"You want to build a healthy social dance community that enjoys dancing lindy hop in a particular city and/or location."
If you are reading this you have probably already been infected with the lindy spirit and are looking to spread it to others and/or to build a full or part time career based on Lindy Hop. Even if you don't want or need to earn money from Lindy Hop, success has been greater to those who treat the behind the scenes logistics as a business endeavor. Even if it's a non profit swing dance society, it still needs sustainable financial means. This is basically the first lesson.
1. Successful scenes function as a successful businesses.
The ultimate example would be the birth place of Lindy Hop. The Savoy Ballroom in NYC was able to spawn Lindy because it kept it's doors open over several decades and provided a home for the dance. It's sad that the Savoy closed, but it's understandable because as culture and the times changed the Savoy ultimately did not keep pace. It was a special moment in time. This is important to recognize because one needs to keep in mind the reality of your local laws. Be realistic and work with the local laws, don't lament for older times and break laws that will just get your location shut down. If your venue doesn't allow alcohol, don't have it. If it's a bar the survives off of alcohol sales, buy drinks or charge a cover sufficient to replace the lost drink revenue.
Most successful scenes can point to a single individual or couple that was inspired and consequently provided the motivation and energy to get things started. As is true with most epidemics, the infection often comes from outside. It's very common for dancers from another city that had a thriving scene to start a scene when they move to a lindyless local. But, sometimes individual interest in Jazz culture and music leads people to discover Lindy Hop through movies, TV, the internet or traveling adventures. Regardless, the source of information comes from outside, but is realized from within. The leads us to our 2nd lesson:
2. Every healthy Lindy Hop scene has inspired leadership.
One of the most successful ways of leadership comes from what I'm going to call a Leading Couple. Traditionally this is a male leader and female follower who are inspired to infect their community with the joys of Lindy Hop. Even more successful are those couples that strive to make a living out of it. This is because they will devote all their time and energy to the scene if their livelihood depends on it. Many a scene are only has good as their leadership. It's difficult for students to get better then their teachers. Consequently, the leadership needs to adopt an attitude of continual improvement if the goal is growth and a thriving scene. Scenes eventually fall apart when the leadership quits, loses interest or stops learning.
Swing Societies can also provide the needed strong leadership, but they are even more successful when they contain at least one Leading Couple to role model the dance. It's important to be who you want your students to be. This a cyclic concept. For example, if you dress a particular way, then you will attract students who dress that way which will in turn motivate you to continue to dress that way. This is most applicable as it relates to the vintage fashion esthetic. If you want to create a dance scene that looks the part, then you and your partner need to strive to be dressed vintage whenever you are in public in the contexts of your dance scene. The more diligent you are about this in the beginning, the easier it will become over time. It's worth noting now the importance of authenticity and that brings us to our third lesson:
3. Jazz Culture inspires Jazz Culture
It appears to be redundant, but it's meant to emphasize how easy it is to ignore the obvious. For example, if you want to dance swing, you need to play swing music. If you want to dance the original form of swing dance…Lindy Hop, then you need to dance to the original style of music whether it be the old recording or new bands playing in the old style. Note, this is different than Neo-Swing which is swing like, but with a modern twist. Just be clear on what it is you want to create in your community.
As a scene grows the problems of scaling up can start to become a problem, namely destructive competition. Growing scenes eventually have to have more than one set of instructors just to satisfy demand and naturally the egos and perceived threats of this process can swiftly destroy a previously thriving situation. It's a predictable process of human politics that can avoided if we can learn the next lesson:
4. Adopt the Law of Plenty
More swing schools equal more swing students which equals a bigger and healthier swing scene. The pool of potential new dancers is not finite at a practical level. Small minded individuals fear the opening of another dance school or classes because it will cut their students by 50%. The Law of Plenty is about realizing that two schools actually mean that twice as many students can learn to dance. Focus on creating new students and consequently lindyadics rather than student poaching. Lindy is best enjoyed in large groups when the critical mass allows everyone to transcend the mundane drudgery of 9-5 jobs.
Obviously this not a thorough break break down of everything you need to know to run a success Lindy Hop scene. On the contrary, its a short discussion on 4 key factors that have the ability to make or break a scene. Study them, memorize them, learn to implement them and watch your scene grow behind you wildest jazz dream.
Published: May 1st pm31 12:57pm EstEDT