Let’s Dance is a free dance calendar, made by dancers for dancers.
If you dance, you know the feeling. There’s a social on somewhere this weekend, but is it Friday or Saturday? Is the Thursday class still running in the holidays? Which night is the Bachata social this month? The details are spread across Facebook pages, Instagram stories, WhatsApp chats and websites, and it’s easy to miss the night you would have loved.
How it started
Let’s Dance began in a Christchurch dance WhatsApp group, as a simple list of the week’s classes and socials so everyone could see what was on in one place. It didn’t take long to see that the same problem exists everywhere: new dancers don’t know where to start, regulars miss events, and organisers work hard to get the word out. So the list grew into this calendar.
What we’re here for
- Make it easier to dance. See every social, class, workshop and festival near you in one calendar, filter by the styles you love, and add events to your own calendar or get a reminder.
- Build a stronger dance community. When people can find each other’s events, more people turn up, schools and organisers get support, and new dancers find their way in.
- Help travelling dancers. Visiting a new city? You should be able to find somewhere to dance tonight, not after you’ve flown home.
The calendar is free to use, and free for schools and organisers to list their events.
Be a local admin in your city
We’re starting in Canterbury and want to bring Let’s Dance to more cities. To do that well, we need people who know their local scene. Ideally we’d like two local admins for each city or region.
A local admin is the connector: the person who talks to everyone, knows what’s on, and gets people along to events. In practice that means:
- Seeding the calendar. A new area starts empty, so you’ll add the first classes, socials and festivals yourself, and you’ll probably keep adding plenty of them while schools and organisers get used to it.
- Building momentum. Talking to schools, teachers, DJs and organisers, encouraging them to list their own events, and sharing the calendar with dancers.
- Getting people dancing. Welcoming newcomers, pointing them to the right class or social, and helping your scene grow.
- Keeping it accurate. Approving new organisers, checking new events and fixing details when things change.
In return, you’ll be listed on Let’s Dance as a local admin for your area, so dancers searching your city or region know who to talk to.
If you love your local dance community and want to be part of this, we’d love to hear from you.
Run classes or socials?
Create a free account to add your events to the calendar, or get in touch if you’d like a hand getting started.
The people behind it
Where it began
Nick
Nick started the WhatsApp group that Let’s Dance grew out of. He got hooked on Bachata, and on the dance floor he met the love of his life. Together they decided to move to Spain, and before they left he handed the group over to George. He’s still involved behind the scenes and dancing, just in a different time zone.
Running it now
George
When George moved to Christchurch, he didn’t know many people. Then he saw a post saying that one of the best ways to make friends in a new city is to start Salsa. So he did.
At his first social, someone asked him to dance. The song started, she stepped sideways, and he had no idea what was happening. He asked, and she told him it was Bachata. So George had to learn Bachata.
Then it happened again with Kizomba, again with Brazilian Zouk, and again with Modern Jive. Two years later he dances Salsa, Bachata, a little Kizomba, a lot of Brazilian Zouk, and some West Coast Swing and Modern Jive. Dance is almost his whole life now.
Today George is the person to meet in Christchurch’s Latin dance scene. He goes out of his way to find the people standing at the edge of the dance floor looking a bit lost, who usually turn out to be new to dancing or new to town, just like he was. Let’s Dance is his way of doing that for everyone, so the next person who moves to a new city can find their first social just as easily.