Written by Ted Sterling
When I first came to Dancing Rabbit as an intern in 2001, there was a poster chart in one of the old double-wide trailer’s back hallways showing a more-or-less exponential projected growth rate, with a fairly linear actual growth rate plotted year-by-year beneath it.
At our Land Day rituals, I have heard stories about how the original group of six founding members dwindled in the first couple years to as few as three people. Having come to Dancing Rabbit interested in starting my own community but concerned that I might not have what it would take to do it, I could easily put myself in those shoes, with 280 acres, a lot of loans, lots of ideas, and not a lot of people settling down to help. Makes me sweat a little now just to think about it, even though I wasn’t here.
A Slow Start at Dancing Rabbit
Just when things looked bleak, Jeffrey arrived. Interns began boosting the population each summer (including the first intern, present member Tom). The Milkweeds joined up. Slowly, the group began to grow. In 2001 when I arrived for my internship, there were probably 11 members. In 2003 when Sara and I moved here to join the group, there were perhaps 15. I joined what was then known as the Immigration committee, and began to interact first-hand with Dancing Rabbit’s growth. Certainly there were times when I knew despair.
Was it just a pipe dream for us to reach a population of 500 to 1000 when we were growing a few members a year, and some years losing almost as many to emigration?
And Then Came 30 Days
Then came an outreach breakthrough: Morgan Spurlock’s 30 Days program wanted to film here. We said OK. Two (mostly) unsuspecting folks from the New York City area arrived for the month of May 2005, and we gamely played along, generally having a good time. Within days of its first airing later that year, we were seeing a spike of up to 2000% in page hits on our website. Our blip on the radar screen ballooned in size. Surely something was bound to come of it.
About that time, we grew our visitor program significantly, going from 1-2 entities visiting at any given time to groups of 10-12 visiting for extended sessions with work parties, workshops, talks, and so on built in. The publicity, and perhaps the noticeable larger cultural shift toward interest in all things green, made it fairly easy to fill the enlarged visitor sessions. The committee, now renamed MARC (Membership and Residency Committee) quickly saw that the larger visitor groups seemed to have an inherent cohesion and sense of mutual support for individual visitors considering making the life shift of moving to an ecovillage. 2007’s big population spike seemed to confirm that, with nearly 20 new residents matriculating. Until that time, each new application coming through immigration’s realm had seemed like a miracle, an exceptional event; but at this point I began to believe. The dream was real!
In 2008 we tried to breath a little and integrate all that new energy, taking a year to consolidate our gains after the previous season’s exuberant growth; but whereas consolidation in previous years had meant holding steady and not losing anybody, in this period we were still adding new residents and members. 2009 was another stellar year, with 18 new residents accepted, only a couple of whom ended up not staying. From 2006-2009 we also grew our numbers a bit from within, with three kids born to various members.
Ten Years In
Dancing Rabbit found its population in 2009 sitting above 50 residents and members for the first time, and our high season population (which included work exchangers but not visitors) peaked at nearly 75. Needless to say, an extremely gratifying shift of fortunes over a bit more than a decade! And unquestionably a challenge of integration and limited infrastructure.
The growth feels great to many of us, and at the same time some members fear cultural drift; clearly there is a balancing act involved in getting a given number of new residents up to speed. Every new arrival brings unique gifts and our village culture shifts and expands for each one; but when too many arrive in a short period of time, their collective exuberance can threaten to outstrip our system’s ability to grow and adapt. The wealth of people and inspiration can overwhelm even the most pro-growth among us when there’s hardly time to stop and breath.
Our Neverending Game Of Catch Up
Physical infrastructure is one major frontier here strongly influenced by our continued growth. There were at least seven construction projects in 2009, and there will likely be just as many in 2010. Undoubtedly dwellings are essential to growth, but we are definitely nearing the limits of our common building’s ability to serve our other collective needs. Among other challenges, it can be hard to get us all stuffed into the Great Room for our weekly planning meetings and business agendas. A library, a school house, kid-free space, a yoga and dance studio, and a pub are among the non-dwelling spaces most frequently mentioned in conversations about needed infrastructure of late. At our retreat this year we empaneled several new committees, including one to begin planning for a new community building, one to encompass long-term planning in general, and another to start considering possible changes to our decision making system.
500 to 1000 villagers doesn’t feel so far away anymore. The time is not far off when it will be hard to get well-acquainted with every community member. Neighborhoods, sub-communities, and eating cooperatives may increasingly serve as the units of cohesion. Representative governance and increased delegation to committees are likely possibilities.
United By Passion
As we move ever forward, I feel confident that Dancing Rabbit will continue to grow and thrive. One of the strongest ties between members here, whether they know each other well or not, is that we’re all united by a desire to live as sustainably as possible. It is one of the central things that leads each of us to this place, and combines with the densely-settled village model to keep us drawn together even when our physical spaces and social structures struggle to keep pace. I look forward to many more decades of inspiration and satisfaction as Dancing Rabbit continues to demonstrate ecologically-inspired cooperative living. After seven years of membership, I remain a believer.
Image credit: Ramin Rahimian