How listings work.

We list public, adult, social and participatory dance eventsacross Michigan and the Great Lakes. The test we use: if an adult dancer can show up in public and dance socially with other people there, it's in scope.

In scope:

• Salsa, bachata, kizomba, merengue, cumbia, and other Latin social nights
• Lindy Hop, East Coast Swing, West Coast Swing, balboa, blues, and other swing-era socials
• Argentine tango milongas and practicas
• Ballroom socials with open dancing
• Country two-step and country swing nights
• Line dance nights at bars and community centers
• Contra dances, square dances, and English country dance
• Festivals and weekenders that include social dancing blocks
• Beginner lessons attached to public socials

Not in scope:

• Solo fitness classes (Zumba, cardio dance)
• Performance forms taught for stage (ballet, jazz, tap, modern, contemporary)
• Kids-only events and student-only studio activities
• Performance-only or competition-only events with no social dancing
• Private lessons
• Concerts where dancing isn't part of the format
• Generic DJ nights and nightclub parties without a social-dance framing

Grey-area events (a group class with no social, a live-music night where people might dance but it's not advertised as dance, a cultural festival without a dance floor) get held for admin review rather than auto-published. The rule we apply: if an adult could publicly show up and participate in dance, it stays. If not, it's out.

We don't accept public reviews of organizers, venues, or events. That's an intentional editorial choice, not a missing feature.

Reviews fit one-time products. Social dance changes night to night: who showed up, who taught, what the DJ played. Two honest reviews of the same night can disagree.

Star averages also get chased, defended, then gamed. We want organizers running events instead.

Instead, every listing carries one of four trust labels based on where the information came from and when we last checked it:

• Verified by organizer. The organizer claimed the listing or it imported from an official feed they control.
• Verified by DanceSeekers. A DanceSeekers admin checked the source within the current month.
• Listed, not yet verified.We found the event from a public source and haven't fully confirmed it. Always check with the organizer before going.
• Needs update.Something on the listing looks stale or conflicting; we're working on it.

When a listing has lots of detail (cost, lesson timing, parking notes, beginner-friendly status, official link), it earns a “Well-detailed”badge. When it's set up so a first-timer could reasonably show up and dance (beginner lesson, no partner needed, beginner- friendly flag), it earns “Great first step”. Those badges are computed from the data, not assigned by an editor — no favoritism, no popularity contest.

Reviews might come back later as a small, structured signal (e.g. “did you actually go?” check-ins from signed-in dancers). They won't come back as star ratings.

Every event on DanceSeekers comes from one of these sources, in rough order of frequency:

1. Public organizer calendars. Tockify, iCalendar feeds, and structured event pages on organizer websites that are intended to be publicly indexed.
2. Direct organizer submissions. Organizers with a claimed listing add their own events through their DanceSeekers dashboard.
3. Community submissions. Anyone can submit a public event through /submit-event. The submitter often pastes a Facebook event URL or Instagram post URL as the source — we link out to it but don't scrape, repost, or copy content from those platforms.

We never scrape behind logins, paywalls, or members-only groups. We don't scrape Facebook or Instagram. When a community submission cites a Facebook event as the source, we link to it the same way you'd cite a web page — but we don't pull data from Facebook's servers and we don't cache their content. We also never copy event flyers, photos, or graphics — our listings are plain text plus links back to organizer channels.

Before an event goes public on DanceSeekers, we:

• Confirm the source link. Every event has a public-source URL. We click through to make sure the event actually exists at that source.
• Cross-reference details. Date, time, venue, and cost are checked against the source. Mismatches go to a review queue rather than auto-publishing.
• Re-check periodically. Recurring events are re-verified weekly. One-off events are re-checked the day before they happen so you never see a cancelled event listed as live.

Events that pass verification get the small green check that appears next to the date on event cards. If we couldn't fully verify but the source is reasonable, the event still publishes with a “source-only” trust label so dancers can decide for themselves.

• No private content. No scraping behind logins, no copying from members-only Facebook groups, no using leaked or paid mailing lists.
• No copying organizer images.We don't re-host event flyers, organizer logos, or photos. Listings point dancers to your own channels for visuals.
• No selling your data.We don't sell organizer contact info, attendee lists, or anything else to third parties. Ever.
• No fake competitive analysis.We don't collect dancer reviews, ratings, or rankings. Visibility is based on verification status, not popularity contests.
• No pay-for-placement.We're building a paid Pro tier (analytics, follower export, featured digest slots), but search-and-browse rankings will always reflect verification quality and recency, never paid promotion.
• No silent edits. If we change a listing for any reason other than fixing a typo, we tell the listed organizer.

If your studio, social, or event is on DanceSeekers, you can:

• Claim the listing at /for-organizers. Once approved, you can edit details directly, add events, and earn the Verified badge.
• Request a correction. Use /report-update or email hello@danceseekers.com. We respond within 7 days.
• Request removal.If you don't want to be on DanceSeekers, you don't have to be. Email us and we'll remove your listing — no questions, no friction. Honored within 7 days.
• Transfer ownership. If your studio changes hands, the new owner can claim the existing listing rather than starting from scratch. Email us to coordinate the handoff.
• See what we have on file.Email us and we'll send you a copy of the current listing data we store about you. No special legal hoops.

• Submission review: within 48 hours
• Claim approval: within 48 hours
• Correction requests: within 7 days
• Removal requests: within 7 days, no questions asked
• DMCA / copyright takedown: within 48 hours of receiving a valid notice

If something on DanceSeekers is wrong, here's the path:

1. Quick fixes (typos, wrong time, wrong address): use /report-update. You don't need an account.
2. Bigger issues (dispute over who runs an organizer, copyright concern, defamation claim): email hello@danceseekers.com with the listing URL and what's wrong. We respond within 7 days.
3. Formal copyright (DMCA) takedown:include the URL of the content, identification of the work you're asserting copyright in, your contact info, and a good-faith statement that you own the work or are authorized to act on the owner's behalf. We respond within 48 hours.

To make the site useful and improve it over time, we record anonymous usage signals: which events get viewed, which get saved, which organizers are followed. We do NOT log raw IP addresses, browser fingerprints, or anything that identifies you personally for analytics. Signed-in users get a stable (but opaque) id; everyone else gets a session cookie that rotates.

The full data-handling story is in our privacy policy.

The /gear page lists dance shoes and equipment from a small set of brands we've negotiated reader codes with. Some links on that page are affiliate. When you buy through them we earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. The discount codes are real and exclusive to DanceSeekers readers.

We list a brand only when (a) we'd actually buy from them and (b) they offered a code we think is genuinely useful. Paid placement is allowed but always labeled “Sponsored” on the card. Editorial picks and paid placements never live on the same row without that distinction being clear.

Affiliate revenue helps cover the data work that keeps the calendar accurate. It does not influence which events show up, how organizers rank, or which trust labels we apply. Those are separate systems with no commercial dimension.

Most questions can be answered via hello@danceseekers.com. If you're an organizer with a specific concern about your listing, mentioning your organizer name in the subject line speeds things up.