Meg, This seems right to me as well. We've had dancing at jams or caller sessions and there's a lot of waiting (or inventive scrambling end to end) with six couples or less for a typical contra line. We've done it with laughter and good cheer, but I wouldn't prefer less than 7 couples for a "formal" dance contra line. I'm glad you mentioned the alternate formations, triplets, scatter mixers & other proper configurations, are important for any caller collection.
Laurie P MI --- On Wed, 5/12/10, Paul Wilde <[email protected]> wrote: From: Paul Wilde <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [Callers] Dance length To: "Caller's discussion list" <[email protected]> List-Post: [email protected] Date: Wednesday, May 12, 2010, 10:09 PM Meg, My personal opinion is that 7 couples is a good minimum number for a contra line. This gives 3 sets of hands 4 dancing all the time. 6 couples will leave you with 2 hands 4 and 2 couples out every other progression. Good luck, Paul Wilde --- On Wed, 5/12/10, Meg Dedolph <[email protected]> wrote: From: Meg Dedolph <[email protected]> Subject: [Callers] Dance length To: [email protected] List-Post: [email protected] Date: Wednesday, May 12, 2010, 9:02 PM Hi everyone, I have a question about dance length - not the length of time you run a particular dance, but the length of an evening of dancing. In Chicago, we recently went from a three-hour Monday night dance to a two-and-a-half hour Monday night dance. Some dancers like ending earlier, some really hate it and others don't seem to care. >From a caller's perspective, will you generally keep calling contras when >there are three or four couples left? I know one can always call squares or >triplets, or ask the band to play waltzes, but I'm specifically curious about >contras. Do people think there's a minimum number of dancers necessary for a >contra line? I've danced in four-couple contra lines, and I don't think it's a >whole lot of fun. And I've been the caller at 10:45 p.m. trying to call a >square dance, which I'm not good at yet, and I don't think that's a lot of fun >either. Thanks for any input you all have.... Meg _______________________________________________ Callers mailing list [email protected] http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers
