Our favourite on2 venue needs new ideas!

olamalam

olamalam

Son Montuno
Hi guys,

As you might remember, we mentioned Boston Bar on Tuesday nights several times here. Tntdance will be celebrating it's first birthday soon and they are thinking of changing their format in order to offer a higher quality, complete salsa education to it's students.

Currently what they do is:
6.30 - 8.00pm Clinic Session. This is like a free private class that you can find chance to work on a specific thing one to one with one of the instructors.
7.30 - 8.00pm On2 timing class.
5-10 mins Body isolations as warm up.
8.00 - 9.00pm partner work (4 levels).
9.00 - 00.00 social.

If you were running such a night, what would you do to provide better salsa instruction or increase the popularity?

If you would include shines, spinning, styling and (more) body isolations etc. in the classes, how would you change the schedule?
 
olamalam said:
If noone writes anything, I'll post this to another dance forum!!!
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Is this a threat? :P

If the goal is to increase the popularity then adding more classes in the same night is not going to help - you'll end up with the same number of people in total who are either all taking all classes or are spread between them.

Spinning, shines and body movement are not necessarily popular choices - unless you have too many ladies who either don't get to dance enough or are advanced enough to be bored with partner work classes.

To know how to increase the popularity you need to know the current customers and the desired target group. Are these the same? Is it just a matter of numbers? If so, then are there more such people in the scene or not? Where do they go? Why?

If the two groups are not the same then is it a matter of a wrong classes format for the target group? Or is it that the event is not visible? If so, what kind of advertising will reach them?

And so on. We cannot give a solution without knowing what the situation is.

If the goal is to increase the quality and variety of education, I would not advise adding too many more classes. You cannot expect many people to want to attend a session longer than an hour and a half. You can add 5 min of spinning, 5 min of shines but not more. Occasionally you can replace some of the time for one particular topic - shines, spinning or isolations to learn something new or practice more extensively. The right format depends on whether most people come regularly (there is continuity) or are there many new faces every time (you'll need to repeat a lot).

I would not advise to go into teaching lady styling unless there is really great interest in it or separate time possibly on a different day is available.
 
Well, I've really valued the instruction I've received at the Boston since I started to learn to dance a few months ago. I've always found it good value for money, and never felt I was part of a production line in a sausage factory.

The main weakness in the teaching, at least from my perspective, is the lack of teaching of footwork / shines, at least to the lowly level I've achieved so far. As to what I'd sacrifice to include this, I don't really know. Perhaps you could integrate it into a workshop system held on a regular basis, or perhaps one week in a month shift the focus from partnerwork to the footwork. I don't know, you guys have a better idea of what will or won't wreck your business. Perhaps you should run more than 1 night a week!

I'm glad that TnT seems to be focussing more on welcoming beginners. I don't know any on1, and nearly all the on2 I have learned, I learned from you guys. I think sometimes more experienced dancers forget how intimidating the scene can be for beginners. I know the first time I came to a class I was so overwhelmed about what I saw I had to learn that I nearly gave up straight away. I'm glad that I didn't. You can double that sense of intimidation for on2, where most of the dancers have already been dancing on1 for many months or even years before they switch. True on2 beginners like me seem to be relatively rare (everyone seems to be suprised I'm learning on2). Its hard to find someone of your level to regularly practice with. For the on2 scene to become more vibrant and popular, I think it is necessary to increase hopefully an ever growing stream of new learners, and make it as easy as possible for those new learners to continue to learn to dance. I don't know, maybe advertise locally (and cheaply) to bring learners in two or three times a year - how much does an ad in the Camden New Journal, the Islington Gazette or the Hampstead and Highgate paper cost? Probably wouldn't break the bank if you only did it once in a while. The idea would be to pack the club out with beginners a few times a year and then bend over backwards all night to attract them to stay.

Anyway, at the very least keep on doing what you are doing, as I'm a very satisfied customer.
 
Flying Donkey said:
The main weakness in the teaching, at least from my perspective, is the lack of teaching of footwork / shines, at least to the lowly level I've achieved so far. As to what I'd sacrifice to include this, I don't really know. Perhaps you could integrate it into a workshop system held on a regular basis, or perhaps one week in a month shift the focus from partnerwork to the footwork. I don't know, you guys have a better idea of what will or won't wreck your business. Perhaps you should run more than 1 night a week!
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Many classes use shines as warm up. One song at the beginning of the lesson. Can be combined with the isolations. To learn new shines or polish old ones from time to time you can take 10 minutes from the partner work.
 
their main focus is to increase the quality and offer a complete dance education so that students wont have to go to other places to practice those missing parts.

in my first post i tried to draw the picture instead of writing my own ideas.
i'm agree with SG that shines can be used as a part of warming up and also those shines can be used as a part of on2 timing training. and can be gained extra time for shines by teaching a shorter turn pattern in 40-45 minutes.

regarding styling, isolations, spinning etc. i dont think that those classes are very suitable for drop in classes that are given before social. these are parts of more formal dance education and i think it requires studio with mirrors. in a seperate day.
 
olamalam said:
regarding styling, isolations, spinning etc. i dont think that those classes are very suitable for drop in classes that are given before social. these are parts of more formal dance education and i think it requires studio with mirrors. in a seperate day.
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Exactly.

Do they get many people turning up to the Clinic session?
 
nowhiteshoes said:
Exactly.

Do they get many people turning up to the Clinic session?
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that's the interesting part. most of the time only me or 1-2 more people. so i find chance to work with one or two instructors for an hour!
clinic session is the most beneficial salsa event in london but people prefer arriving before partnerwork class.

btw, tnt dance also thinking of shortening clinic session to open up space for teaching other elements.
 
Why not cut the clinic to half an hour 6:30 to 7:00pm, especially if not overly busy.

From 7:00 to 8:00pm maybe run a series of one hour 'special' workshops designed to attract new people.
Think about what people will travel from their current venue for. Steal from congresses - what workshops are popular there? Also as you're on2, you're probably aiming to attract dancers that are already reasonably good.
Off the top of my head:
Flicks. Don't teach a complex pattern, just give say 5 options that lead into different moves, then the guys have to spend some of the workshop working out how to improvise with them.
Pretzels. Ditto, teach a few variations, various moves that could lead into or out of these, then have to improvise using them.
Bodyrolls. Theory and application. Do first week as a 'how to do the various different bodyroll options', week two as a 'here are ways to use them in partnerwork' ie dring titanic, breaks, t-stand etc. Say there'll be examples for guys and girls. Discount if you sign up for both weeks.

Obviously this is a lot more work for the instructors in terms of prep! And needs to be promoted in some way to bring let people at other schools know. Plus have to think up enough ideas!!

From 8:00 to 8:30 run the on2 timing class (acts as a break for experienced people, they can go grab a drink/food)

From 8:30 to 9:30 run the partnerwork classes as before (don't think cutting 30 minutes our of a 3 hour social will matter much).

Social from 9:30pm
 
To be honest in my opinion, just like socials, lessons often are made 'popular' not so much by the content but by the people that attend them. If the social side is good people will often attend just to see their friends (if they know their friends are going).
 
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