I will be the first to admit that I am a young person who dances and who is involved in the traditional music and dance of New England. However, I decided to write this article after noticing that there are very few other young people who dance “on the regular”.
Typically, I am the youngest (except the under 12-year-olds that randomly show up) at any regular dance such as Peterborough or Nelson. This, I have noticed with a bit of concern. There seems to be a distinct generational gap between the few 40-somethings year olds, and me, being college-age. The only dance that I have seen that has a regular crowd of college-aged people is the Plymouth NH square dance. That makes me hopeful. However, the absence of college-aged or slightly younger regular dancers who get out to more than just one dance a month is still a problem. I know for a fact that really anyone over the age of 15 (some can at a younger age, but 15 is the average) can handle themselves just fine at a regular dance. Dances are fun, and energetic, and have live music.
So what are we missing? Why don’t they come out? Where are they? These are all questions I have. I have my doubts that all of them are at home or college in bed during the evenings. I never even see them anywhere else that I happen to be, during the weekdays or the weekends… I think we all know the problem with the age gap. There are even very, very few ‘good’ musicians who are younger. Let alone up-and-coming callers who genuinely care about the traditional dances of New England (Contra dance callers are different- I’m speaking of the callers who keep traditional dances alive through regular usage of squares, contras, circles, and whatever else formation… not just contras).
However, without dancers… there will be no demand for musicians or callers in the future. This is the problem. It is a never-ending cycle and without a whole section, we derail and risk losing these dances we know and love. I have been trying to advertise dances and things to my own age demographic but alas to no avail. They all seem content to stay within their circles and stay out of sight and out of mind to the world at large. I had the same problem with getting participants when I was in 4-H. You just can’t find them, and if you do, they prefer to not participate in these experiences.
I’ve got some ideas for the future, to draw young people into dances. But it is discouraging when no one shows up to events planned and scraped together for their benefit and educational cultural experiences (which is what happened to me over and over again in 4-H).
Hopefully, something will happen, something will change or click… but how I wish that it would happen soon.
