Re: [Callers] Squares for contra-dancers

At 9:41 PM -0400 9/8/13, Jeff Kaufman wrote: Could be. But I've called "hash contras" to a suitable crowd (i.e. one ready for no-walk-through medleys, where each dance in the medley might be only 1 time, never repeated). As long as you eventually get your partner back, and eventually progress, it can be fun. It doesn't always have to be 32-bar demarcation, even if the dancers are accustomed to that. In such situations, the hash might be: 32-bar 32-bar 48-bar 48-bar 32-bar 32-bar and so on. I definitely would agree that contra dancers are conditioned to 8-beat phrases. Witness the difficulty many experienced dancers have with slip jigs, whereas the new dancers there probably have less trouble with the "unusual" phrasing. And anything where the phrasing is indeterminate, or the beat is lost (as happens at techno if the music is not edited well to remove those passages where they go "off in space"). When you're playing with The Envelope, it's best not to stray TOO far out of the comfort zone. E.g. tweak one knob at a time, and not all of them at once. If the dancers are expecting to have unexpected (but familiar) calls thrown at them, then all is well. Just don't do that at the same time as crooked tunes, or slippery phrasing, or ill-defined beat, or distracting but entertaining musical quotes and jokes. -Eric