At Northside dance last night there were 2 young girls (maybe 10-12 year olds) dancing up a storm and having a wonderful time and that got me thinking about why there are no youngsters, or very few, in the RnR scene and what we can do about it. If you look around at a dance the average age group is 40-60 year olds, and with the way our knees are going and bodies wearing out, unless the young ones are encouraged the dance scene will dry up when we all get too old to dance (horrible thought that it is). I know I tried to get my kids to have a go, but they were put off by all the "oldies".
So what can we, as a community, do about getting some youger people involved? Adrian from Red Hot Rockers has been talking about fundraising to pay to get some young dancers teaching for free in schools to promote the music and the dancing to a younger generation. With the popularity of dance shows on TV and the release of "Flashdance" movie, now might be a good time to get onto it.
There will be a Cup Day Festival at the Whitehorse club on Cup day from 11am-10pm, with 5 bands, car rally, cup shown on a large screen, dance workshops etc, to raise funds to kick off some RnR promotion in schools, so if you're not going to the cup why not get behind promoting the RnR scene. Maybe we could all drag along our kids, teens and young adults, and if we all made an effort to bring a few along then there would be enough younger people for them to not turn up their noses and say "it's all oldies" and we could all say "see there ARE people your age here".
I would love to get my kids (in their early 20's) into dancing, but they don't want to hang out with "oldies" (and I hate describing the RnR scene as that) so what are we able to do about getting them involved? Anyone got any ideas? Can we all gang up and drag them along one night and poke them with a stick and get them to dance
I'd hate to see the RnR dance scene drying up when we all get to old to dance.
Good ideas Joceb, but i got to say you should not drag kids against their will to a party they don't want to be at, they will drift away from you as a parent. We tried it with a couple of our kids, hoping they would see our excitement. It doesn't work, they can't seem to get it. They also as you said, don't want to be seen out with a bunch of senior's, or for that matter be taught by some old cronies. As you should know, back in days of the rise of R&R this dance was shunned by our parents, and many parents forbid their children from attending these parties and dances, we still found a way to go & get more of this music into our feet, didn't we! Our music is not the music of the kids today.
Personally though we have trouble with our kids totally detesting us going to dances, to the stage that one of our 4 kids won't talk to us any more she reckons our priorities are all wrong. So we copped it from our parents & now our kids, so what is it with this music? I started dancing 46 years ago with the chick I still dance with today.
I started dancing Rock n'Roll when I was 17, there was no-one else in the club my age and I was dancing with whoevers husband was free to dance with (and many thanks to them). I am now 28 and still find no-one my age at dances and I do find this rather disheartening.
I am very passionate about my rockin and would be dancing all the time if I had a partner or other rockers to go with. I would be very interested in making friends with rockers my age but there just doesn't seem to be many/any around. With a lack of younger rockers I have never found myself a partner and not being anywhere near Melbourne there are a lack of venues to attend also and then comes the question.. do I travel hours to a dance to sit on a table by myself, knowing no-one or having no-one to dance with? Bit costly and a bit of a sad idea to me.
I long for other people my age to get into it, once the music gets into your system you are a slave forever! Long Live ROCK N' ROLL!!!
You are definitely on to something! I started dancing in Perth at 11 and I am still going now at 22! It was really hard to find youngens but in the end, our little group of kids loved the attention from the adults! I think to get kids; we need kids, or even young adults as you say. As soon as I move to Melbourne in November, I am going to make it my job to source out young dancers! I think getting into schools is a great idea! Or even demos with younger dancers? Even people in their 20s where they do eye catching stuff like lifts and fast pace songs? I would love to be involved in this venture! I know there are a lot of kids in NSW dancing.. Maybe they could come down and do a demo?
At Northside, we've always welcomed youngsters & family groups....let's face it...our beloved Rock N roll is Not the BAD music our parents/Grandparents made it out to be... time has taught us that...the 'petticoat' dances around lend themselves to the 'family' involvement atmosphere...(& I'll go out on a limb here) more so than the Pub/Rockabilly scene....mainly because of the 'booze' factor.
