to identify everyone in the photos – this will help people put faces to names.)

           *  Links to dance-related resources.

Use local email lists to remind people about upcoming practices and dance-related events, and include a link to that useful and up-to-date web page of yours.  When your page is up and you have established a decent calendar, send your web address to Lord Bryan Morgan and ask him to add it to L'Academie Atlantienne de la Danse web page.   

Non-Internet Publicity
To reach those without internet access, contact each local seneschal in your area and ask them to mention your practices at their meetings.  Make sure that the local Arts and Sciences officers know about your activities and don't forget to get the information to the chroniclers in your area.

A Regular Site
OK.  So you want a regular site.  If your group is has established a presence on a college campus or a military base, you should be able to arrange for use of a free room – either a large classroom, an unused large hallway, lobby, atrium, etc., or an athletic facility.  Fencing rooms, dance studios (which have helpful mirrors) and gymnasiums are ideal if you can manage to get them.  You can also check with your local Parks and Recreation Departments.  Tell them that you’d be offering free classes in dances from the Renaissance (the 1400’s-1600s’) which would be open to the public.  They may have a room you can use.  The same goes for local schools.  Again, indicate that participation is free and open to the general public.  In a pinch you may want to consider holding practices outdoors. 

Site Considerations
Ideally the site should be free.  The best dancing surface is a suspended wooden floor, which you will find in fencing and dance facilities and gymnasiums.  The worst surface (besides caltrops, broken glass, etc.) is concrete, which can be hard on your joints and your back.  If possible, you should have the ability to open windows in the dance room, as it can get warm surprisingly quickly once people start to move around.  Having access to drinking water is also a good thing.  If no drinkable water is available at your site, mention this in your publicity and remind your attendees to bring some with them.  And speaking of drinking lots of water…on-site bathroom facilities are also a good thing.  Hopefully your practice will happen at a time and location where you won’t be distracted by outside noise, and where you in turn will not be distracting other people.  There should be sufficient parking at a reasonable walking distance from the site.  Finally, it’s nice if the room is attractive, and could with minimal effort be made into a decent site for a dance revel. 

Back to Ursula's Renaissance Dance Page
This page is maintained by Ursula von Bremen and was last updated on 4 December, 2001.