#1 Thing USA Dance Needs

Create a sustainable budget.

More young people in ballroom dancing.

Kids. Social dancing. Younger volunteers and leaders.

 

Big band music

 

Have a presence everywhere. Promote more social dancing, not just competition ballroom. Be welcoming/inclusive.

-1 Branding out says the elite in social dancing. Found ways to set us apart from other local social dancing in a community. Which would involve a value for the members in a chapter.

-2 website investment with a platform that will handle membership renewals instantly.

– 3 eliminating unnecessary layers for example district directors.

This would be a good start.

 

More membership perks and funding to chapters.

Promotion and advertising, let dancers know about it.

 

A robust outreach to bring new dancers into the sport/hobby.

 

Quit the nonsense of chasing the Olympic dream and wasting all that money for the last 20 plus years and put that money back into social dancing and it’s chapters. We should be 100,000 membership w having Dancing w the Stars for the last 20 years.

Another suggestion. Bring back the paper magazine as part of the outreach. Handing someone something tangible has more of an effect than sending a link, which can be ignored easily.

 

The actions, divisions and turmoil that appear to be falling out of the recent USA Dance Presidential election.

 

Lots of varied small live music talent up to accomplished dance bands everywhere would likely flood the public dance market and make it flourish again. Lots more fun than just going to concerts and watching their performances!

 

Members

 

Promotion, advertisement, and podcasts information to help local chapters funnel new and existing dancers into the national system.

 

All of the above are wonderful suggestions but they all take money.

 

More PR Advertising Promotions & Communications.

In answer to Mary , Yes!

I know for a fact! Not enough volunteers with the professional abilities of creative thinking and willingness to DEVOTE THE TIME IT TAKES to do P R, advertise, contact organizations, schools etc and promote dance. One terrible mishap is: Print Media is shut down in areas, it is extremely hard to contact the TV news media, and social media has too many platforms to hit all that the young people use. AI and Bots are ruling.

AND Advertising costs $$$$!

I wore 4 hats for more than 22 years, just retired from our(2012) Board. I am still doing only the creative, promotional pieces for each monthly dance. No one wants to take it. I USED TO PUT IN sometimes 30 hrs a week doing all that needed to be done. Time marched on!

“I am a USA Dance company person”! Will always be FOR promoting dance and USADance, NOT for the accolades of self recognition! (Didn’t mean to get on a soap box). Viva La Dance!

 

Provide music ourselves vs. paying a DJ.

Music and the equipment to play it usually cost about the same as paying DJ’s for one year. After that first year, it’s all $avings.

 

Tik Tok and starting a YouTube channel are free!

Audience in the competition is very important to dancers, hear cheering is an amazing feeling!

I suggest when competition is at the hotel, offer nominal fee, maybe $10? admission tickets to all events for hotel guests at the check in

Also eliminate or minimize costume restrictions for dancers, as long as private areas are covered, it should be ok.

This may attract more young dancers (and their parents and coaches) to participate.

Once politics become part of the organization, the organization starts dying. It’s sad. USA Dance is supposed to promote social dancing, there is nothing social when political views become more than the mission.

Reduce the cost of competitions.

The cost is going up each year and starting to be out of people’s budget

 

Being open to advertising. Should not choose who they want to promote for social dance. Social dance keeps the chapter going.

 

Organize dances

Dance is not very affordable here in the US. If it were more affordable, more people would consider it as a possible way to spend their free time and hard-earned money. We have heard many times from people in Huntsville, AL, that they can’t afford even social dance lessons, so they look for other ways to have fun.

 

Social dancing needs to be the focus. Competitions are a nice incentive for an accomplished dancer or a highly competitive person both of whom posess the time and money to devote to their craft. Our target market are people who lack either the funds or the time to pursue competitive dancing. They are also frequently intimidated by average social dancers. As an organization, USA Dance should be actively pursuing new members by sponsoring free or discounted beginner lessons at schools and through the YMCA. They should also be working with state departments of education to teach ballroom dancing in schools. If these things become the focus, membership will grow and there will be more funds for competitive dancing and other events.

 

Dance is a leisure time activity. When the US economy is down, leisure time dollars get shifted to household necessities. When the US economy is up, then consumers have more dollars to spend on leisure time activities.

