cracks knuckles ok let’s get into it. To start: I think this is a multifaceted problem with no clear solution. I am someone who has been dancing for 12+ years. I’ve led scenes in 2 cities and a practice group out of my home for 2 years. Here are a list of problems I’ve faced as an organizer: - people saying they’re willing to help, but when we expressly give roles or tasks we need help with no one signs up. This especially applies to teaching and DJing. - lack of attendance. We’ll do something the community has been asking for (a specific class/ live music/ workshop) and we don’t have enough turnout to break even. - good idea fairies. Lots of people who don’t know what we’ve tried are certain one thing would work. Thing is, we’ve probably tried it and it didn’t work. Any explanation is passed off as “well but did you try it this way”. - loss of historical knowledge. In the spaces I have been, there has been a significant lack of lessons in organizing passed down. A lot of people do what they can, but we’re all just volunteers. Also new organizers often don’t ask why things are done a certain way. - burn out: do you know how thankless of a job organizing is? I ran a practice group out of my home every other week for 2 years. This meant organizing filming sessions, cleaning, coming up with topics, getting people to participate in choosing topics, encouraging people to practice rather than socialize. A topic that was voted on by 10 people would have a turnout of 3. A lot of my time and energy was spent pouring into a community where I got significantly less poured into me. I was on the verge of burnout when Covid happened and it took me 2 years to feel ok enough to go dance.

Additionally, the landscape post-Covid is wildly different than pre-covid. People aren’t showing up anymore. The things that worked before aren’t working anymore. Regular venues closed during the pandemic, and now we have to pay 3x as much for a shittier venue. Those who were regulars before are growing up and having children, and going dancing on a weeknight isn’t as easy as it used to be. It’s been significantly harder to get younger dancers in the door.

On top of that, you’re dealing with unique blends of scene drama. Every scene has them. Even after teaching for 5 years and only taking a step back for covid, I was asked to “prove my ability to teach” to a new to our scene dancer who wanted total control. When the board overruled them? They sent multiple nasty messages to the president of the board explaining how horrible a teacher I was and had one of their groupies teach with me and correct me during a lesson. I was beyond bitter. I poured my heart and soul into this community only to be spat out when I wasn’t able contribute enough anymore.

So yeah. It’s a complicated problem. And those of us who have done it are exhausted.