[Callers] Dance length/dances per evening

[Woody Lane via Callers]

Generally, I expect to call 9-12 dances in a regular evening 
contra/community dance venue. With 10-11 being the greatest majority of 
the gigs.

I usually prepare a program with 10-11 dances, but of course once the 
evening begins, things can change, sometimes quite radically.

The length of each dance -- really depends on the choreography of that 
dance and the crowd and the music and the time of night (and a few other 
judgements as well). The first and second dances can be slightly longer 
than normal to reinforce the moves and help get newcomers adjusted to 
the progression and responding to the calls. Or they can be shorter than 
normal to accommodate the flow of new folks as they walk into the hall.

And then there is the music, which I consider greatly as part of my 
judgements. If a band is in a groove, I'll want to continue their flow 
and thus continue the dance for a couple of extra times. Also, the 
common use of three tunes (rather than two or one) for a dance makes it 
a real judgement call, since sometimes a band may play the first tune 
longer than normal, so my choice is to cut off the third tune earlier 
than the band may like or allow the dance to go a bit longer. Of course, 
that also depends on a lot, including the actually tune being played and 
what the band is doing with it and the nature of the dancers. 
Conversely, if an old-time band plays one tune for each dance, I'll 
usually make those dances a bit shorter, especially for a firm contra 
crowd where the dancers may get bored with one tune that has no changes 
in texture or modulation.

Woody

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On 4/26/2015 9:31 PM, Jack Mitchell via Callers wrote:
> For me, it really depends on the size and energy level of the dance. 
>  For a larger dance with lots of energy, I will run around 15 min per 
> slot...so 3-4 minutes to get a new partner, 3-4 min to walk thru and 8 
> or so minutes to dance (around 16 times through the tune).  Square and 
> mixers run shorter frequently, doing a square and a mixer means that I 
> get an extra dance in overall.
>
> Smaller dances, or dances where some of the dancers have problems with 
> stamena,  I tend to run shorter -- frequently more like 10 minute 
> slots.  Have gotten 10-12 dances in a 2.5 hr (including break) dance. 
>  Have a friend who called 14 dances in a 2 hour dance because the band 
> was an old time band and was just playing one tune per dance, the same 
> way every time through, so she just ran all the dances much shorter.
>
> My goal is generally to get people down the hall and partway back 
> during the dance for a single progression dance.  YMMV
>
> Jack Mitchell
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> On Sun, Apr 26, 2015 at 5:54 PM -0700, "Maia McCormick via Callers" 
> <callers at lists.sharedweight.net 
> <mailto:callers at lists.sharedweight.net>> wrote:
>
>     Just polling the masses here--how long do you generally run your
>     dances (in times through the dance, time take, couples going up
>     and back, etc.)? How many dances do you generally manage to fit
>     into a 3-hour contra evening? I've heard different wisdom from
>     different folks and am curious to add some more data points!
>
>     Cheers,
>     Maia
>

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