Feedback for the 2010 Black and White Ball

[Eri Kagami]

I always love going to the Fanime ballroom dance. It is certainly my favorite of out all the cons I have been to. Fanime does it right and I hope it keeps the tradition going. The best way I can describe Fanime is that it's the otaku prom without the high school shenanigans.

A Few of My Favorite Things
+ Dress code was enforced. Yay!
+ I felt my stuff was safe to leave on the chairs. It seems that everyone was looking after each other's stuff. Very safe.
+ Loved the demonstrations.
+ I like the mix of J-pop, Animusic, and popular (American) music. Keep that balance going. I was happy to hear Jay Sean and Jason DeRulo.
+ I like the happy medium between a ballroom dance and a prom type of setting.
+ Keep those dance lessons up!
+ Decorations and added tables and new dance floor = good ideas.
+ Thanks for listening to our suggestions from last year, Fanime!

Suggestions
+ I think there needs to be much more clarity on that an attendee does not necessarily need to wear black or white for the dance. I had friends tell me, "I'd like to go, but I don't have anything in black or white."

[cesspooloflight]

Being my first time at Fanime, I felt that the Ball was the highlight of my experience.

The Awesome:
The music was great and loved the selection.
Found it a HUGE help that there were people willing to teach me some dances.
Cool idea of selling roses outside. It helped my friend get a girl's info and now some chemistry is starting. ;D
The lighting was actually not bad even though my friends thought it could have been darker.

The Not So Good:
Some of us thought there was food.
The dance floor was a tad small.
Not enough mixers.

I seriously can't wait for next years ball. Makes me wish that this was bi-yearly.

[Nina Star 9]

Other things:
I saw some complaints about the short dress thing, but this rule was not enforced in the years before, and my friends had brought only short dresses so I appreciated them not being thrown out. Maybe you could post all the dress code rules online?

The dress code rules are posted online and in the programming guide. Also, there was a thread on the forums to ask if your outfit was appropriate or not.

There did seem to be a lot of confusion over the black and white thing, though. I'm not sure how to fix that except for renaming the ball, because it was clear to me (who regularly browses the forums, familiarized myself with the dress code, etc.), but it apparently wasn't to most people.

[MyMidnightAffair]

I had so much fun during my 1st time @ the B&WB..
the ambiance & scene were both elegant, and gave off an essence of pure Aristocracy.
Oh how I wish I could've stayed longer, & I wish my feet weren't so weak..! D:
But I did have a wonderful time, & I await next year's B&WB.
I liked the dancing-matching pairs, that was awesome, & the dance lessons really helped.. though I hate to admit that I've forgotten the Tango, & the Nite-Club 2 Step.
I apologize! >_<
I only wish that I knew the names of my wonderful table mates.. including that Gil (Pandora Hearts) cosplayer that was such a gentleman.. P: {He was so tall.. I felt so short.. *_*)
I also appreciated the fact that the dress code was enforced.. it gave me chance to see how strict dress codes could be.
You guys did an amazing job on everything, & I think it was all well planned out. (even the water "container/dispenser" looked pretty fancy ^^)
Oh Yes, & there were some downsides, as some people have already  noticed:
-Many people thought food would be served
-More dance mixes?

[Okach]

Quick hits:

A)  There was supposed to be a coat check, but it fell through at the last minute.  Sorry about that - hopefully no one's stuff grew legs.  We found a bra strap, a lens cap, a hair clip and a pair of white opera gloves during the post dance cleanup.

B)  There were snacks provided in at least 2007, but several things have changed.  First, using the Fairmont.  Second, a really heinous corkage fee.  Third, the ludicrous prices the hotel would be charging for food.  End result: No food for this year's B&W Ball. 

C)  Origins of the Black & White Ball: http://www.animecons.com/news/article.shtml/499.  The original intent was to encourage dressing up, though from the pictures at the time it looked rather more like a slightly more dressed up version of the FanimeCon dance.

[Wabbit98]

The dance floor was a tad small.

I don't know if we can get a bigger dance floor, and if we do that means less tables and chairs for people to sit on.   ;D

I was glad a lot of people were out their dancing, we wouldn't have been able to fit even a third of the people that were on this year's dance floor than the floor we had for 2009.