Whether it's round Melbourne or the country venues....there's the opportunity to encourage/invite the younger generation to come along...get involved.....invite the families....
Sadly as the youngsters reach puberty they rebel/drift away...& we can only hope when they reach mid/late 20's they may return....
The VRRDA has the opportunity to motivate the dance school teachers get into the schools, community clubs etc to promote with some of the mentioned suggestions from our previous writers....
I've just noticed the Cup Day Fundraiser planned....OK...looks like we have a starting place to build on
My 2 cents worth
Clive R
A Good Dance is worth the time it takes to get there.
"Life may not be the party we hoped for... but while we are here we might as well dance!"
A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.
Hi Catbull89 and Rockin sweetheart. Thanks for the posts. If you have any ideas on how to get "your age group" into rock and roll then lets have them and see if we can fix the situation. I always get a lot of enjoyment out of watching younger people dance as they have so much more energy. All the winners at the VRRDA championships seem to be in their 20's, but where do they go the rest of the time as they don't seem to be hanging around the dances I go to.
The Cup Day festival at the Whitehorse Club is to raise funds to promote Rock n Roll to the younger generation so get behind it, and volunteer to get the word out to the younger people. If you want to help contact me or Adrian from Red Hot Rockers.
At Northside dance last night there were 2 young girls (maybe 10-12 year olds) dancing up a storm and having a wonderful time and that got me thinking about why there are no youngsters, or very few, in the RnR scene and what we can do about it. If you look around at a dance the average age group is 40-60 year olds, and with the way our knees are going and bodies wearing out, unless the young ones are encouraged the dance scene will dry up when we all get too old to dance (horrible thought that it is). I know I tried to get my kids to have a go, but they were put off by all the "oldies".
So what can we, as a community, do about getting some youger people involved? Adrian from Red Hot Rockers has been talking about fundraising to pay to get some young dancers teaching for free in schools to promote the music and the dancing to a younger generation. With the popularity of dance shows on TV and the release of "Flashdance" movie, now might be a good time to get onto it.
There will be a Cup Day Festival at the Whitehorse club on Cup day from 11am-10pm, with 5 bands, car rally, cup shown on a large screen, dance workshops etc, to raise funds to kick off some RnR promotion in schools, so if you're not going to the cup why not get behind promoting the RnR scene. Maybe we could all drag along our kids, teens and young adults, and if we all made an effort to bring a few along then there would be enough younger people for them to not turn up their noses and say "it's all oldies" and we could all say "see there ARE people your age here".
I would love to get my kids (in their early 20's) into dancing, but they don't want to hang out with "oldies" (and I hate describing the RnR scene as that) so what are we able to do about getting them involved? Anyone got any ideas? Can we all gang up and drag them along one night and poke them with a stick and get them to dance
I'd hate to see the RnR dance scene drying up when we all get to old to dance.
As the mother of one of the two girls, by the way she is 11 and her friend 13 it would be great to see kids encouraged to dance. They have been fortunate that they were readily accepted by adults when they started learning to dance. All the class members had nothing but encouragement for them. It has taught them to relate well with adults and behave well in an adult enviroment. I know my daughter would love to have a young male dance partner, but we have never seen any at the dances we have been to. We need to actively encourage these kids as they are the future of rock and roll !
The secret is to find modern songs that you can still dance Rock & Roll to and they will look at the whole issue differently. Most of the young ones just don't want to hear the old music. That has been my experience as a DJ and as a Dance Teacher.
Regards
Peter Panagaris
Originally Posted by joceb
At Northside dance last night there were 2 young girls (maybe 10-12 year olds) dancing up a storm and having a wonderful time and that got me thinking about why there are no youngsters, or very few, in the RnR scene and what we can do about it. If you look around at a dance the average age group is 40-60 year olds, and with the way our knees are going and bodies wearing out, unless the young ones are encouraged the dance scene will dry up when we all get too old to dance (horrible thought that it is). I know I tried to get my kids to have a go, but they were put off by all the "oldies".
So what can we, as a community, do about getting some youger people involved? Adrian from Red Hot Rockers has been talking about fundraising to pay to get some young dancers teaching for free in schools to promote the music and the dancing to a younger generation. With the popularity of dance shows on TV and the release of "Flashdance" movie, now might be a good time to get onto it.
