is a Dancer-supported Service!
We cannot exist without the support of the dance community. Yes that support is essential. In fact, take a moment to look at the select list of Dance Gypsy supporters. The Dance Gypsy thanks all of them for their support (and you should too).
How you can help support the Dance Gypsy’s work
(If by some chance you are already convinced that you want to help the Dance Gypsy, you can skip the plea and the explanations and just send a check to the Dance Gypsy 2518 Sunset Lake Rd., Dummerston, VT 05301.) or skip down to see additional (and faster) ways to help)
Why should I help?
The Dance Gypsy provides three important services:
- We believe we have the best and most complete coverage of upcoming dance festivals and special events nationwide. We list festivals year-round in all 50 states and 9 provinces (and even some in other countries), as much as a full year in advance, with full specifics including: featured performers, venue, contact information and price. For 2005, we have already listed almost 500 festivals — with more being added all the time.
- We also have what we believe to be the most complete and up-to-date coverage of regularly–scheduled contra, folk and traditional dances in New England. As far we we know, no other site provides monthly specifics (e.g., caller and band) for as many forms of dance (contra, square, folk, international, Balkan, Israeli, Scandinavian, English, Scottish and more), or for as large a geographic area: all of New England (including Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine) as well as adjacent areas in New York and Quebec. Our data base currently lists includes over 2000 upcoming events.
- We include an extensive directory of other dance sites including musicians, bands, callers, instructors, vendors and even other indices of dances. For example, you can look for appearances by your favorite band or find regional organizations that promote dance in your area. There are now pointers to over 2000 other dance-related organizations, groups and people (help now).
These services are unique and popular
- As far as we know we are the only site that not only lists regular dances and festivals along with the performers, but the only site that is actively managed. That is, we attempt to update all listings at least every month. [Do the comparison: check to see how many other indices actually list the details of that small dance near you!]
- All information is catalogued for easy navigation and the “last-updated” markers let you know how current the information is (or isn’t).
- The Dance Gypsy may be the most widely used list of dances and festivals in the country: almost 10,000 dancers make 50,000 requests every month.
Whether you live in New England and are primarily interested in ongoing local dances, or elsewhere and want to know about upcoming festivals or dance related sites, the idea is the same:
We help dancers find dances of interest:
And since we do not have membership fees or other charges, there is no problem if you have no money (help now).
We help organizers of dance events and venues attract dancers to those events.
Believe it or not, the fact that we do not charge the dance sponsors a fee is even more important. It means the listings are complete: dancers looking for a dance never need wonder if there is actually no dance or if there is a nearby dance that simple didn’t want to spend the advertising money.
Note that unfortunately, some dance web indices have started to charge individual dance venues for their listings. In contrast, the Dance Gypsy believes that the only way to assure complete coverage is to list all dances — independent of the sponsors’ ability to pay. Also unfortunately, some dance listing services have recently gone out of business — presumably lack of funding was a contributing factor. Others are no longer updated on a regular basis.
Whatever the cause, these are dance resources that are no longer available to the dance community. The Dance Gypsy pledges that we will continue to list all dances that we can find — for free — for as long as we can exist. And we intend to exist for as long as possible. But to continue to exist, we do need your help (help now).
And these services are all free!
Well, that is free to the reader and free to the dance venue. But unfortunately they are not free to provide.
Alas, it does cost us money to provide the service!
Obviously, the Dance Gypsy incurs many expenses in providing this service: direct computer expenses, computer network services, security, software, hardware, telephone, legal fees, advertising, postage, paper, printer cartridges… and the list goes on and on. Because we are now paperless, we no longer receive subscription income from the newsletter, but we still have many expenses (help now).
Become a “Dance Gypsy Supporter”
Becoming a Dance Gypsy Supporter is simple and inexpensive: just make a contribution to the Dance Gypsy — in any amount. In the past year the median contribution was about $25 (about the cost of 2 or 3 dances) — but give what you feel is right for you. It can be more or it can be less. Only you can decide what the service is worth to you. Yes a contribution truly can be any amount: the smallest supporter donation in the past year was $8 and the largest was $100. Use the form below, or be really bold and become a Dance Gypsy Sponsor.
What do you get in return for your contribution? Not much that is tangible:
- a nice “thank you” letter (well, Email letter) from the Dance Gypsy,
- a monthly notice when the major updates are completed
- special notice when major changes occur in dance schedules (e.g. a major blizzard disrupts dances across a wide area), and
- your name listed on the Dance Gypsy Supporters page with the coveted “gray dot”
.
and while they last:
- a free Dance Gypsy Bumper Sticker. You’ve seen them on cars at your local dance. Now you can have your own. One free bumper sticker to every new supporter who wants one.
Much more importantly, you get the (less tangible, but very real) satisfaction that you have helped this service continue.
We can’t do it without your support. And yes, just like NPR, we know that many users will not contribute (in fact less than 1% of regular users contribute). However, if only a fraction of our monthly visitors contributed, the Dance Gypsy’s future would be assured. See a list of your fellow dancers who have already helped.
