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@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@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@modernjive.com 01233 625 362 & 07802 940 574
http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Dancing in Kent
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