There will be a Cup Day Festival at the Whitehorse club on Cup day from 11am-10pm, with 5 bands, car rally, cup shown on a large screen, dance workshops etc, to raise funds to kick off some RnR promotion in schools, so if you're not going to the cup why not get behind promoting the RnR scene. Maybe we could all drag along our kids, teens and young adults, and if we all made an effort to bring a few along then there would be enough younger people for them to not turn up their noses and say "it's all oldies" and we could all say "see there ARE people your age here".
I would love to get my kids (in their early 20's) into dancing, but they don't want to hang out with "oldies" (and I hate describing the RnR scene as that) so what are we able to do about getting them involved? Anyone got any ideas? Can we all gang up and drag them along one night and poke them with a stick and get them to dance
I'd hate to see the RnR dance scene drying up when we all get to old to dance.
Hello there rockers. I am one of the young...ish (26) folk who plan to get in to a little Rock n' Roll thanks to loving the music and style. I've been doing swing dancing for over a year now and will hopefully join your great community in the new year once my knees stop giving me grief from excessive dancing (I feel old).
Might I suggest a similar setup as the Swing Patrol website in the way of lessons and the ease of finding a venue and night that suits. I had previously signed up here in the hopes of getting along to some classes (thanks to convincing from some of your own crowd who swing dance with us), but found the Dance Classes link a little daunting and not terribly helpful when trying to find a night in my area.
Make it easy for us young-ens to find a class, and you can work on getting us hooked when we're there.
I did quite enjoy watching the RnR's rocking out at the Gangsters ball (I was in the swing competition just prior and placed a theoretical second).
I'll find a class and join you all in the near future. Until then... rock on and good luck with bringing more in...
Parkville,Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, Australia
Posts
23
Re: Getting young people into Rock n Roll
One improvement to encourage kids to do rock and roll is for dance teachers not to charge kids for dance classes. then parents would not have to think of the cost bringing them to classes and their friends. Charge them at the dances at reduced entry price. Jonathon at alley catz & other dance teachers should take note of this fact. The kids will buy more clothes and shoes and come to more dances. Look at the long and big picture please. They are the future . Kids like modern bands with a bit of spunk and go.
The Cup Day Fundraiser is the 1st of many events designed to raise funds to promote Rock 'n' Roll.
The aim of finding young teachers to go to schools is exactly because we need to make the kids want to try Rock 'n' Roll.
The teachers need to be good role models and be the sort of person kids would want to be like, because we only really get one chance.
The teachers will be wearing modern clothing with a fifties look.
The song s they teach to will be current songs like Paloma Faith "Upside Down"
Christina Aguilera's "Candy Man", Sugarland's "Stuck Like Glue" even Guy Sebastian and James Blunt had songs this year that you could Rock 'n' Roll to.
But it is important not to forget the originals.
You cannot force our music on the kids but you can do a mix.
Play a couple of minutes of a modern song.
Just as the kids are getting into it, mix in a minute of a classic like Born to Boogie
so they get a taste, then go back to the modern song.
Exposing them to the music in ever increasing levels will let them adjust to the music.
When I first heard Rockabilly my feet tapped but my head didn't like it because EVERYTHING was unfamiliar.
After 6 weeks at the Olympic Hotel it was all over and I just loved the music.
But it took time.
Thanks for the ideas and the conversation. keep them coming.
To find out more about the plan just go to the thread.
If you would like to help in any way or just find out more
please call me on 0402 402 913
Cheers Adrian
If you want some help on working out the dance school list just ask. It depends on where you live and what nights you have free. Yes the Swing Patrol web site and email list is well organised, but it is a well run buisiness and does tend to appeal to the younger people. Maybe the Vicrock moderators could pick up some more of their ideas and look at the dance class section to make it more user friendly?
If you come along to some of the rock n roll dances you will find plenty of music you can swing dance to as well as rock and roll, as many of the regulars do a bit of both, so it would be great if you encouraged some of the swing dancers to join in. And the DJ's are usually happy to play some swing tracks if you ask them.
