Olympia Contra Dance is working to create a safe, inclusive, and welcoming dance environment.  We want to support everyone’s comfort and fun at our events, and that requires everyone to treat each other with respect. We want to hear about (and address as appropriate) any violations of these expectations.

Our community standards (“ways we care for each other”) are visibly posted at every dance. The community standards serve as general guidelines for the kind of environment we are trying to foster.

In alignment with these guidelines, we have some specific expectations for all attendees.

Specific Expectations

• Respect other people’s boundaries, preferences, and identities both on and off the dance floor. This includes respecting dance role choices and preferences around eye contact, using people’s correct pronouns, and abiding by any boundaries that people express.
• Don’t make anyone feel unwelcome at our dance for their dance ability level, age, race, physical body, gender presentation, or any other reason.
• Dance in a safe and careful manner to avoid injuring others. This includes using open hand holds, supporting your own weight, responding when someone indicates they are in pain, and generally being responsible for your own body on the dance floor.
• Avoid discrimination and harassment of all forms. Threats or demands, verbal and physical harassment and overtly sexual words or actions are not welcome.
• Arrive at the dance sober and refrain from bringing drugs, alcohol, or weapons on-site.

How We Can Help

Our dance organizers are here to support you. If anything or anyone is making you feel uncomfortable, unsafe, or unwelcome at an Olympia contra dance, we want to help. 

If you experience something like this, we encourage you to talk to the person involved if you feel okay doing so. If you would rather not, or you try and you don’t feel heard, please talk to an organizer. We encourage you to come to us with any concerns, even if you don’t want us to change anything or approach anyone. If you would tell a friend, it is worth talking to an organizer because your experience can help inform future decisions, even if action is not necessary in the moment.

Examples of scenarios where we might be helpful:

• Your partner pressures you into dancing a role you don’t want to dance
• A neighbor in the line makes a comment that makes you feel bad or unwelcome because you are new to contra dancing
• Someone flirts with you in a way that is unwelcome
• A neighbor squeezes your hand while dancing in a way that is painful
• Your partner forces you into a dip or twirl that you did not consent to
• Someone repeatedly asks you to dance, even after you have said no multiple times
• Someone touches you in a way that makes you feel uncomfortable
• You feel like someone is staring at you or following you around the hall
• Someone has made you feel uncomfortable or abused you verbally, physically, or sexually and you are concerned they might be dangerous to you or other dancers.

How to communicate with us

The Olympia contra dance committee is Robin Hale, Jesse Partridge, Rae Eaton, and Alex Sturbaum. You can communicate with any of us in person or via email at [email protected]. We also have a feedback form that you can fill out anonymously or with your contact information.

What we can do

Once we receive a report of problematic behavior, or we witness conduct that does not meet our community standards, we will generally follow some or all of the following steps. Each scenario is unique and may require a different approach. We want to help everyone feel safe and comfortable at our events, and sometimes that involves helping to give feedback and hold people accountable.

Some things we can do include:

• We will check in with anyone who has been harmed and listen to what they need in order to be safe. We can discuss options with them and honor any requests for confidentiality.
• We can offer a safe person to talk to, whether or not any follow up action is necessary.
• We can have a conversation with the person or people whose behavior was harmful and listen to their experience. We can make a plan for how they can avoid harming others in the future and ask them to follow that plan. It is our goal to “call in” rather than “call out” concerning behavior and we want to give people an opportunity to change. If we make a plan with someone, we will keep an eye out for continued problematic behavior and follow up if necessary.
• We can mediate a discussion between anyone who has been made uncomfortable and the person or people responsible.
• We can discuss the scenario as a committee and come to a group decision about what action to take. When we receive a report that someone has been made uncomfortable, we will ask the person who was harmed whether we can bring it to the committee and what level of confidentiality they want.
• We can make a plan with one or both parties involved so that everyone can continue participating in our event in a way that helps them feel safe and comfortable. Some examples of this include creating a plan where two people alternate attending dances, or always make sure to dance in different lines. We can also help identify alternate ways to dance to reduce harm (for example, demonstrating how to do a right-shoulder-round instead of a traditional ballroom hold for a swing.)
• Some types of behavior are unacceptable to a degree that they require immediate expulsion from the dance and/or banning from future dances. We would like to offer people opportunities to change and grow after receiving feedback, but there are certain instances where we can no longer allow someone to participate in our dance without putting others’ safety at risk.

Our approach is informed by guidance and resources from our friends and fellow organizers at BIDA, SF Bay Queer Contra Dance, Raise the Rafters, Portland In Town Dancr, and many conversations with other organizers and friends — thanks for y’alls’ help!