[Dixielandjazz] Sacramento -- Dancing

[Robert S. Ringwald]

 Regarding the Sacramento Jazz Jubilee, Mike C. mike at michaelcryer.com wrote:

>I can appreciate that these other styles of jazz are needed to help the 
>festival grow, but there are many festivals for this kind of music. I would 
>rather see OKOM grow and flourish.
  >



Mike,

Remember that while Sacramento has other styles than Trad Jazz, they still 
have many more OKOM type of bands than any other festival.  And, don't you 
think that by including other styles of Jazz (or music that is closely 
related to OKOM), it will help introduce OKOM (Our kind of music) to those 
folks?  This applies especially to the younger folks.  Remember, in 20 years 
or so, when we are all gone, so will our music, unless the younger folks get 
exposed to it now while we are still playing it.

This brings up an interesting issue that I will relate to the List now.

At our (Sacramento Traditional Jazz Society) monthly Jazz Sunday concerts, 
we have a small dance floor.  A few months ago, someone began putting powder 
on the dance floor.  Because of the amount of older folks who attend the 
concerts, this is very dangerous.

The powder of course, gets tracked around the rest of the room thus making 
it dangerous, not only to the non-dancers, but to the waitresses & food 
servers who are busy doing their jobs.  As anyone in business knows, 
especially the food business, "Slip/Trip and Fall" accidents are the most 
common incidents that trigger injuries and law suits.

We tried posting signs asking that no foreign substance be put on the dance 
floor.  We wrote articles in our newsletter, we made announcements from the 
stage.  We even assigned dance floor monitors to watch.  We told the dancers 
that if the problem continued, we would have to close the dance floor.

  As you may guess, the problem did not go away thus at the Feb, 2005 
concert, we closed the dance floor.  It caused quite an uproar.   Quite a 
few people really got angry.

But, from lemons, we got lemonade.  Some young Swing dancers came to our 
music committee meeting.  They got on the committee as dance advisors.  They 
have instituted self policing of the dance floor.  They have printed flyers 
telling people what to do with the soles shoes so that they can dance on any 
floor, including carpet, without using powder or dance wax.

They are advertising our monthly concerts in their dance club newsletters. 
Thus, we are getting lots of young Swing dancers out to our concerts now. 
They love dancing to the live music.

If this trend continues, in the future, we may have to think about finding a 
larger location for our concerts.

--Bob Ringwald K6YBV
Placerville, CA USA
The Boondockers (Jazz and Comedy)
Fulton Street Jazz Band