I went to an out-of-town dance recently, and met someone there who had traveled up to one of our dances in the past. We chatted, and I asked if her family might come back for our upcoming Fezziwig Ball. In the course of conversation she said that her girls weren’t asked to dance when they came, and so they didn’t want to come back(and coming from her it kind of sounded like it was my fault!).

Girls dancing with girls is a toss-up. It can make things hard at a dance if you have ten little girls who only, strictly, insistently want to dance with eachother(and not listen to the instructions!). But we know, you older ladies usually want to dance with a big strong guy! Most of the time, it’s true, we usually have a few more girls than guys at a dance. But not always; it fluctuates. Even the callers often end up dancing girls with girls, and that’s ok with us. We just love dancing.

Here’s the deal, ladies.

 

• We DO want you to dance, just as much as you want to dance! We love dancing and it seems like, if you go to a dance, you should dance! We want to help you find a partner.

 

• On the flip side, there’s only so much we can do, as callers. We can state the etiquette, we can encourage, we can introduce, we can apply firm pressure- but only to a point. We can’t force reluctant guys to dance, or to ask girls they don’t know.

 

Some of it is on us, as organizers. If you feel we’re not doing enough to encourage mixing, please come tell us. We want to hear your observations and advice.

Some of it is on you, as attendees. Introduce yourselves to people. Bring your parents- sometimes it’s easier to have older people making introductions. Bring friends- social events are always more fun, the more people you know.