I've been Swing Dancing for over 6 1/2 years, & I've been part of the greater Swing Dance Community in Utah for over 5 years. Things have been coming to a head over the last few months, & I've come to realize something...people in this Community don't support each other like they used to:
1st, I think of the Golden Skillet. When the it first opened, within a few months, virtually all of the really good people from the U of U Swing Club (Thursdays) stopped coming, & started going to the Skillet (Fridays) instead. And so the U of U Swing Club really died down, really quickly. If Fridays worked better for them, if they liked the "feel" of the Skillet better, or whatever else, I'm not gonna hold it against them.
But ever since then, most of us who were left at the U of U Swing Club felt like a lot of the people who switched Venues started looking down on us, as if it was our fault that our Venue died. But it wasn't--it was their fault for leaving! Again, I'm not going to hold that part against them--but it seemed like a lot of them acted like we drug the Venue down or something. Ever since then, it's felt like they've looked down on us for not being as good as they were--but we couldn't be, 'cause there was hardly anyone good left to help us improve!
2nd, I think about the USU Swing Club up in Logan... I used to know tons of people up there, it was a great scene, & people from up there would come visit the rest of us halfway often... Then, about a year & a half ago, pretty much all of the "top" people from up there moved down here to Salt Lake... After that, it was kind of a "rebuilding" time for the scene up in Logan, but they still stuck it out.
I still knew quite a few people up there, too. And every time I'd see or talk to any of them--at the Utah Lindy Exchange, at Harlem Nights, at the Elite Hall Dances, at the Swing Dance Invitational, whenever any of them happened to come to Salt Lake, or on Facebook--I'd always talk to them about bringing a group down to dance in Salt Lake. They always said they'd try, but no one ever came... A lone person or two, once in a blue moon...but no groups...ever...
For about the first half of last year, I tried time & again to organize a time when the U of U Swing Club could go visit Logan--but I never got any help. So I just picked a date well ahead of time, let them know, got a group, & we headed up one evening. But there wasn't much of a group--in fact, there were more of us than there were of them! And there were only 2 people I knew... No one even bothered to tell us that things were pretty slow in the summer, & that we should've waited...
All in all, if it weren't for USU hosting Harlem Nights every year, the Logan Swing Scene would just fade away as far as the rest of us are concerned...and Harlem Nights is moving to Salt Lake next year--what hope will the Logan Scene have then?
3rd, I think of the BYU Swing Club & the Downtown Stomp. A number of people from the U of U Swing Club visit those 2 Venues halfway often, but virtually no one from their Venues visits the U of U...and when they do, it's usually just them advertising for their own Venues...
4th, is the newly-opened Blue Tango. It's on Thursday nights, the same night as the U of U Swing Club has been for over a decade. It was frustrating enough for the U of U to have to compete with Blues House Parties on Thursdays, but now an official Venue?
5th, the Downtown Stomp is moving to Saturday Nights, the same as the BYU Swing Club. Granted, they're talking about just "experimenting" with Saturdays, as BYU doesn't dance during the summer. But switching from Friday, to Saturday, & then back to Friday again isn't going to help things--a Venue needs stability. And if they decide to stay on Saturday night, it's just going to compete, with both BYU & the MAC.
6th, is simply an attitude a lot of people have taken... There aren't as many people coming out to any of the Venues as there used to be. I understand that Swing Dancing comes & goes in waves, & that we're in kind of in a low spot right now. And I understand that the tough economy right now makes it hard for a lot of people to come out.
But I hear so many people saying that they don't come dancing "because hardly anyone comes"! That is so stupid...if all the people who said that just came, then there would be lots of people! So just come! And if you get a slow night, oh well--just come back the next time, & encourage everyone else to do the same. If you've got conflicts, fine. If you've got something you'd rather do, fine. If you can't afford it, fine. But not coming because of a lack of people is so incredibly self-defeating... It needlessly robs everyone of good nights of dancing...
I look back over the last few months, & over the last few years, & all of these things have just come to focus on one painful point: People in this Community don't support each other like they used to. They don't even talk about it like they used to. People don't support each other's Venues--let alone existing Venues. Each little group is so overly-occupied with their own little piece of the Swing Dance Community, it seems like far too many of them have lost sight of the importance of supporting the rest of the Swing Dance Community.
It seems like all of the Venues are just...floundering...in obscurity, in isolation, & in mediocrity... And it's not gonna change if we don't remember how to help each other--how to be a Community again...
"The good we secure for ourselves is precarious and uncertain until it is secured for all of us and incorporated into our common life."
3 comments:
I completly agree, though one thing I would add to that is there are some who go and don't feel like they dance much. I travel and many times feel like those that are in some of the other scenes I have been to are better friends to me and know me better then those in my own. It makes it hard to want to come when you don't feel like you are wanted there, but I come every single week to most everything I can
The reason the Downtown Stomp moved to Saturdays was pretty much because we had no choice. We were told that we had to move to Saturdays or lose our venue because Maria needed Friday nights to do stuff for her studio. So our choices were let the Downtown Stomp die or move to Saturdays. No one was traveling up here from BYU anyway. They told me they wouldn't come up on Friday's cause they could just wait one more night and go for free at BYU. So we didn't see why it would matter moving to Saturdays. It is easy for people to criticize when they aren't running the venue and say what other people should do. But they usually don't have all the info.
Also as far as the U goes....I would love to come up every week, but it is on Thursday nights and I live in Lehi now. I have a normal job down in Provo that requires me to get up early. I am not in college any more. I don't have the same time available that I used to. The floor being concrete is also really hard on the joints and causes me pain in my hips and knees every time I go dancing there. It makes dancing a lot less enjoyable. So I am not super motivated to go. I have heard other people complain of the same thing. If the swing club could figure out a way to move to a room on campus with a better floor I think you would see a bigger turnout. You could do what BYU does and charge a one time club membership in order to collect money to rent a good room on campus. It may not work, but it is just a thought.
I think a lot of the old dancers have started to move on with their lives and dancing isn't as big a priority. Therefore there aren't many good dancers that come out as often leaving no one for the new dancers to model after. so there are a lot of factors that contribute to the no one coming out dancing any more.
well said on all accounts. i've always wondered why there hasn't been more support for the U swing club, besides the hard dance floor complaint. remember the days when we'd dance on anything -- blacktop, gravel, in flip flops -- so long as we were dancing!!! those were the days eh!
i have so sad since hearing that harlem nights was leaving logan. tragic loss for the scene there and tragic loss for all of us to have lost our reason for going to Elite Hall, one of the few gem-like dance floors left in our state.
plus i just heard that ULX is moving to the fall. kinda crazy after we've built up such a reputation for having a great swing party during the snow season and sundance film festival. but like kristen said, when the few people willing to help run it decide to do it one way, that's the way it's gotta be.
you've nailed it on the head. we're not communicating with each other well, let alone supporting each other's scenes. what baby steps can we take to improve things?
i wish i could help more, but we're only able to come out dancing about twice a month and if there's ever live music that we can get to, that takes priority. but that's a whole 'nother topic.
=) thanks for being a stalwart member of the scene, doug
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