[Okach]

It's possible to get a bigger dance floor, but really it's a budget decision.  I can tell you that the floor is pretty much close in size to what you would see at a ballroom/WCS convention, so it's not like it was prohibitively small :).

[pookyofbears]

I also want to thank the staff members for improving on the ball event so much this year. It was really fun and awesome, definitely better than last year's event. :] I don't think there's too much I have to say without echoing some of the common comments others have posted already...but I do agree enough on the unnecessary crowding on the dance floors to mention in my post as well. There really were too many people who weren't even dancing crowding up the floor. Must be my biggest annoyance in general on the dance floor. One of the few disappointments for me personally was that we couldn't really waltz at all because it was just too darn crowded. Out of maybe five attempts, we managed to make only one round on the floor without too much bumper car-ing around. Also looking around, I think a lot of couples were kind of..."shuffle" dancing...the usual prom-waddle-back-and-forth-in-place slow dance? I absolutely have nothing against that but I think it could help to mention along with the line of dance etiquette that dancers who are more or less stationary or traveling less could stay closer towards the center of the floor so people traveling more have the more expansive area towards the floor's edge to move. I think that's usually how it goes at typical dance parties, but it's kind of left unsaid in those crowds even I forget a lot of people may not know that. I do have my doubts on how effective mentioning that might be though, considering the sheer size of the crowd, but just a suggestion.

Also, as far as the music went, I guess I don't have much to say about the selection. To be honest I'm happy dancing to anything, and I was really there for the dance event more than anything, hehe. The volume was all over the place sometimes though. Maybe if you guys have time for next year's event, you could even out the volumes of each song file with a program so it'll be less problematic once it plays? I do it sometimes for my iPod ;]

Oh, and although it wasn't really a big deal or anything, I did notice that some of the songs were labeled incorrectly on the playlist on the projector. I heard so many cha cha tracks passed as rumba or swing (I'm aware some songs can be interpreted as different dances, but I think sometimes the different tempo made it harder to adjust to, especially for beginners, I noticed). I also recall some foxtrot/rumba mixups too, even quickstep songs passed as swing...just to name a few. I don't suppose it's that much of an issue if people could still pick up the rhythm or if they knew they could dance something else to the song playing, but at times my partner and I would end up walking on and off the floor a bunch of times when we realized what type of song was really playing. Became a bit of a hassle, especially when trying to beat the crowds to get a good spot on the floor, lol.

And just one more thing...more of a question/suggestion, really. I'm just wondering if next year's selection might be able to include at least one song for some of the other common ballroom dances that weren't included in the lesson lineup, like Viennese waltz, quickstep, or samba. I know most of the attendees probably wouldn't know those dances, but some of my friends and I were a little bummed that some of those weren't included. I know they were in there last year (I did catch a few sambas and quicksteps in this year's selection too), probably more often than they should have been played, but I dunno... Would've been fun to be able to dance those at least once. If it's a possibility at all for next year, I think just a small mention somewhere that these dances would be included in the selection in advance wouldn't hurt, to ease on any possible confusion. Maybe people might even be encouraged over the year to take some lessons and learn new dances. Actually, I imagine something like quickstep might be fun for beginners to learn next year. The basic steps shouldn't be any harder than a waltz, maybe it can get thrown in the mix if there's an instructor willing to teach? :] Sorry for being a little long-winded on this note...it's just something I talked to my friend a lot on our way home. A bunch of dance nerds...heehee.

Oh, and I almost forgot one thing I noticed. I saw some people having costume trouble, mostly those with longer trailing garments like coats or gowns. I'm not sure if there were any warnings concerning that, but if there weren't I think it might be very helpful. I did see one unfortunate guy get his long coat get torn when the tail was stepped on by accident.

I think that's the bulk of my thoughts... I did absolutely love our room this year though. Spacious and the floor was excellent. I hated the issues we had with last year's flooring...and the hazards...dear God, but it was great to have like a dancesport-quality floor to dance on this time around.  I do wish there was an easy solution to address the crowd size though, but I can't imagine any realistic fixes to that... If anything, I just hope there's something anyone can think of to try and establish dance floor etiquette a little better. I think that's the biggest issue, albeit a difficult one to address since a lot of guests are probably new to ballroom. But hey, let's shoot for an even better event next year. Ah, God...I said I didn't have that much to say and ended up writing an essay, lol...

