Hi John (and everyone), just catching up on the listserv and went to your "Callers and Music" page--
very helpful info there! I wish I had found it last year when I was looking for resources for this caller-and-musician workshop that we did. In particular, I had searched all over the internet last year for some clue as to how many times through a typical improper duple contra dance would run, and had a real hard time finding that info. I had concluded that with 5 duples in a set (our usual), we might dance through up to 17 times, which would take about 9 minutes at 117bpm..... so that those who started at the top would get back to the top. Do you think that's too long? I was under the impression that in the US the lines are often longer than 5 duples, and that the convention was to dance long enough to let everyone travel up and down the line the whole way....so I was thinking that in a seasoned contra dance group the dance might go on 15 minutes or more? Very curious about this now! Kat Kitching in Halifax NS Sep 4, 2024 3:16:24 PM John Sweeney via Contra Callers <[email protected]>: > Hi Seth, > Linda Game (English Contra Dance Band) ran a session for the > Irish musicians who were going to play for the first contra dance that we ran > in Paris. I have put a copy of her notes at > https://contrafusion.co.uk/documents/LindaGameMusicianWorkshop.jpg - I hope > Linda won’t mind. > One interesting exercise that she did was to get four dancers > to do some Rory O’Mores to a Reel, then the same sequence to a Jig so that > the band could see the effect on the dancers. > This is meant for callers: > https://contrafusion.co.uk/CallersandMusic.html but you might find some > useful points there. > I have danced (ceilidh, but same challenge) to a band who > seemed to think that they were playing for a concert. They put in extra > beats and ran improvisations across the phrases. They went so wild that you > couldn’t hear the phrasing. It was fantastic to listen to, but a nightmare > to try to dance to! > It is crucial that the band understand that the dancers are > listening to the beat and the phrasing. They especially want to hear the > beginning of A1 and B1 clearly and unambiguously. > Good luck! > Happy dancing, > John > > John Sweeney, Dancer, England [email protected] 01233 625 362 & 07802 940 > 574 > http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Dancing in Kent
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