Hi guys!
I dance at Northside as well and my friend and I have also been thinking about this.
We are both in our early 20's and thought about re-visiting our high schools and doing for example a small demonstration. We still know a few people that attend the school and thought that maybe we could get them to see what they are missing out on.
Do you think that this is a good idea?
To be honest i only started dancing a year ago and if you asked me back then if I would continue it i would have thought it a ridiculous idea. It wasnt until 2 weeks after i started when i attended my first social dance that i realised how big it really is. And yet I didnt even know so many people still liked this sort of dancing. It was totally unknown to me which suggests we need more public awareness.
Earlier this year when i had my 21st birthday, i made it a RnR event so people could dress up as well. This made a few people sign up to classes in their area and it even got a 13 yr old interested. So maybe this is another way to go.
Recently we did a demonstration at Victoria Gardens and i was overjoyed to see kids around 5 or 6 years of age trying to copy us. My guess is that will more public displays people might become more interested.
Exactly the sort of thing that Adrian is proposing - getting rock n roll into schools. Give him a ring or personal message to let him know you're interested, especially if you still have contacts at schools. Maybe rock n roll could become an occasional class in phys ed lessons?
Although discussed many times before on Vicrock, I think it's always worthwhile raising it again & again. Not just 1950's style rock & roll but participation level amongst younger people in almost all activities have declined in recent years. Blame it on computers, video games, changing lifestyle or whatever.
Good to hear members offering useful comments and suggestions. To be relevant, there's no doubt we need to go out to schools, universities, shopping centres, community and charity events. We need to be seeking out exposure as much as possible in print media, radio and TV. It helps getting role models or "media celebrities" involved - their influence can be far and wide.
It's obvious the younger people are presently not coming to us in droves so we need to be out there where they are. It's a tough business competing with popular music & culture so I think it's important we focus on what are our strengths and weaknesses - what appeal and what doesn't. We need to be clear on what, where and how we want to promote amongst the younger people - is it just the dance? Or are we also wanting to showcase the music, fashion & 1950's culture? The whole package.
To get the majority of the rock & roll community behind this push is stating the obvious. We need many to get involved in one way or another, however small our contributions may be. More importantly, we need to get all the young rockers presently in the scene involved. Divide and we 'll fall. And we have to aim for the long haul. Rome wasn't built in a single day, so to speak. Do we have such people who are committed to this cause long term? Are we prepared to "invest" our money and time on it?
And it goes on and on, but let's make a start. Don't forget too we need just as many "older" people in the scene as well. There really ain't that many of us left in the 1950's style rock & roll scene, and we could do with many more.
i agree what everyone is saying about getting the young ones to come along.i use to do a social afternoon in bendigo on sunday afternoons to learn people and just to have fun and socialise.i did have three young girls in my group aged from 4yrs to 7 yrs they absoluted loved dancing and learning,but the other problem is trying to get males to come along and try to have a partner to dance with.i dont think it matters how old you are in a group longest you make sure that everyone is involved.id do it again the same way as i did in bendigo ,but where can you hire a cheap hall to do this,just for a couple of hours,ive had quite a few asking me have i started anything up in my area.im still thinking of doing it ,in the new year now as this year is coming to a end.plus we have a young teenager coming to the dancing now with us where we go,so she can get other dances from other people and she loves it but would love to have a dance partner to.
Jitterbug is right we do need people of all ages to come into Rock 'n' Roll.
By getting the kids involved you automatically reach all their family and friends.
If they like it, they will bring their parents along to classes.
However the proposal i have put forward is only part one of a 4 point plan.
All the proposals re getting exposure on TV, radio and in the papers are part of a structured campaign to bring the joy, life and vibrancy of a great era of dance, music, clothes and cars to a world that needs some fun.
As individuals we can connect with a few people around us and only influence a small percentage of those.
As a group we can reach way more and by the massive exposure and excitement we create we can bring a larger percentage of that bigger group.
You just need to look at the Linedancing craze. Everyone wanted to try it.
I had 3 classes every Tuesday at Coburg Town Hall because of the demand.