[lil_koala]

I actually really liked the B&W ball this year and it was a great improvement from last year. Also, it's great to hear that the b&w ball and the dance lessons sparked an interest in ballroom dancing for some people. I know a few places in the bay area so if you're interested, you can pm me.

Goods:
-The dance floor was great and is actually the type of floor I see at competitions. Thanks Jeannie and all of the other volunteers for putting the floor together and taking it apart afterward.
-The tables, water, decorations, and the huge display screen was great.
-I liked that the dances and upcoming dances were displayed.
-No major accidents, no giant mass of people jumping up and down, and great performances.

Needs improvement:
-The music was hard to hear at times which makes it hard to dance to.
-Some of the songs did not match the dance at all. I know that you can dance a few different dances to the same song but some were still completely off.
-Line of dance should be more clearly emphasized so that people who want to travel can do so. The slower traffic can be closer to the center if that is possible to manage with number of attendees.

Overall, it was pretty fun and I got to do a two-way WCS with Alfred and his friend. That totally threw me by surprise but that was really awesome! Thanks, Alfred. :D I'm definitely look forward to the B&W ball next year. Maybe if I can get my dance partner to come next year, we can do ballroom demo? (Not to show-off or anything but we always wanted to do a showcase at fanime but never got around to it)

[OniCourseMusha]

I should of posted little sooner but here I go!  B&W Ball is amazing this year and I love it and one of the reason I love Fanime and was the highlight for me of the con!  This is what I got to say!

And for the attendees who showed up to the dance lessons and B&W Ball and for all the people I danced with:
You guys made my night for the Ball!  I have never been asked and thanked by so many people at the ball for learning how to dance even helping couples to show them the basic or alternate ways of enjoying the ball. Glad to see people showing up for the lessons to get better as well.  To me, learning to dance will help you build confidence and have alots of fun which was worth taking one so keep it strong.  It was also great dancing with partners that look stunning in their outfit!  THANKS FOR SHOWING UP AND YOU GUYS ARE AWESOME!

B&W Ball department:
Jim, Alfred, Daniel, Travis, etc...  You guys rock and I'm glad and proud to be part of B&W Ball team and I would support them and help other attendees have a great time!  I was very surprised when it turns out that I was gonna introduced as the dance assistance to the whole B&W Ball attendees about us even though I'm only a volunteer and I felt pretty welcomed and it was a good thing I decided to change to my Brain Age cosplay so people should remember me.  I will keep on supporting the B&W Ball in many years to come.

My personal suggestion:  I agree wit White Rose Assasin.  I've been hearing from couple of people including cosplayers in formalish attire and people who post on cosplay.com forum that they're don't have B&W and I had to point out many times that you can wear any color as long it meets the dress code.
Speaking of Dress code.  I was doing dress code for the before we opened and so far I only saw few didn't pass the dress code regarding shoes which was better than last year since I caught at least around 5 people failed to meet the dress code.  Since the line was gone the Rover told me that they're fine and enjoy the ball.  Later on towards the last couple hours.  Thats when I caught very few not wearing nor following the dress code.

My personal complaint:
I was kind of bummed too that V Waltz wasn't been taught nor any music was played because thats one of my favorite style of Waltz and I would love to help except I'm not the right guy to instruct for that area but a good dance assistance.  I know that I heard that its pretty too difficult and too fast to dance to.  But Dickens Fair and PEERS event manage to pull it pretty strong and rarely have injuries from when I went last year and plus the dance floor is waaaaay much smaller than B&W Ball room this year and been doing it for years depending on how its ran!  Since we have dance assistance we can help control the flow if done right and we should of given it a try.  I would of liked it back and I can probably try to recruit one straight from the PEERS group or Fezziwig Warehouse people.  I've known few who was very interested in teaching that at Fanime and I can go ask them if I run into them again at the event.

