Will Loving wrote:
> Will Mentor and I have been talking the possibility of making a true 64-bar
> dance that either uses a 64-bar tune or twice through of a standard 32-bar
> tune. It opens up some interesting possibilities and challenges around
> making a dance that's twice as long but that people remember, get into the
> flow of and enjoy.
> There are longer dances - 42, 48 and 64 bars - but not many that I'm aware
> of. I'm interested to know what other folks experience has been about
> writing and calling longer dance sequences. I think this may be something
> some dancers are ready for, though I would try it before the break rather
> than at 11pm!
Over in English-dance-land, 64-bar longways dances (usually AABBAABB) were
common in the early 1800s (as were triple minors). What's happened in the
dance revival is that those 64-bar triple minors have been adapted into
three-couple-set dances (which is, incidentally, where Ted Sanella got the idea
for triplets.) Dances like "Prince William" and "Fandango".
The conceptual chunking in those 64-bar sequences was pretty high. ("Prince
William" has "cross over one couple", "double crossover mirror hey",
"contra corners", and "lead out at the sides", which were all knwon figures in
1800, so it was really only four chunks for 64 bars.)
Anyway, I can't think of any English dance that was published as a 64 bar
longways duple or triple and was revived as one. The closest I can come is
"Wakefield Hunt", a 48-bar triple-minor, triple-progression, which you don't
have to play a million times through for everybody to get to be active.
64-bar perils: More figure takes longer to teach. Takes twice as long to
iterate through dance, and if it isn't symmetric people may feel cheated if
they don't get to do the "better" role. Band has to play longer or you get
fewer times through the dance.
I like the idea of trying 64 bars for four-face-fours where you might need the
time to get into or out of square formation and still want to do a figure of
some interest. In longways, I'd consider starting with double or even triple
progession so that you have a longer sequence but everybody gets to be 1s and
to encounter many other dancers along the way.
-- Alan
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Alan Winston --- [email protected]
Disclaimer: I speak only for myself, not SLAC or SSRL Phone: 650/926-3056
Paper mail to: SSRL -- SLAC BIN 99, 2575 Sand Hill Rd, Menlo Park CA 94025
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