Summer greetings of the chair
It has been a pleasure to meet members of our community during the spring, to receive and read feedback, and it has been made even easier by our strategy, which was approved in the spring. Our values: community, development and equality as well as fun and joy are reflected in our activities and it is good to make decisions and justify our choices based on them. I proudly followed the Comets competitors in the Finnish championships, which our volunteers had wonderfully organized at the Dance House in Ruoholahti. Our club operates based on voluntary work and I would like to thank all the active members, from the musicians to the coaches, some of whom we gathered for a picnic last week.
See you at the Comets in the Park during the summer and at courses and events in the autumn!
Susanna
Chair
Autumn timetable is published! The registration for autumn courses opens in stages on Monday 18 July at 21:00, 21:15 and 21:30. The registration arrangement will change in the autumn; read more below. In the autumn, there will also be a free beginner’s trial week open for everyone, to which your friends who are not yet members of the club are also welcome.
Comets Board of 2022
Susanna, Arto, Juha, Kirsi, Milla, Nicklas, Nina, Pertti, Pinja
as well as coaching, finance, marketing and communications and event committees
Contents
1. Autumn courses
2. Values and Code of Conduct
3. Finnish Championship
4. Comets in the park
5. Course feedback
6. Further investigations on the move to Cable Factory will not be continued
7. Summer meeting for Rock’n’Swing clubs in Tampere 16-17 July
8. Upcoming parties
9. Upcoming competitions
10. Future coach trainings
1. Autumn courses
The autumn course timetable is published! Check the timetable here.
The courses have been added to myClub no later than 11 July 2022 and the course registration opens in stages on Monday 18 July 2022 at 21:00, 21:15 and 21:30.
The applications for the autumn competition and coaching groups are open until 31 July 2022. Check more info in here.
Important information about the autumn season:
- Full term courses and intensive courses can now be found in myClub under the Registrations tab.
- In the future, only individual events, such as dance parties and member meetings, can be found under the Events tab. The events tab also shows the courses you have registered for.
- In the autumn courses, normal partner rotation rings are used.
- Course registrations are personal, thus, a replacement partner can no longer be brought to the courses. Exception is at the courses that do not use partner rotation, for example competition groups.
- The course registration is immediately binding, and cannot be canceled after being accepted to the course. It is still possible to cancel the registration while waiting on the queue.
- When the course place is confirmed, an invoice for the course is automatically generated.
- We recommend paying the automatically generated invoices only on the due date of the invoice, in case the course has to be cancelled.
- There is one registration event per course. In other words, myClub no longer has separate events for leaders, followers and couples.
- For all partnered dance courses, you first register in a queue and participants are taken to the course from the queue, maintaining the pair balance (±2). So the course is not full, even though myClub may show it that way.
- If you choose a discount price when registering, the discount certificate must be sent to alennus@comets.fi before the start of the course.
Free try-out week 29 August - 4 September 2022
Invite all your friends to try rock’n’swing dances! In the autumn, a free and open beginner’s try-out week is organized for everyone. The participant does not have to be a member of the club for the try-out week.
2. Values and Code of Conduct
We would like to remind you of our values, which are: Fun and joy, Community, Development and Equality.
This time we focus on equality. Dancing is a space defined by freedom, creativity, joy and togetherness. Its attributes do not include an individual’s external or internal features such as age, gender, sexual orientation or citizenship, because dancing belongs to everyone.
Comets firmly maintains the permissiveness and richness of the dance culture, for example, through its values and the Code of Conduct. Of the four values, equality emphasizes the equality between dancers and between the dance styles. The dancers themselves change and strengthen the culture and communities of the dances, where everyone is welcome. In solo or as a pair, as leaders, as followers or in all these roles!
We also expect all members to follow the Code of Conduct, because we believe it helps to establish safe space norms, which makes it safer and more comfortable for everyone involved. In addition to etiquette and safety, equality is also brought out here. We want to create a space for dancing where everyone can feel welcome and safe, regardless of gender, gender identity, age, sexual orientation, physical capabilities, skill level, physical nature, race, ethnicity, religion or reputation.
3. Finnish Championships
Comets organized the Finnish Dance Sports Federation’s Rock & Swing dance championships on June 11 at the Dance House in Helsinki. The event was organized by volunteers. Many thanks to the volunteers!
4. Comets in the park
Comets makes us dance twice a week at the Opera amphitheater outdoor stage also this summer! On Tuesdays from June 7th to August 23rd 2022 traditional swing music suitable for lindy hop, balboa, shag and jazz roots dancers will be played from 5 to 8 pm. On Wednesdays rhythms suitable for west coast swing will be played from 6 to 9 pm. Sometimes we have the pleasure of enjoying live music as well. The season has started successfully and the weather has favored us.
On some separately announced evenings, Comets coaches offer free quick introduction classes in various dance genres lasting about 30 minutes. Everyone is very welcome to try. Now is a good opportunity to bring your friend who doesn’t dance yet.
Dance events are open and free to everyone. Remember to bring your water bottle with you!
5. Course feedback
A big thank you to everyone who gave course feedback!
Feedback from members is very important to us and we use it to develop our operations. The course feedback has been distributed to the coaches, and we will here discuss a few themes that emerged from the feedback.
According to the members, the best thing about Comets’ courses is the competence of the coaches, the level of teaching, the versatile content of the courses and the good atmosphere. Personal feedback was appreciated and more was also hoped for. It was especially liked that the coaches sometimes participated dancing in the partner rotation ring.
In a few feedbacks, it was requested that the lessons would be 75 minutes long. In the coming autumn season, we will try 75-minute long dance classes with two full term courses. We also hoped for more full term courses during weekends, but unfortunately at the moment the biggest limitation for organising weekend courses is the schedule challenges of the coaches.
Regarding the course descriptions, it was hoped that more attention would be paid to the fact that the descriptions contain accurate information about the language in which the course is taught (Finnish/English), because not all of our members know both Finnish and English. This autumn, we will try to add information about the course’s coaching language to the course schedule.
Some members pointed out that they had received critical feedback about their own dance from the dance partner. A dance partner may feel that they are helping the partner by giving critical feedback, but usually critical feedback only gives the partner a bad mood and can even lead to the end of the dance hobby at worst. The Code of Conduct tells about giving feedback as follows: ‘Please also abstain from offering feedback on the social floor or classes unless specifically asked for’. Feedback can therefore only be given to a partner when they themselves ask for it. The responsibility for giving corrective feedback belongs to the course coach, and you can always ask the coach for help. The only exception to giving feedback is that the leading-following hurts, which is absolutely important to always tell the dance partner. You can always cheer for the dancing partner and brag about their successes! The responsibility for the good atmosphere of the course belongs to all of us, and we all learn best in a positive atmosphere.
6. Further investigations on the move to Cable Factory will not be continued
As it was reported in a separate announcement, the board decided at its meeting after a thorough discussion that further investigations on the Cable Factory space in Ruoholahti for Comets’ new hall will not be continued. At the last spring meeting the board presented a vacant space at Cable Factory of a kind that is rarely found, and which would have been a potential Comets’ new home hall.
The spring meeting did not approve exceeding the budget for 2022, and since the result was almost equal, we decided to conduct a member survey on the matter in order to get a broader picture of the members’ wishes. From the member survey, the board did not receive enough support for promoting the renting of the Cable Factory hall. Thanks to everyone who answered, which was more than 200! The summary of the survey can be found here.
Although Comets’ wealth is still stable and is a buffer, the financial development of the club after the corona pandemic is still uncertain, as courses have had to be canceled or held on a smaller scale due to the low number of participants. The current trend in the number of members has been strongly decreasing for a couple of years now. The rental costs would not have increased significantly due to the new hall except temporarily, but construction of the new hall’s dance floor and partitions would have been causing costs immediately.
Your wishes are taken into account in the survey, and that is why we are setting up a working group to consider the presented criteria and look for a possible new hall, which would also be in accordance with the wishes of the majority of the membership, when the time is better for a decision. Register to join the working group by contacting Kirsi Järvenpää (kirsi.jarvenpaa@comets.fi).
7. Summer meeting for Rock'n'Swing clubs in Tampere 16-17 July
The Rock’n’Swing section of the Finnish Dance Sports Federation organizes the summer meeting of RS clubs in July at Varala Sports College. Everyone involved in the club’s activities is welcome. More representatives, board members, coaches and dancers from all RS clubs are welcome to attend. The language of the meeting is most likely Finnish.
Saturday 16 July 2022 from 11 am to 4 pm: Club cooperation and club development day
Thinking about the vision and goal of the operation. Brainstorming together how cooperation between clubs can be developed in different areas. The strengths of different clubs are utilized and know-how is shared. Club developer Katriina Lahti facilitates.
Sunday 17 July 2022 from 11 am to 4 pm: Will the change in the competition system boost competition and club activities?
Thinking together about what kind of change in the competition system would make it easier to organize the competitions and make participating in the competitions more interesting for the dancers.
You can participate in either one or both days.
If you wish, you can book accommodation and meals at Varala Sports College. Accommodation is at your own expense and costs 45 €.
Comets supports club members with a maximum of 50 € for public transport travel expenses or for the use of their own car.
Registrations by 10 July 2022 to pirjo.koivula@boogietour.com
8. Upcoming parties
- Monthly dance party for Comets members, 31 July 2022
- Monthly dance party for Comets members, 28 August 2022
9. Upcoming competitions
- World Championship BW, Stuttgart, 13 August 2022
- World Cup BW, Königsbrunn, 10 September 2022
- World Cup BW, Geneva, 15 October 2022
- GP competitions – Swing Team, Tampere, November 12
10. Future coach trainings
In August, there is an opportunity to continue STUL’s Rock’n’Swing Level 1 club instructor training package with the 139 RS club instructor 2 training. The training will take place on August 12-14, 2022.
Note! The prerequisite for the training is to independently complete 138 Group coaching practice.
Registration form and additional information in here.
Sign up for training before August 1.
Feedback on this letter to viestinta@comets.fi and general feedback using the feedback form.
The activities of our club are to a large extent based on voluntary work and for new active members there is always something to do. If you are interested in being part of developing the club, you can contact a member of the board or indicate your interest in here.