Note: the supporter category was aimed at individuals, and the sponsor category (below) aimed at dance venues. But in fact many dance series or events do not have a budget that would accommodate the sponsor category. Such groups are welcome to join as individual supporters — and since your listing is free anyway, that is still cheaper than many of the other dance listing services.
or
Become a Dance Gypsy Sponsor
This opportunity probably isn’t appropriate for every individual or group, but it is an excellent way for dance organizations as well as for the larger or more successful dance venues and vendors to assure the continued dissemination of their dance information: For a contribution of $100 (or more!), the Dance Gypsy will gratefully acknowledge your help by providing several forms of help in return. First, you get the same nice ’thank you”; letter, update notices, listing on the Dance Gypsy Supporters page, and satisfaction as do supporters. In addition, wherever appropriate, the Dance Gypsy will:
- include your color logo or selected image in our “Supporters and Sponsors” page (all such images may be “live linked” to your own site)
- highlight specific entries for your dance events in our calendar (regular dances) or special events pages (formerly Summer Planner) (e.g., using using larger font, and a small “supporter” icon)
- include your logo randomly within our pages (again linking to your site)
- provide more complete information about your events, and
- allow you a 10% discount on all additional paid advertisements
- (all of the above will last for a full year!)
Note that $100 is still cheaper than many organizations used to pay for an occasional ad in the Dance Gypsy. And since sponsors get a display ad, hey it’s still a great deal.
See organizations that currently help sponsor the Dance Gypsy.
Other ways for dance organizations to help support the Dance Gypsy
Take advantage of Dance Gypsy services
In addition to the public listings in the webpages, the Dance Gypsy provides several services that help dance organizations promote their dances. Use of these services help your organization and also helps support the Dance Gypsy.
Advertise in the Dance Gypsy
The Dance Gypsy is happy to list all events — even those that do not advertise — with no charge! But advertising your event or service gets you much greater visibility while providing the Dance Gypsy with much needed revenue. See all that you can get for our current ridiculously inexpensive (the star ads
start at just $10!) rates.
Get a Dance Gypsy website
With the Dance Gypsy’s help, you can promote your dance through your own web site and help support the Dance Gypsy at the same time. For our prices, you couldn’t even talk to a commercial web-development service.
Use Dance Gypsy Email forwarding
Email forwarding helps you sift through those requests for information, while helping support the Dance Gypsy.
Link your site to the Dance Gypsy
Ypp, simple as this this sounds — and with no cost to you — this really does help. Why? The more people who link to the Dance Gypsy, the more people will find your group’s listings. I know, this sounds backwards: if visitors come to your site, they already know about your site, right? Right, but listing us there does help. Here’s how:
- First: the more sites that list the Dance Gypsy, the more ways readers will find us. Your link will help readers find other dances through us, but links from those sites will help readers find you. Collectively the increased links mean more dancers will find more dances — and everybody wins!
- Perhaps even more importantly, the more sites that link to the Dance Gypsy, the higher ranking the Dance Gypsy will get from popular search engines such as Google. The higher the ranking, the more people who will find the Dance Gypsy and the more people who find the Dance Gypsy, the more who find your site through us. In fact, all by itself, Google accounts for over 4000 visits to the Dance Gypsy each month
And it’s only fair: we list you every month, so we appreciate your listing in return. Ask the webmaster for your event or organization’s web site to link to the Dance Gypsy (
http://www.thedancegypsy.com).
Other ways to become a Dance Gypsy supporter or sponsor
- Send us a letter. Many of you will want some additional communication — e.g., to provide the logo to use in the newsletter, or information for the sponsor’s web pages, or perhaps you want to place a discounted ad right away, or need to provide the support via a formal check — before becoming a supporter. Contact the Gypsy through any of the the methods listed in our contact page.
- Too busy right now? Then simply Pledge (just like you might to NPR) with an Email. We will remind you periodically if you forget to follow it up with a check.
- Semi-annual fund drive: Finally, the Dance Gypsy conducts semiannual fund drives à la NPR. Although we’d prefer you help whenever the inclination hits you, or you can simply wait until the next drive — when we will try to hit you up for a donation. (By the way, we promise to limit the fund drives to twice a year and to two weeks each. No cookies will be placed on your machines and we will not track you nor harass you further.)
Using PayPal
Electronic payment does require that you join PayPal. Fortunately, this is free and relatively painless. Essentially PayPal works as a middleman: you join and provide them with a credit card number (or if you prefer, you may use your bank account or simply deposit money with them). When you make a purchase from a PayPal site (e.g., the Dance Gypsy — or any other vendor), you authorize PayPal to charge your account and send the money to the vendor. Both seller and purchaser receive immediate confirmation via Email. All transactions are through secure sites and there is no service charge to the purchaser. One big advantage for many contributors is that you provide your credit card info only once, rather than with each purchase or contribution you make: after the first use, you never have to provide credit card numbers, etc. again.
You may open a PayPal account by clicking the button below. Their site will allow you to cancel the process at any time.
