Kay Newhouse West Coast Swing
Community Leader
Event Director
Teacher
Judge
Dancer
Facilitator
Creative Consultant
Building Sustainable & Inclusive Dance Communities
My consulting work in the US and around the world focuses on building the kind of communities we all want to be part of.
Social Change Leadership
- When we can be ourselves, and respect those around us, our communities thrive.
- Good decision making depends on being able to see and value multiple perspectives.
- My positive and community-focused mentorship helps scene leaders navigate social change with resiliency, sensitivity, and decreased conflict.
Ask me about: Navigating the social community switch from gender-based to role-based dancing using community-strengthening pathways.
Community Safety
- Robust codes of conduct and behavior response structures are proactive, not reactive.
- It's easier than you think to put your values in writing - and essential to a healthy community.
Ask me about: Producing two widely-shared Code of Conduct and Expectations of Professional Staff documents, source material for those seeking to strengthen WCS communities around the world, including the World Swing Dance Council ... How to understand your community values, put those values in writing, and queue up the ability to act on them with forethought in times of crisis.
Newcomer Welcome Program Design
- Awareness of the perspective of the newest customers is key to building a strong, stable, self-propagating happy-customer pipeline.
- Program design is the fundamental layer of customer experience.
- Integrating multiple perspectives and feedback into event program design is a hallmark of successfully iterated events.
Ask me about: How my "Newcomer Welcome Program" brings a focus on the experience of those new to the multi-day event experience to our standard-setting Dance Jam Production events, and the kind of discernment in planning and execution that I can bring to your event.
Workshops for Competitors
- Measuring progress before you decide what matters is a recipe for a miserable mismatch. Any tool for measuring progress is only as good as its ability to measure the thing that matters to you.
- My decades of experience competing, organizing and judging West Coast Swing events - while engaging with dancers of every level - gives me insight into the difference between individual experience and the systemic challenge of assessment.
Ask me about: Gaining perspective, and centering your event experience in what you value... Finding creativity, playfulness and joy through knowing yourself and the tools a little better.