back when I hauled the sound system to concerts & dances alike in the late '80's we had the same problems. we tried having a short teaching session before the dance... no one came, beginners & expert alike.

I ended up dancing with most of the beginners to give them a chance to dance... not that I was ever more than an OK dancer .. but I did learn to "switch hit" since the gals way out numbered the guys. I almost never got to dance with a guy... lol! I'd badger other board members to make an effort to help the newbies along and not make them feel "unwanted". Our event were intended for all to come and enjoy themselves.

One exception was with a troubled guy who would grope any woman or young girl he got close to ( and I know because I was one of his "victims", I didn't smack him silly because I didn't want to disrupt the dance, only confirm that the complaint was valid). We dealt with that pronto and had to eventually send him packing because it wasn't something he could control for long and not anything we would tolerate. We had families attending with young school age girls and it was the only time we ever had to eject someone from an event.

There is a long standing contra event in the area where I now live... but the concrete floor and more importantly the lack of opportunity to dance because I didn't come with a partner caused me to not return for 20 years.