Sometimes people come to Rough Crowd Academy with a partner or a group of friends, and they have someone to practice with. Sometimes people come solo. Both are fantastic ways to come to Rough Crowd Academy and both are welcomed.

When workshops have practice time, sometimes people who came solo will ask other people if they want to practice together, and sometimes that works out fine. That’s great!

However, please remember that nobody ever has to do anything they don’t want to do at Rough Crowd Academy (or, really, anywhere). If someone asks you to practice together and you don’t feel comfortable with them, prefer just watching others practice today, have a partner who couldn’t come and you have an exclusive relationship, you wore the wrong shoes for it, Mercury is in retrograde, or you just don’t feel like it, no reason or justification is necessary. Really. A simple “no thank you” is all that is ever needed – no reason is needed or more relevant than you just don’t want to right now, and it is the most powerful reason you can give.

Conversely, if you ask someone if they’d like to practice and they say no thank you, please try to keep in mind that there are a thousand things that could go into that which have nothing to do with personally rejecting you as a human being. Maybe they don’t have their Comfy Socks – who knows? Take “no thank you” as the neutral response it is, and go on with class.

It’s great to make new friends at Rough Crowd Academy, but it is not meant to be a place to pick people up or be picked up; that expectation creates the wrong atmosphere and we don’t want anyone to ever feel uncomfortable while they’re at Rough Crowd Academy. If anyone ever makes you feel uncomfortable please come find an organizer or assistant as soon as you’re able and tell them. We have a Code of Conduct; do check it out.

Please note that this also applies to before or after an event. Going through the list of who’s going on FetLife and messaging all of them is just creepy, so please don’t. Similarly, if you got a message from anyone about meeting you at Rough Crowd Academy and it made you uncomfortable, please feel free to message us directly about it. And most importantly, please know that inappropriate behavior will not be tolerated at Rough Crowd Academy. Ever.