Just throwing this out there, the length of dance can vary quite a bit by region and
experience of the group. I know here people tend to lose interest, or get stressed or
tired, or start wondering when the dance will end, around the 6 minute mark. As much as I
would like to dance for 10 or more, 4-6 minutes is a more ideal length in my experience as
a caller here in Winnipeg.
More on the subject of turning musicians into dance musicians, fiddlers around here are
used to playing a tune through 3 times, which roughly equates to 1:36 at contra dance
tempos. And they combine them in sets of 2-3 tunes. It's a good idea to mention this
notion of arranging tune sets to novice dance musicians so they can get an idea of whether
they are changing tunes 5-6 times or if they're repeating the tune more times than
usual.
Greg - Winnipeg
Greg
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On Thursday, September 5th, 2024 at 9:33 AM, Jeff Kaufman via Contra Callers
<contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
I collected some stats on this, in the northeast US:
https://www.jefftk.com/p/contra-dance-lengths
What I found matches my impression as a musician that 8-9 minutes (15 or 17 times
through) is what's most common here, and in the other parts of the US where we've
played. Because the dances are equal-turn there's no need to give everyone an
opportunity to be ones or to dance with every other couple.
Jeff Kaufman
Somerville MA
On Thu, Sep 5, 2024 at 9:40 AM John Sweeney via Contra Callers
<contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
> Larry Jennings:
>
> “I have noticed that every caller, when asked, believes that every other caller
allows dances to run too long, while they themselves are the only exception.”
>
> :-)
>
> Happy dancing,
>
> John
>
> John Sweeney, Dancer, England john(a)modernjive.com 01233 625 362 & 07802 940 574
>
>
http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Dancing in Kent
>
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