Food not being sold during the B&W Ball?  Wow I didn't know that!  I wouldn't mind waiting towards the end since they charged everything a dollar.  Umm well its a good thing I had something to drink before I showed up.  But I think you might as well get the vendors back because not eating at all can be hazardous aside from drinking alots and alots of water.  I would kind of suggest do a banquet wit small munchies and snack or punch as if feels like an elegant grand ball feast.  Like PEERS event does.  But I guess it might depends on budget or doing all the trouble of making the food for us to feed a pack of 900 people which thats gonna be tricky.

My personal thanx:

I like to point out that B&W Ball helped shape the way I am today.  Ever since I first attended B&W Ball, I came to get that formal and prom feel since its been 4 years that I last attended before attending one. My first time attending felt very disappointed and felt ashamed that I have no knowledge of ballroom dancing and I felt pathetic.  Thinking about my experience on my first B&W Ball, That's the main reason why I started to take more dance classes!  As years gone by I started to help out B&W Ball part time then half the time helping out B&W Ball along wit E-gaming.  And this year, I commited to put my hours in helping out B&W Ball and will keep helping them out.  Now I tooken up to Intermediate Ballroom Class and I'm in the process of learning many type of swing dance and learn more Waltz at city college.  So I can use that to not just have more fun and learn new tricks, build more confident in others and give others a great time!  Looking back of how I danced at the B&W Ball I can not imagine how much I improved since 2007 and how much it changed me!  I never felt so happy to hear from other people that I barely met enjoy B&W Ball and couples that thanked me alot for teaching them helping them.  Thank you so much for making Fanime 2010 night to be memorable for me and hopefully I can top it!

[ket]

): My date ditched me last minute before the Ball, deciding she didn't want to go after all even tho it was totally fine two months ago when I asked x.x It made me sad and end up not even just checking it out by myself...hopefully next year ~.~

[MyMidnightAffair]

): My date ditched me last minute before the Ball, deciding she didn't want to go after all even tho it was totally fine two months ago when I asked x.x It made me sad and end up not even just checking it out by myself...hopefully next year ~.~

Aw.. I'm sorry D:
Yes, be hopeful for next year, because there will be plenty of other people you can ask out for dates, or even dancing partners.
There is hope ^^

[Nina Star 9]

I feel like the only one who wasn't expecting food to be served. Maybe it's because there hasn't been food since the first year (which... wasn't that great of a year XD), but I would have been surprised if food had been served. Now I'm curious where people were getting that impression.

[Green_Tea]

): My date ditched me last minute before the Ball, deciding she didn't want to go after all even tho it was totally fine two months ago when I asked x.x It made me sad and end up not even just checking it out by myself...hopefully next year ~.~

Aww.. You should have come anyways! I went by myself and was never lacking for a partner. There were so many girls waiting around to dance you wouldn't have had to worry about it!

Hope to see you there next year.

[OniCourseMusha]

There's couple thing I like to let everyone know about B&W Ball.

I know it feels ackward to go by yourself at the B&W Ball but we convinced everyone please show up no matter if you didn't have one or your partner left!  That's the whole purpose of our arm band and we even been introduced at the beginning of the ball if you need any help or the need of a dance partner.  This is a social dance, not high school prom where you have to show off your date or anything.  I don't even have an official date because I know I'm gonna be very busy dancing with alots of people.  Trust me you'll won't regret for showing up.  I love this event more than my time when I attended my prom.

[SatchelMarr]

Whew!  It's David, your friendly fanime dance teacher.  I'm still getting my voice back, but what a rush this year's dance was!  My overwhelming opinion of the dance lessons and B/W ball this year: it surpassed all previous years by miles!

I'ma try to keep this short:

Dance floor: FAB!  Of course we all want bigger floors (we're never satisfied), but this year's floor was smooth, springy, had no heel-catching rails between sections, and STAYED TOGETHER!  Thx to Alfred & Alaina for suggesting it!  Don't know where we'd put a bigger one or how we'd afford it, but I felt the size this year was supremely adequate!  ;D

