25 Oct
2012
25 Oct
'12
12:32 p.m.
There really is no ideal tempo for contra dance. It depends on the
complexity and flow of the dance, and what the dancers are looking
for. Many dancers enjoy getting sweaty to fast tunes as high as 130 BPM.
There may be some age correlation here, because the younger crowd is more
likely to be familiar with techno, ska, and other music forms that tend to
have high BPM. Also, the wider use of dance-based fitness programs this
century is likely changing expectations, as more people think of it as a
fitness program in addition to a social venue.
I specifically caution you on Ralph's “least energy expended” theory
because it's demonstrably wrong for many venues—if dancers wanted to expend
the least energy, you wouldn't see them doing a zillion flourishes. (Also,
the energy expenditure vs. BPM hasn't actually been studied.)
As a musician, the “draggy” feel of the 110 tempo may be related to the
music you're playing. You might find that expanding your repertoire solves
this problem for you.
On Thu, Oct 25, 2012 at 12:00 PM, Kathryn Bowman
<kathrynjobowman(a)gmail.com>wrote;wrote:
Out in the Pacific northwest, we generally tend to
play quite a bit lower
than 120. We get complaints about 118 that we are playing too fast from
the dancers and callers. Kind of depends on the dance, how many four or
eight count moves, how far apart the lines are if its a big hall, the
experience of the dancer, some of the moves like hays and wavey lines. I
generally like about 114 if its not too hot. Some callers ask us to call
as slow at 110 which feels pretty draggy to me.
On Wed, Oct 24, 2012 at 10:47 PM, tavi merrill <
melodiouswoodchuck(a)gmail.com
wrote:
120 bpm is generally considered normal - but one
of my best dance
experiences ever, with the band "Old Grey Goose" left me both feeling
sublime, and realizing their tempos were on average a little lower than i
was used to. Ralph Sweet has a great thought about tempo - the idea that,
based on the length of the average human leg, there is a frequency of
motion at which the least force is expended to set it swinging (imagining
the dancer's leg as a pendulum)...
And i suppose that, like everything about dance music and calling, what
is
ideal really depends upon the dancers present.
Suffice it to say i've had
great experiences as a dancer around 118, but when i'm really "into" a
tune
on the fiddle, it's easy to warp up to 126
without realizing it. As a
fiddler new to playing for dancers, if your technique on notey reels is
up
to snuff, it's easy to get carried away and
confuse "energy" with speed -
sometimes the hardest thing is slowing down. On the dance floor that
confusion never happens, fast is just fast... and less enjoyable to
dance.
Hence my making a somewhat conservative
suggestion.
tavi
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