Building community?

[faaria]

Besides the usual hafla's and holiday parties, how do you build community at your studio? By this I mean bringing students together from all classes and all levels? What do you do? Brain storming on new ways to do this. I have really great groups of students and would like to bring them together more!

[beafarhana]

Try checking out this thread, from a few days ago.
http://www.bhuz.com/forum/business-b...community.html

There are plenty of ideas for social & dance-enhancing community building there.

I try to organise social events with all my students from different classes, different towns. This could be attending a big visiting show like the Johara show, or BDSS (though I'm not sure I can sit through *another* BDSS show these days- lol!), or Galit's cabaret show Bellylicious, or maybe a meal out to an Egyptian restaurant, where I know there will be good dancers, and music for my students to dance to after the meal.

[faaria]

Yes we've done all those things! Just thought there might be some fun outside the box ideas out there...

[Azhia]

Hold a swap and sell. Nothing brings people together or builds community like shopping!

[rachelw]

What about a video-watching party, watching dance-related videos or movies? You could do this at someone's house if there's room, or at the studio.

I know of a studio that used to do Saturday morning discussions. They'd have bagels and coffee and talk about a particular aspect of the dance, such as dance history.

If you really want to go out of the box, what about something like working on a community service project together--volunteering at a food bank, doing a community clean-up project, etc. That would get people together outside of class and might create a feeling of community because students/dancers would be representing the studio as a group. Non-performing students would be able to participate and mix with students at a more advanced level. As an added bonus, it would make your studio look good in the eyes of the non-dance community.

[LiesaB.]

What about a video-watching party, watching dance-related videos or movies? You could do this at someone's house if there's room, or at the studio.

I know of a studio that used to do Saturday morning discussions. They'd have bagels and coffee and talk about a particular aspect of the dance, such as dance history.

If you really want to go out of the box, what about something like working on a community service project together--volunteering at a food bank, doing a community clean-up project, etc. That would get people together outside of class and might create a feeling of community because students/dancers would be representing the studio as a group. Non-performing students would be able to participate and mix with students at a more advanced level. As an added bonus, it would make your studio look good in the eyes of the non-dance community.

I love the community service approach! Haven't tried that ...hmmm...

[Lauren_]

Field trips!

We all meet up at the studio to carpool to workshops, classes and shows.

Not so much all levels, but the students who've been with me for a while are often invited to whatever strikes my fancy, too. We've gone to a burlesque show, done rock climbing (group rates YAY) been to see Eastern European folk dancers, etc.

[faaria]

Thanks, some food for thought!
I just don't want to fall into the old trap of seporate groups and not a "we all belong" thing!
I guess i just got to thinking with the opening of my new studio, how to do things right from the start. I have classes and I have a performance group, don't want anyone to feel left out in planning for the future.
Thanks for your input!

[CharlotteDesorgher]

We have what we call 'harem' days - basically an opportunity to get together and have a lovely relaxing bellydance-oriented day at the weekend. We have different things as a central focus - it might be watching videos, it could be a bellydance makeup demo, it could be bringing together several vendors for a shopping afternoon. Cakes usually figure somewhere!!

[artemisia_danst]

that's a really sweet idea charlotte!

[Nathara]

How about non-technique workshops? You can even pull in other artists/whatever from the community. For instance, you could ask a local make up artist to demo individual or group performance make up, same thing with a hair stylist or a costume designer. Sure, such an event would probably cost, but it'd be a good way to bring everyone together on more equal footing. Also, there's a group near here that has a 'stitch and *****' day every so often and SCA groups also do that. Or consider a drum workshop since that isn't too common among dancers but is still drum related. There are SO many things you can do!