In my experience, there are two ways to recruit successfully to dance teams.

1) The most successful way is through your own personal contacts. I have found it quite rare to get new people turning up out of the blue from advertising to an already well established side. If you are setting up a team from scratch then advertising tends to work a little better. Word of mouth, bullying and in some cases hostage taking of people you know all work.

2) The other way to recruit is to be seen and to impress, then become friendly with people who show an interest. You then use method 1) on them.

The only other bit of advice I can give is that people eventually join teams where they think they will fit in. If you are a team of old men with not much life/energy then you will not attract easily anyone of a different disposition. Young teams who stay up all night shouting and drinking (like my own side) will only attract similar members. The only way I have seen to break the cycle of an old, failing team is to drag in a younger and very enthusiastic person (usually a son or daughter of an established member) and then hope that they encourage their friends to join in - look at Earlsdon MM, absolutely brilliant at the moment.

Unfortunately, team growth is a vicious circle as nobody ever really wants to join a side that doesn't look like they do anything, or looks rubbish and embarrasing, or looks stagnant. Growing teams tend to snowball with like minded individuals, this means you can do more outings of a higher standard and are seen by more people who then come and join - look at Rivington Morris.

Tom