 

Help develop good venues.

 

It seems older folk have just about stopped dancing since so many places no long have dances.

 

Support local social dancing.

 

More members

 

Encourage single people to take up ballroom dancing.

Sponsor dance lessons at elementary/middle school/high school student functions–class mixers, homecoming dances, proms, clubs, etc. Also introduce dance lessons to groups affiliated with churches, synagogues, temples, etc. Finally reach out to the ethnic associations (i.e. Hispanic, German, Italian) if they don’t have social dancing. I’m just thinking off the top of my head, but you can take it from there.

Focus on serving their comunity at the local level first.

 

A better economy.

Start really supporting the local social dance chapters. Our chapter (Tidewater) in Virginia, holds a New Year Gala. It’s a national event that is on it’s 33 year. It’s a struggle to have enough attendees to break even. When the print magazine was active Angela Prince was always a supporter who helped us with advertising. When Jean Mills Krupa was VP of social dance she showed up every year. Last year Ken Richards attended. Overall we get almost zero support from USA Dance.

Social dance is the bedrock foundation of USA Dance. When I was a member of USABDA it seemed that the organization placed more emphasis on social dance.

Just my take.

 

Young people

 

My wife and I have been taking lessons for 30 years. It has been great fun and really good for the body and mind. But, I doubt if I would have signed up for this hobby if I needed to come up with $160 or more for 2 lessons a week.

Even “average” dance teachers want $80 per 45 min lessons. Very few people want to take on an expense like that when first starting to dance.

Now the dance studios want hundreds of dollars to use their facilities for a USA “regular”dance.

Attract new dancers into the community. Create an atmosphere that attracts younger dancers to ballroom dancing. Encourage all local studios and independent instructors to participate with their students. And of course there must be a way to encourage more men to participate. Other dance styles like salsa have a much higher percentage of men. What are they doing differently?

 

More attendance.

 

The old pre-Covid business model needs to be replaced because there will no longer be 20K social members funding most of the operating budget with their dues.

Seniors, retired should get the same discount as students and all stars. We have time to come to events, but are limited by the number of events we can attend due to the cost.

Senior discounts too. Encourage youth. Make comps more affordable

 

I agree. Come to and support local chapters’ dances.

More dance music, less talk and shows, divide the floor for continuous dancing, mixers, and lessons with constant music. Only a few brief need be announcements are necessary. A table can be provided for sharing info among everyone regarding places to dance, upcoming events etc.

 

Great question and comments. The USA Dance organization would be smart to listen to all suggestions to keep both social and competitive dancing alive!

USADance needs to reestablish a working relationship with NDCA. Ever since the relationship fell apart USADance has struggled and NDCA has blossomed with Amateurs. Most all student dancers and amateurs in the USA are being coached by NDCA coaches. I realize this isn’t all USADance’s doing and NDCA had a part in the relationship falling apart but until it improves I don’t see a fix for USADance.

Plus one to Lena Bobrovska to rewrite costume restrictions for J1, J2, Youth, under 21 age categories. The kids from our MN studio had to wear some shorts under Latin costumes or tape and paint with pencils open leg parts every competition that they danced. We need to sync the costume rules with NDCA.

The NDCA stole kid dancers from USA Dance over the last 15 years. We would like kids (their coaches and parents) to participate in our competitions as well they do NDCA, and costume nightmare doesn’t help.

more lical events as they had before pandemic and volunteers as I was in Colorado and now NOTHING going in.

 

