Lots of discussion here and in the prior thread on how long to run if you have a lot of dancers. For those dealing with small numbers, say at the end of a night. Calling 15 times through means the same people are dancing the same dance with each other over and over. My rule of thumb for the max a small set wants to go is three times the number of minor sets, so 12 times through if there are four minor sets, nine if three. That works out to 4.5-6 minutes at 120 bpm. a little longer if slower. That means short walkthroughs if you want to keep the deadtime down.
And, thanks to John Sweeney for remembering that those sitting out also paid to get in! --jh-- Joe Harrington Orlando Contra Dance On Thu, Sep 5, 2024 at 9:31 AM Tepfer, Seth via Contra Callers < [email protected]> wrote: > Kat > > In response to your question of "how many times to run a typical improper > duple minor contra" definitely depends upon context. At a dance > festival/weekend, the dances run longer. If you have very long lines - or > very short lines - the dance will run a different amount. > > As I say in caller classes, the perfect answer is to run the dance until > people are getting tired, and then stop 2 times before that. Ha! > > My standard is to run it until the top couple (at the beginning) gets to > the bottom, and then start the process of going out. So if you had 5 > duples, at around 10x through be looking at the band to tell them 3 times > or something like that. So 11-13 times through. > > BUT that number is dependent upon context. How hard is the dance? If > people got it right away, then fewer times. How exciting is the music? If > the music is driving the dancers, maybe a few more times. > > And as always, "less is more". Use the old showbiz maxim, "Leave them > wanting more" > Seth > > Seth Tepfer, MBA, CSM, PMP (he, him, his) > Senior IT Manager, Emory Primate Center > > <https://outlook.office.com/bookwithme/user/[email protected]?anonymous&ep=signature> > Book > time to meet with me > <https://outlook.office365.com/owa/calendar/[email protected]/bookings/> > > On Sep 5, 2024, at 8:43 AM, Katherine Kitching via Contra Callers < > [email protected]> wrote: > > 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] > > _______________________________________________ > Contra Callers mailing list -- [email protected] > To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] >
_______________________________________________ Contra Callers mailing list -- [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected]
