The January 29 open meeting resulted in a plan to improve the Sunday practica. Click the following link to download the summary of the meeting and plan: Outcome_of_Jan29_2012_open_meeting.

The plan requires volunteer support in the form of several working committees. Some are “one-time” committees whose duties will be mainly completed this spring. Others are ongoing. Here’s a list of the committees. Click the following link to download the sign-up sheet which lists the complete duties for each committee: committee sign up.

Ongoing Committees

• Practica Scheduling and Blog Update Committee
• Music Committee

Short-term Committees

• Guidelines and Peer Teaching Guidance Committee
• Etiquette Committee
• Advanced Practice Committee

I will bring the committee sign up sheets to practica the next few Sundays. If you would like to be on a committee but won’t be at practica, please email me at betsygeller (all one word) at gmail. Folks have definitely already shown an interest in serving on committees and making this plan work!  (I’ve posted the blank sheets here so as not to publicizing volunteers’ contact info.)

White the duties for each committee are set, the committees will determine exactly how they fulfill those duties. If you want to serve on an ongoing committee but only for a short term, please don’t hesitate to sign up–we’ll make it work.

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One more post from me today: We had a really good discussion about the practica format and related issues at the open meeting today. A sincere thanks everyone who participated! There were 11 of us. We narrowed down and tweaked the list of ideas and will be looking for folks to help implement them. I plan to bring a summary sheet and and a sign up for specific volunteer tasks next week at practica. Also check back in a week for a new post about it here.

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Many of you (David, Thomas and others) have had trouble embedding videos even when following instructions posted here. I finally figured out what the problem was and have fixed it.

Sorry it took me so long…… but it should work now.

Check this new one from TimbaLive!

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www.bailecubano.com

I kept it simple.  Pulled in the blog and created a relatively self-maintaining calendar leveraging public Facebook events.  It will still only be as good as those using it, but let’s give it a try and make it worthwhile.

There is more information on the ‘About’ page and the Candela! Dance FB page.  Please take a look and let me know what you think.

And for those who want more details:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

How it works

Facebook: If you have a public or private account on FB that you use to create events for local bands, dance classes, workshops, venues, potlucks…any events open to the public that are of interest to the Latin/Cuban Seattle community, then your event will be automatically published to the calendar on the bailecubano site when you invite La Candela to the event.

Calendar Direct: If you are unable or opposed to using FB, you can enter events directly onto the calendar.  Please include contact information and expect a 24 – 48 hr delay.  [FB preferred, less maintenance and gives the event organizer the ability to change the event details]

How you can help

Fill in the Blanks: The are many names and faces missing from the links page.  Please help fill them in to create a more complete representation of our community.

• Forward this information to any musicians, bands, individuals, instructors, promoters, venues that you think would like to be included
• Send as much of the following as you can provide for your own groups:
  • Name of band, instructor or venue
  • Color photo
  • Facebook contact (individual or public page of person who creates FB events for the group)
  • Website URL

Send Photos/Videos/YouTube Links: Send your best or your funniest, whatever you want to share.  Bands and Instructors especially – please send me videos if you have them.  dancecandela@gmail.com

Add a Link to your Website: You can help in the process of optimizing the site for search engines, by adding a link to www.bailecubano.com from your website.

Thank you much!

Chaille

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Hello Everyone,
I still have two Seattle Rueda T-shirts for sale. One Men’s T-shirt (size L) and one Women’s T-shirt (size S). $20 each. I will bring them with me to Folklife Festival at our guerilla rueda spot on Sunday.
My goal is to sell these two before getting another order going for everyone. So please help me sell them. Only two left. Una bulla!

Maritza

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Hello from the east coast. I just visited the blog and am glad it is still alive and well, and realized that this May is its 3rd birthday (I still remember all the emails back and forth to get it started). Good job to everyone that still contributes and keeps it going.

Georgia

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The blog has been hit with a lot of spam registrations and attempts to post spam articles.  Till now we have handled this in a manual fashion. I still want to allow anyone to join the group and discussion if they are legit. I’ve taken some steps to ensure that we still have an open community while eliminating the “bad” stuff:

1) New  registration – new users will be ‘contributors’ – they will be able to create a post, but it will need to be approved by one of our editors before it is visible. At that point if they are real people – we will convert them to  an ‘author’ that can post at will.