Lots of interesting comments here. I think that’s because many of us have been trying for years without success to increase membership and attendance at our local social dances. We’ve been thwarted by COVID which reduced my local chapters attendance by almost half. We still have not recovered. You can complain about the price of dance lessons all you want, but USA dance does not control that. The local dance studios do. I started teaching at Arthur Murray’s 45 years ago and the average cost was $89 per hour back then. We had plenty of students willing to pay. Some places you can find cheap group classes. You really can’t learn to dance in a group class, but it’s a good introduction and hopefully we’ll wet your appetite and make you willing to spend the money to take private lessons. People will always find money for what they want. They can buy new sporting equipment and new cars and new whatever it is they want. Yes, when you are a senior, your income is going to be more limited. But that’s still not the issue. The number one issue that I see in central Pennsylvania where I am the president of our local chapter and work together with two other local chapters, is the lack of men in ballroom dancing. There are plenty of women who want to go to dances. They take group classes and all the postings on Facebook show me that it’s almost a 10 women to two men ratio. Who wants to go to a dance if you’re going to sit and not dance. And if you are married and have a partner, who wants to be pressured into constantly participating in mixers and dancing with other women. I’ve been to dances that had 20 women standing in line for the mixer and five men trying to service them. That’s not enjoyable for either party. Somehow, and I’ve been beating my head against the wall for the past 8 years with our chapter, we have to find a way to get men to come to Ballroom dancing. Now with our new macho attitude in our country, it’s going to be even harder. Dancing with the Stars hasn’t done us any favors in the past couple of decades either. Trying to play modern music to attract younger people is very frustrating. It all has a steady 4/4 beat. Many young people are going to West Coast swing and salsa dances which are in abundance in our area between here and Philadelphia at least. Swing dances do not play ballroom music. Ballroom dances will play some swing and salsa. But there is a clear division between the swing dancers and ballroom dancers. We need some kind of a national event or advertising campaign that would attract people to go take dance lessons. Most chapters rent a hall and cannot teach dance lessons every week. We rent the fire hall one day a month. Currently we lose money almost every dance this year. I can’t afford to spend more money to rent the hall to teach classes that are either free or not enough people show up to pay for the room. I tried teaching classes at the YMCA for 2 years. They refused to advertise our classes because I didn’t work for the YMCA. I was contracting with them and giving them a cut of the low price I was charging. It was a total failure. Free doesn’t attract anybody. When they pay for it, there’s value in it. It makes them show up for the classes. It makes them go home and practice. Gets them to go out to dances. Arthur Murray for years is advertised free dance teacher training. Usually they get a half dozen people to show up and buy the third day there’s only one person left. They didn’t pay anything so they didn’t feel the need to finish the course. Again, our biggest problem is men are not coming to Ballroom dancing. This is how we got changed over from men and women to leads and follows. So that we could have same sex dancing. Without men coming to dancing, there’s not a lot of future in social ballroom dancing.

Promote more social dancing. Of the 335 million Americans, probably more would enjoy and afford social dancing than become competitors.

 

So true…social dancing is difficult to find in smaller communities, but there are people who want to dance.

 

More leads

There will be difficultly trying to pick one thing to focus on for USA Dance. There is the competition side and social dancing side. Each side is likely to have a different focus. I only have any knowledge on the social dancing side.

Does USA Dance need to encourage membership to fund the organization? If so, in order to do that, local chapters have to be successful in attracting new people to dance and want to continue to dance. There may also be some dancers that have been dancing a while but never joined that could be encouraged to join.

QUALITY SOCIAL DANCE, what is the foundation for the dance life. NEED THE COMPETITIVE DANCE AS WELLL – for every different level. I”M WORKING WITH THE DANCE SCIENCE MORE THAN 15 yrs. and I know, WHAT IS THE REAL BENEFIT OF THE BALLROOM DANCE from 3 yrs. old of age to 100. But need the good, knowledgeable teachers. who knows : what, why, and how do you teach. FOR THE SCHOOL AGE need the COMPETITIVE DANCE to learn the life naturally with the dance. I have more than 40 yrs. experiences in Europe and here, I know what I’m talking about. The BALLROOM DANCE TODAY : sport, culture, education, crime prevention, and very important physical and mental health program: prevention and medication. But need the knowledge for the teachers for this… Sorry

The younger generations are the future of USA Dance. We need more youth participation. We need to have more dance opportunities for middle school, high school, and college students. School dance programs for these ages would help to promote the sport and art of dance. Teaching free dance classes at local community centers can help promote dance. More advertisement and local outdoor events can draw in more dancers.

Did not know there was still a USA dance , never got anymore emails , but a good location would be a start with hardwood floors like Alemande hall, that was the best , maybe like a skating rink to rent out just the night of the dance

A better reward system is needed for learning various dances. For instance, a person receives a certificate for learning all of the patterns in bronze waltz, silver cha cha, etc. This would better motivate people (me) to continue learning new dance stuff, and stay at it.

