UPDATE: After working extensively with USG Senators, proposing and passing new policies, the new funding policies may allow enough funding for events with public access, but there are still administrative barriers we are working to overcome. For the time being, every cent of financial support is deeply appreciated and instrumental in keeping this community alive and kicking! We have already put on one wonderful event open to ALL with the Survivors of Swing--an event that would not have been possible without the generous support of the community!
We are putting on our first self-funded event with a workshop and live band, so support UCSB by registering and coming out on the 28th, by sharing the facebook event, and by donating to our club!
https://www.facebook.com/events/512959846182440/
UConn Swing and Blues, a student organization, started as a group of friends carpooling to Hartford Underground, an east coast swing scene in the Greater Hartford Area, and since then, the outside community has been integral to our club. They have taught us how to dance, how to DJ, and how to organize and teach others to dance so that we can further spread our love of swing and blues dancing.
For the past almost 5 years, UCSB has provided a community space for workshops with world-renowned coaches, social dances with swingin' live bands, and other events where both UConn students and people from the outside community can come together for the love of dance, most often for free. Lindy legend Frankie Manning called swing social dancing "a series of 3-minute romances," and many dancers will attest that there is something powerful about the swing and blues community's ability to bring together people of different backgrounds and perspectives.
University funding policy changes in Fall of 2018, changes that occurred without warning, made it impossible (for the semester) to provide such community spaces to the entirety of our community. Since then, we have to put on events in univesity spaces that are less conducive to social dancing, or we face funding cuts, and we are not allowed to compensate for this cut in funding by charging admission to non-students.
Thus, our strategy has been to put on some events with university funding, and some without funding, while ensuring that ALL events remain open to the public.
Our student organization is unique in its relationship to the outside community. The fall 2018 policy changes meant a direct reduction in our community that continues to this day with confusion over whether our events are open to the public. This has erased opportunities for engagement and access to the valuable dance experience and other expertise of our outside community members. The alienating impacts of the policy changes made them at odds with the University's goal "to further enhance a climate at UConn that fosters healthy argument, debate, and dialogue."
Moving forward, our goal is to restore and protect the UCSB community so that future generations of dancers will have access to the same invaluable group of community dancers, instructors, mentors, and friends that we did. We want to keep our events affordable for UConn undergraduates.
Donations will go directly to funding workshops and live band social dances so that our whole community, including the public (non-UConn undergraduates), may attend.
If you cannot support us financially, sharing our events with your swing community makes an incredible difference in keeping our club alive.
We need your support to keep this community "alive and kicking" and remain true to what swing and blues dancing stands for: sharing a love of dance and music with all who wish to partake.
Every donation helps our cause.
Thank you!
