Ventura ECD Experiment Quite the Success

Way back in January 2007, we began an English Country Dance series in Ventura on the First Monday of each month.

It drew many curiosity-seekers, and a respectable crowd when we had live music and a caller from England, Colin Hume. Other than that, most of our ECD fans in Ventura County found it difficult to attend, and most dances lost a small amount of money.

One of our biggest Ventura fans, Susan Pineda, located another site for us that we could use on Sunday afternoon, and has a padded floor. So on September 16, we tried a Third Sunday afternoon dance.

We had great attendance, and not just curiosity-seekers. As the dance ended, I asked if people felt we should start up a Sunday series in January. This was unacceptable! All wanted to just keep going, which meant starting in earnest on the next Third Sunday, October 21. That dance, too, was well attended. Enough to rent the hall, pay the caller, and some left over for the sponsoring group (three homeschool groups).

The November dance would have been the same date as our Pre-Thanksgiving Event, which included an English Country Dance in the afternoon, so the November Ventura dance was canceled.

The December dance came around, but the three of us driving down there started encountering serious smoke in Ventura County. This was the day of the big fires in Southern California. That dance was canceled, both because the air was unhealthy and most folks were wise enough to stay home.

In January, the SBCDS began sponsoring the dance, which moved to First Sundays, to avoid the kind of problem we enountered in November. (There can never be an afternoon dance on First Sundays at the Ballroom because the Tea Dance is in the Ballroom on First Sunday afternoons.)

Both the January and February dances (the latter featuring guest caller Ben Rotenberg) were successful, such that the rent could be paid, the caller paid, and some left over toward SBCDS expenses.

Maybe we'll see you there on one or more first Sundays!