Room on the floor: Yes, the conga/macarena/limboers are disruptive; thankfully they happen more during Salsas/Hustles than Foxtrots/Waltzes due to the type of music. Perhaps we can play Thriller and designate half the floor for Cha Cha/Hustle and the other half for the Thriller dance.  Don't know if that'd be inviting trouble.  I'm really ok with not playing the macarena. Maybe one or two songs during the night could be reserved for non-ballroom dances to satisfy that section of the crowd.  I'm kinda torn; the Black & White Ball is supposed to be our one safe haven for partner dancing at the con (one year I tried to see if anyone would do a Hustle with me at the FanimeCon Dance--hah!) but I don't want to be a stuffy dance spoilsport either.  Although....if the people who don't want to partner-dance go elsewhere, it makes more room for those of us trying to partner-dance!  Must...stave off....dance snobbery!  ::)

But seriously, for most of the evening, it was FAR more possible to move around the dance floor during traveling dances than in past years.  Yes, there were people standing in the way chatting idly, or swaying, or doing interpretive dance, but by and large, I couldn't believe how much more people were traveling the dances this year.  Everyone who came to the lessons (or already apparently knew how to dance) deserves major kudos for attempting to travel.  Not everyone moved counterclockwise 100% of the time, but it's okay to move other directions briefly if you watch where you're going.  Maybe let's try to see if announcements can help that.

Announcements: This dang dance needs a manual!  There are too many things need announcing, lol. Even if people could hear the announcements, (That's a problem I don't know how to solve.  How do you instantly cut through the chatter of 900 people? ...besides mic feedback, that is?  Thankfully, none of that this year. Kudos to the sound-check guys.) I worry they'll tune us out after six announcements or so anyway.  I think people were better about dance etiquette thanks to all the lesson announcements. Other things worth emphasizing more?
-Line of Dance: (I tried to teach this at all my lessons where the dance traveled).  Maybe a quick ann. at the ball?  Anyone think it might help?  I think one thing we should mention is if you're going to dance a stationary dance like swing during a foxtrot, please dance it in the center of the floor when possible so foxtrotters can go around!
-Funky dances in the middle of the floor so everyone else can go around?  At least try to be aware of your surrounding dancers! Someone told me that a dancer got kicked in the head during a swing but that they were ok.  PLEASE be careful and responsible dancers, especially if attempting lifts, tricks, or dips.
-Dress Code: We announced this at every single lesson, and had the thread, and had posters with the dress code posted, plus, people could (and did) come ask us whether what they had would be appropriate.  I guess for next year let's try again to have a clear, pithy numbered list laying out the guidelines (including that black/white are not the only possible colors) and plaster it everywhere we can that's connected to the ball 'cause clearly, not everyone comes to the lessons.
-Music requests: We asked everyone who asked for a song at the ball to request ahead of time on the forums for next year; hopefully this will help raise awareness.  We don't have every song you might request--we may need to track it down and there's no time at the dance. Quick hint from a 5+ year ballroom dance party DJ: just 'cause it says "Waltz" "Salsa", etc. in the title doesn't mean it's always that dance.  If you think it's danceable, don't let that stop you from making requests, but don't get too attached to your requests either.  If we left it out, there was a reason or there just wasn't enough room.

Music: Overall I liked the music, but I'm biased; I helped with the playlist.  But from a danceability perspective alone, I can tell you the music was better.  There will always be matters of personal preference; there were a couple of songs I would have replaced.  But other people loved them.  I personally danced to every song on the playlist in my living room to be sure it was danceable.  I recommended we eliminate a number of songs because they did not have a danceable beat--and we did (Sorry, Tank!...  I'd be ok playing it, as long as we're upfront that you really CANNOT dance anything but freestyle to this, and I DARE anyone to show me otherwise).  I also helped speed up or slow down songs that initially were not ideal speed for dancing.

As far as partner dancing went, I had a hard time dancing to more than 50% of the songs last year.  This year, I noticed only two songs that I definitively would have relabeled on the slides.  The final Michael Buble song was clearly a Rumba rather than Foxtrot (it was correct on my playlist, but got onto the slides wrong (sorry I didn't catch that, Jim), and there was a Tango "Dance With Me" I really would have labeled Cha Cha (that one might be my bad too), but all the others looked correct to me.  A lot of it is personal preference.  There's a lot of crossover between Rumba and Cha Cha ("Mercy" by Duffy is a prime example).  I love it for Rumba, other people hear the cha-cha-cha in there and simply must dance Cha to it. I saw a number of people dancing Swing during a clear Foxtrot--which is totally fine! I can take another look at the slides to see if there were any other mislabelings I missed, but often times I could hear Cha Cha/Rumba/Hustle/WC Swing all in one dance, and there just wasn't room on the slide to put all that.  Advanced dancers used to listening to music are free to ignore the slides and dance what they hear/feel, of course!  (Just go in the middle if you wish to dance swing during a foxtrot).