Likewise, a reward system should be set up so that a person receives a badge for being consistent in dance for one year, two years, five, 10, etc. years. For instance, take one dance class, or one dance lesson, and/or attend one social dance per month for one year to earn a green star, same for two years to earn a yellow star, same for five years to earn a red star, etc. This would also motivate people to get and stay involved in dance.

 

Open up to pro-ams. Having started ballroom at age 51, I was never able to find an amateur partner. I no longer belong to USA Dance because, as a competition-focused dancer, it’s pointless for me.

 

A more modern outreach, communication and educational plan.

Young dancers

Advertising is the key to any organization. The general public knows nothing about USA Dance, and therefore can’t attend events, whether they be chapter social dances, or competitions of any type. Heartland chapter in Indianapolis prove this to a small degree in 1998 when we held the National Championships in Indianapolis. We had a modest advertising budget, and also received some free advertising through one of our members who owned an ad agency. Many people would attend, especially the National Championships, if they knew when and where it was being held far enough in advance to plan to attend the event. Heartland chapter in 1998 earned more profit on its National Championships then had ever been made prior to that. The exact figures have escaped me, I was president of our chapter in Indianapolis at the time so I have knowledge of what actually took place. With the proper advertising it’s my opinion that we could fill 15,000 to 30,000 seat venue if the Nationals competition is advertised far enough in advance for the General Public to know about in order to attend. Additionally as other members here have talked about social dancing is in many ways the bedrock of USA dance, but unfortunately the social aspect of USA dance has been declining for years and again advertising could help this by getting the general public knowledge about their local chapters when dances are held and when other chapter events are being held so the general public, if they wanted, could attend these events. Advertising in my opinion is the actual key to making USA dance a viable organization.

 

New young dancers!

Welcome everyone who wants to learn to dance!

 

Better venue. Churches are awkward and full light sucks. Also, the gym concrete floor isn’t good for expensive dance shoes.

Also, modern popular music. Dirty dancing music is great for us older ppl but new dancers like music that excites them.

It’s easy to just say we need more young people, but we should look into why young people aren’t already going to our dances.

Do what I do with my girlfriend. We go to see live bands where there is a dance floor. Don’t wear your good shoes cause there is always the fans who bring their drink on the dance floor and spill them. Those places are where you find the young, bored and, lonely adults who may enjoy your dancing (and want to do so too).

More than one thing obviously. Venue other than a gym would be nice. More social dancing, not all competitive. And friendlier people. People who take the money don’t even welcome guests.

It’s been a while since I’ve been active (life got in the way) but over a decade of trying hard to run a chapter in Los Angeles led me to conclude that the mission needs to be redefined. Social members didn’t support competition, competition members didn’t participate in social events, hardly any of them paid attention to dance outside ballroom, and very few were willing to participate in promotional activities. We didn’t all want the same thing, is what it came down to.

Kids divisions….our future !

 

Advertise how much fun it is !!!

 

More emphasis on social dancing as this is the bulk of the membership. Most social dancers are tired of being looked down upon. Just because you compete does not make you a better dancer, just a dancer that takes up too much of the dance floor, My members are having a difficult renewing online and getting very frustrating, this should be the priority, making easy to renew membership. As a volunteer for 20 years, I do not have the desire to add more time to having the members fill out paper forms and then write checks to national. Before online renewals we added $10 to the chapter to help with expenses. Your $5 is inadequate, as you get the moneys to be spent on competitions and the chapters get to absorb all of the discounts. We need to focus on younger dancers and support studios who promote ballroom dancing to young adults. they will not come to our dances but are the future of our sport when they mature. I am excited about the new president and hope that he does not forget social dancers. It is time for unity and supporting hip hop does not appeal to me. Who cares. USA Dance is a much-needed organization for social dancers, But we do not deserve to be forgotten. If we do not get younger dancers, ballroom dancing will die. If that happens who cares about competitions. I appreciate all of the volunteers who make USA Dance possible. Remember that when you have a complaint. We are not paid.

 

Last year, I took my young students to compete at the USA Dance Nationals, just a week after the NDCA event. The contrast was striking! The competition itself left much to be desired. While I understand the decision to choose a more affordable location, the organization was lacking.

Members.

More young dancers