[Callers] Floor Space Requirement

[James Saxe via Callers]

Rich,

Several other people have already addressed the point that the
bride and groom are being unrealistic if they expect both the
kind of dancing they're used to at regular dances and a high
level of participation by their non-contra-dancer friends and
relatives.  You're clearly well aware of it as well.  And I'm
sure you know it's even more so if alcohol will be served.

Turning to the topic of space requirements, here are my thought:

On Aug 1, 2016, at 3:29 PM, David Harding wrote:

> ...  
> The distance from your left hand to your right hand is the distance along the line that you and your partner occupy.  People of different sizes will have different comfort factors.  We've all been in lines that were too scrunched up and lines where we couldn't even reach the next person.  3-5 feet per person feels acceptable to me, with about 4 feet being a good compromise.  Your foursome needs twice the space, of 8'.

The late Larry Jennings suggests [See _Give-and-Take, sec. III-3,
"Set Spacing"that a spacing of 3' per couple or 6' per foursome is
about ideal, and from my own observations I'm inclined to agree.

Of course some dances include figures that are more comfortable
with more more space along the set--for example a roll away across
the set.

On the other hand, I think that balances in long waves begin to feel
uncomfortably stretched out with a spacing of more than 3'.  Some
readers may recall the occasional practice of dancers kissing their
partners--and sometimes even their shadows--during the balances in
"Rory O'More".   I'm not advocating here that any caller set out to
revive that practice (fun for the mutually consenting, but not
necessarily hygienic), but I think that a comfortable spacing should
not be such as to make it impossible.  Try balancing right and left
while holding a yardstick horizontally at shoulder height with one
hand cupped over each end as if you were holding the hands of
adjacent dancers.  I think you will easily convince yourself that
with a 4' spacing, and with everyone keeping hold of hands along
the wavy line, people with arms of ordinary length would have a
hard time getting within a foot of each other's faces.

David also wrote:

> Of course, if you are doing any down-the-hall figures, you need some extra space.

Of course I agree.  I haven't called many weddings, company parties,
or similar one-nighters, but I do recall one where I called a
simple contra with a "down the hall" figure (perhaps "Jefferson's               
Reel") and where there wasn't enough space for dancers to go a
whole eight steps. Experienced contra dancers who run out of room
to go down the hall know that they need to slow down or stop and
use up the right amount of music before starting back up.  Not
so the inexperienced dancers at this party.  As soon as the
bottommost dancers ran out of room, after about four steps, they
simply had to turn around and start back up, and the other couples
then followed suit.  Nothing I could say--or at least nothing I
could think of to say while the music was playing--seemed to have
the least effect at dissuading them.  (There was actually enough
space in the room, by the way.  The obstacle was a table set up
a few feet past the end of the set. If I'd been on the ball, I'd
have made sure it got moved out of the way before the dance
started.)

If the room doesn't have a usable stage, you'll need to allow
space for yourself, the sound system, and the band (if you're
using live music).


Regarding the width of a contra set, I'll call attention--as I
have on other occasions when this topic has come up--to the
"Folk Floor" used for contra dancing at the Northwest Folklife
Festival.  The top layer of this floor consists of gray painted
4'x8' sheets of masonite with very visible 3"-wide white tape
at the seams.  During well-attended sessions, the contra lines
tend very strongly to gravitate into the seven 8'-wide "lanes"
(as I'll call them) defined by the strips of tape running the
length of the hall. Even when there are fewer than seven sets,
dancers often center their sets in some of the the "lanes" and
spill only slightly into adjacent empty lanes.  Not everyone is
aware of this phenomenon, but it's strikingly obvious once you
pay attention.

From experience dancing at Folklife, I consider the 8' set width
to be slightly crowded.  Seven-foot-wide sets feel quite crowded
(based on experience at another hall I happened to measure).  I
think a width of ten feet per set would be quite comfortable and
that twelve feet per set would be spacious.  I haven't made
careful observations on this point, but I'd guess that with a
spacing of twelve feet per set it would already be somewhat
inconvenient for inactive dancers to steal a swing with someone
in an adjacent set while actives are swinging in the middle.

Of course if you want to have chairs along one or both side walls,
and if you want space for people to walk between the front and
back of the hall without dodging dancers or tripping over people
seated in the chairs, those things will reduce the effective width
of the dancing space.


If the plan for the wedding reception calls for tables to be moved
to clear space for dancing, try to get as definite a picture as
you can about what's supposed to happen and when, and try to get
the bride and groom to think in advance about what they'll do if
the schedule slips.  The caller isn't going to be the person with
authority to tell the wedding couple's aunts and uncles to move
the table with their half-finished meals.

--Jim