I read Stephen Wozniak's thoughts about combining a dating agency with the folk dance community with interest and I came up with a perfect solution . . .'Speed Dancing'.

It could work like this: a host website (STS ?) could promote Speed Dancing events around the country and interested participants would log on and be issued with a number and location and date of the dance. Once there, the rule would be that you had to dance with a different partner for every dance - the caller could call out a pair of numbers (a bit like dancing bingo or the football draws e.g. 'male 11 with female 23' for example) until all the sets were made up and the people who had those numbers danced that dance with each other. Simple! When that dance was over, the process would be repeated - the caller would call out pairs of numbers and the dancers on the floor would move on and search out their corresponding partner for that dance. This alone could be hilarious.

The dances would have to be simple to learn and fun to do and of fairly short duration so that a maximum number could be achieved throughout the evening, ensuring as many changes of partner as possible. Think of all the flirting moves and 'see me later' whispers !! This could really catch on! No more poor 'singletons' sitting out as wallflowers and no more worrying about finding a partner for the next dance. The novelty of the idea and its similarity to 'Speed Dating' might attract a whole new range of potential converts to folk dance as well as making a fun event for us old faithfuls!

So come on folk dance and festival organisers, can you take up the idea and organise a 'Speed-Dancing' event ? It could do wonders to pep up the image of folk dancing!

Best Wishes    Karen Barrett

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