Balance the Bay 2016 Information
August 19-21, 2016, San Francisco, CA
Registration — Staff — Schedule — Info — Contact us

Information for Dancers


San Francisco Map

The Facility

The [Janet] Pomeroy Recreation and Rehabilitation Center has hosted Balance the Bay since 2009. Located just 2000 feet from the ocean, overlooking Lake Merced, it is kept cool in summer by sea breezes and coastal fogs. Because the only neighbor is the San Francisco Zoo, there is no problem with late-night music, and there is plenty of parking.

The dance hall at the Pomeroy Center has a rubber-pad sprung floor. There's excellent ventilation and room for six long lines.

The main hall, where Saturday dinner is served, is used for snacks, information and sales tables, and has lots of space for hanging out. It has a fireplace and big windows overlooking Lake Merced. There are balconies overlooking the lake, a grassy courtyard, and plenty of rest rooms.

Directions

Balance the Bay is held at The [Janet] Pomeroy Recreation and Rehabilitation Center (JPC). The address is 207 Skyline Boulevard, but the entrance is on Herbst Road. If you are using GPS, Mapquest, or other similar sources, use "100 Herbst Road" as your destination.

The Pomeroy Center occupies a triangular block. The east side of the block is Skyline Boulevard. Traffic flows one way around the triangle. You enter from Skyline Blvd at the North end of the triangle, exit at the south.

Food and Drink

Dinner on Saturday night is a sit down vegan and omnivore friendly meal, included with the cost of your registration. This year it will be provided by Feast Organic Catering. For more information on the catering menus, see the schedule.

All other meals are on your own. The caterer will be offering lunches for sale in the hall, or there are many fine restaurants within a short driving distance, or you can bring your own food and eat in the main hall.

We provide water, tea, coffee, and a variety of snacks throughout the weekend. Please bring a mug and water bottle to help us cut down on waste.

Ingredient lists for the dinner menu and snacks will be available. We hope to offer enough variety to meet everyone's dietary concerns.

Accommodations

There are plenty of hotels in the area, or you may request housing with local dancers on your registration form, and we will contact you. Contact our hospitality committee with questions about housing with local dancers.

Volunteering/Work-Trade

Balance the Bay is run by volunteer effort. Your contribution is always welcome. If you have questions about volunteering or work-trade, please contact our Volunteer/Work Trade coordinator. If you signed up to volunteer, you will hear from us shortly before the weekend. If you applied for work-trade, the Work-Trade Coordinator will contact you.

You're welcome to join us at our pre-weekend preparation party on Thursday afternoon, August 6. Call Jens at 510-886-6549.

How to Contact Other Dancers

Our Facebook group is a good way to connect with dancers. You can also send a message to all dancers after registration opens on April 1.

Public Transit

The Pomeroy Center is served directly by the MUNI #18 (46th Avenue) bus. Get off at the "Skyline Blvd and Zoo Road" stop. The southbound stop is on Armory Road, just across the street from the entrance to the Pomeroy Center. The northbound stop is across Skyline Boulevard at the intersection with Herbst Road.

You can use 511.org to plan a trip online.

Parking

There's plenty of parking on Herbst and Armory Roads. It's all at 90 degrees to the curb. To avoid an expensive ticket, do not park in front of the bus stop shelter across from the Pomeroy Center entrance, or in a handicapped parking spot without proper plates. it's OK to park overnight, but remember that this is a big city neighborhood. Don't leave valuables in your car or anything valuable looking on the seat.

Child care

This year, we are offering on-site child care, to make it easier for parents with small children to attend the weekend. Katie Riemer is organizing something similar to what she organized at Epicenter, where the parents share the cost of hiring a caregiver. If you are interested in bringing your children or being involved, please contact Katie.

Larks, Ravens, and Rumors

There have been persistent rumors that Balance the Bay will be adopting gender-neutral calling (specifically, "Larks" and "Ravens") this year. The rumor is not true. The explanation was published in Jens Dill's "President's Corner" column in the June issue of The Bay Area Country Dancer:

I was amused to learn, however, that “Larks” and “Ravens” has acquired its own cultural baggage. The Balance the Bay dance weekend has always asked its registrants about their preferred dance role(s). We’ve used the terms “lead” and “follow” in the past. I don’t like these terms very well, since they imply an active-passive relationship that is not really built into Contra dancing. So this year, I innocently substituted the terms “lark” and “raven,” since I like them better. Now all of a sudden, I’m hearing from people that they think that Balance the Bay has officially adopted gender-free calling. Sorry, but no. The committee and the programmer were not consulted. Nobody has asked the callers to change the way they plan to call. And there is good reason for them not to: Balance the Bay brings people from all over the country who are not as familiar with gender-free calling as we are here in the Bay Area. This year’s callers would have to do a lot of prep work to bring people up to speed and may have to limit some of the things they’d do in the program, and the committee would have to make extra effort to let the out-of-towners know that things would be different. We may go gender-free in the future, but we’re taking it in easy steps.

The Fine Print