We had the commercial with the Cow doing a linedance and Chris Black taught Sam Newman on the Grand Final Edition of the Footy Show.
Everyone tried it and a lot kept going.
Imagine getting the same exposure for Rock 'n' Roll through a co-ordinated campaign.
Hitting schools, shopping centres, advertising agencies TV radio & news.
A few very large Rock 'n' Roll fund Raisiers for major charities.
A lot of news stories in a lot of places at one time.
What an effect.
But the result would be way better than it was for Line dancing.
Why?
Because in one Line dance you could be doing 15 different types of footwork plus turning to a new Wall and suddenly losing every visual clue you had to the routine you were doing.
Line dancing can make good dancers struggle never mind beginners.
As we all know, Rock and Roll is different.
At the Beginner level Footwork is simple, there are many moves with the same footwork patter, you actually get to dance with and talk to your partner and you don't even have to have the same footwork patterns.
Add the music, the laughter and the friendliness and we have one of the greatest
dance styles any one could ever wish for.
Once we make the scene huge we can take it to many more venues like RSL clubs,where more people can teach, more bands can play and more people
who don't dance can listen to the music, be it Rock 'n' or Rockabilly, and just enjoy it.
If you believe this can happen.
Get on board the Rock 'n' Roll express coming to a suburb near you.
Its nice to see the enthusiasm shown here by a few people but I'm wondering how much support you will get? The average person (like me) might like to rock and roll but does not live and breath rock and roll. I have another life which includes a full time job and other activities which take up a lot of my spare time. I figure many, if not most, rock and rollers are like me.
Adrian said in his other post "I tried this many years ago and while everyone agreed that it was a” a great idea” everyone waited for everyone else and it never got off the ground." Other than better communication and publicity (the internet and this site for example) what has changed since then? Also those people back then are a lot older now.
The people that should be right behind it are the dance teachers and dance venue operators. Little Maria, Clive, Jonathon, TopCats, Southside, Ashley to name just a few. As well as being the right thing to do, they have the most to gain long term.
As for me I wish all of you every success possible with this.
I agree totally with you. Our lives are so full that it is hard enough to find spare hours to visit friends, pursue hobbies, get fit or just plain relax.
We have charities, or clubs we support but cannot get out there to physically help,
no matter how much we would like to.
If you take a look at my thread re CUP DAY FUNDRAISER, I acknowledge this and say that at the smallest level all you need do is attend one or more of our events and just enjoy yourself. If you can email 5 friends that may be interested that would also be more than enough.
While teachers and promoters may benefit directly most only have a few years left of teaching, many are busy doing all the normal family things and running their businesses and so while it is in their interest they may not have time.
Many people need to see what is happening before they commit.
There are thousands of rockers out there.
Some have unused talents that a project like this can benfit from.
Some may be retired but still want to contribute to society and haven't found their passion.
This may be it.
I hope that you will benefit from this in being able to go to many more venues on any night you choose.
On being on a dance floor and seeing people of all ages just enjoying themselves.
Where you may benefit is that if the scene gets a lot of exposure some of your friends may decide to take up Rock 'n' Roll and you would actually be able to combine catching up with Rock 'n' Roll which would give you a bit more time for other things you have to do or just plain relaxing.
Thankyou for your good wishes
Keep on Rocking
Cheers Adrian
OK...here's some incentive ...in keeping with getting behind & helping....
At most/all dances currently there's an admission fee for children/teenagers....as of NOW...today...that fee is waved at Northside Rock @ The Heritage in Epping...previously we had a fee ($7) & a 'Family' fee of $40.00 (2 adults plus 2 or more children...we have one family come ..2 adults & 6 children...they only paid the family fee)....but now that is waived...ANY Child/teenager accompanied by their parent WILL be admitted FREE OF CHARGE.....so this means there no burden cost to the parents to bring their youngsters along.....we hope this is a positive help to bring in some new people......
Clive R Northside Rock
A Good Dance is worth the time it takes to get there.
"Life may not be the party we hoped for... but while we are here we might as well dance!"
A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.
Originally Posted by joceb
Re: Getting young people into Rock n Roll
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