Most of our focus this year was picking fun music that was danceable; next year we'll work more on audibility; I can look at volume and level adjustments to see if we can help.  It's just so hard to know how it'll sound in the actual space, with the murmur of nine hundred people.  One idea: perhaps if we have enough staff, I could try to play the songs over the giant speakers in the ballroom once they're set up, and we could try to have backups for any songs that sound dubious so we can switch them out on the playlist if needed? It's last-minute work, but I don't know what else to do.  Even that doesn't solve the will-it-be-audible-over-the-roar-of-the-crowd? question.  If anyone remembers which songs were impossible to hear this year, maybe it can help us.  I think it was during "Sakura Kiss" that I couldn't hear the swing beat.  Listening at home I can, but in the room the reverb and the crowd backfilled in all the space between the beats until it sounded kinda like a droning rumble.  I think I had a similar problem with "Heart Goes Boom!" but now I don't remember...I shoulda taken notes.  I couldn't hear "Tango in Harlem" at first but it got better as the song went on. I think the same for Super Mario RPG Bukkis (Tango).

Mixers: I was surprised at how well they went!  Staff buddies: let's try to come up with some more for next year, and try to rehearse how to organize them.  The self-perpetuating ones like the swing snowball mixer will be easiest to run because they're more or less self-organizing.  Maybe we can have little triangles of blue tape on the floor for where to stand to start off for the waltz mixer, that way people will be spaced perfectly and we'll automatically get the right number of leaders and followers matched up without so much herding.

Dances Taught: We can evaluate which dances were in demand this year and consider new dances for next year; I could potentially teach a samba or quickstep (yikes!) lesson, although I might demand real dance shoes as a prerequisite for those classes.  Clunky shoes + quickstep = no no.

Anyway, I teach in the area, so if anyone's looking for some lessons between now and next year, PM me and I can get back to ya!
Great job, all!  Especially my fellow teachers!  You guys made it happen!

[Okach]

@Dave - LOL, I think West Coast Swing ended up with the lowest attendance average out of all of the dances.  I should probably not come back next year :).

[OniCourseMusha]

@Dave - LOL, I think West Coast Swing ended up with the lowest attendance average out of all of the dances.  I should probably not come back next year :).

Oh no!  I want you to show up next year!  I would of like to check out WCS cuz I thought it looks awesome!  I just didn't check the time when to check it out.

[SatchelMarr]

@Dave - LOL, I think West Coast Swing ended up with the lowest attendance average out of all of the dances.  I should probably not come back next year :).

LOL, Alfred, did you forget?  Your Saturday evening class was not only quite late at night, it wasn't even advertised!  And you still got some turnout! Your Sunday day class was much much bigger.  I know, I saw it  ;D

[Kuudere]

I don't know how my advice will be received since I have personally never attended this event, but here it is anyway.

My friend and her boyfriend had been extremely excited about this dance. They don't personally read the forums here, but they followed the basic guidelines in reference to what is acceptable to wear that were posted on the main website. After attending the dance lessons and being really invested in attending, they were turned away at the door because of her boyfriend's shoes. I'm still not exactly sure why, because they did follow the rules. They were not shiny black dance shoes or anything, but they were black leather shoes - not sneakers. My friend was devastated, and in tears over it, but none of us had any other shoes for him to wear, since we're all from out of town and packed lightly.

So what I hope can be improved on is better communication on the main website and maybe in the pocket guide on what exactly is appropriate to wear. I'm aware that there was a thread where people could ask about clothing choices, but I think it's safe to say that many people did not know that, so perhaps mentioning it on the website would be a good idea. And even having read the rules myself before hand, I was unaware that they would turn him away for those shoes. It's kind of more disheartening to hear that some girls were allowed to break dress code, too. Hopefully there will be a resolution to this for next year that leaves everyone happy.