Just to add a couple of thoughts Katherine triggered. The piece count of a dance has a bearing on the tempo. Higher the piece count, generally the slower the tempo and vice versa. Also, I like to make clear up front my signals for speeding up or slowing down.
Rich > On Sep 5, 2024, at 8:43 AM, Katherine Kitching via Contra Callers > <[email protected]> wrote: > > 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 > _______________________________________________ > Contra Callers mailing list -- [email protected] > To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected]
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