2) I deleted 540 registered users that have never posted.  In the off chance that you are a community member that has never posted,  you will need to register again if you ever decide to post. The only reason to register is in order to post, otherwise anyone can read or comment.

Let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

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REMEMBER this weekend only, Sunday Practica will be at HaLo, from 3 to 5 p.m.

HaLo is located at 500 E Pike St, five blocks west of Century Ballroom above Brocklind’s Formal Wear and right next door to 8 Limbs Yoga. Or go to the Century Ballroom website for directions.

See you there!

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Hi all,

Thank you for your conversation, and for your patience since the potluck at Barbara’s on December 6. I’m finally typing a brief (ha!) summary what I heard from the circle that evening.

The broad topics of discussion were (1) what makes Sunday rueda practica work? and (2) what would make it work even better.

(1) I was really glad to hear so much positive about what we’re all getting out of Sunday practica. In summary:

Reliability — We know we can come to practica on Sunday and enjoy music, dancing, socializing, and having a good time in a space away from our everyday concerns. The regular schedule helps, because if we don’t have 2 hours to spare, we know when to come for the part that’s most important to us. “Always puts you in a good mood.”

Diversity & inclusivity — We know we and our friends are all welcome. It’s casual. We get to see and learn from a variety of personal styles of dancing and history of dance experience. “Everybody gets to dance with everybody, and everybody gets to dance.”

Teaching & learning — A number of people expressed appreciation for Maritza’s energy and teaching style. We enjoy figuring out new moves and practicing dance skills and footwork. “Someone always steps up to teach what they know.”

(2) There were a number of specific suggestions for making practica even better than it is. My perception is these were grouped in these themes:

Organization — People like the structure of the 2 hours, but would also like more organization of calls to teach and learn (so we all know a similar set to dance together). The teachers who are willing to donate their time and experience could be offering their own perspective at different times, perhaps in a more organized way.

Progression — Everyone wants to have fun, and everyone wants to learn more in their dancing. More organization could help beginners move from basics into the open rueda. People would like beginners to have opportunities to dance for more time than just the first 30-60 minutes of the day. Dancers with lots of experience also want to find time to dance together and push each other to improve.

Contribution — Perhaps because Sunday practica is fun for everyone (“Best 2 hours of the week,” someone said), everyone seemed interested in contributing and learning from others’ contributions. We all know how much Maritza contributes each week. Dennis Ruiz offered to contribute footwork practice, especially for men. Many others also want to learn to call, to plan moves, to teach moves to others, to dance with newcomers, or to contribute in other ways to the community.

Finally, we all recognize that we’re part of a community that extends beyond Sunday afternoons. We want to support those who teach Cuban dance in the region, as well as the bands and clubs who play Cuban music for us to dance to. (Did you see: two!! options for New Year’s Eve. Hooray, Seattle!)

What comes next?

* I’m working on thoughts for updating our Sunday “schedule” to incorporate some of the things people want to see added to the mix. Please comment online or talk to me in person if you have ideas. I plan to propose some adjustments in January 2010 and request community agreement to try out some things. Having “a schedule” is clearly a positive thing–so let’s build in the things we want to see happen.

* Sunday practica gives us an opportunity to practice and learn, and to contribute our own expertise and celebrate our diversity in a way different from what’s possible in a classroom setting. So invite your friends, and also tell them about all our local teachers (see the Instructors & Classes page). The more we each learn, the more we all learn.

See you Sundays!

Kyra

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Hi everybody,

I’m so glad we were able to find time at the potluck last week to talk about why we come to Sunday rueda practice, what it adds to our lives, and what could make our afternoon together even more fun.

I apologize that I have not had time this week to sit down and collect the notes Barbara and Nadja took into a coherent, typed up list. I will do that soon!

In the meantime, let’s keep thinking and talking about what we enjoy about Sundays at Sonny’s and what we’d like to add in to the mix.

See you on the 20th! (Yes, there is Sunday rueda today, I just can’t make it. Wish I could be there with you.)

Kyra

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