25 Mar
2012
25 Mar
'12
5:31 p.m.
[Duplicate posting to trad-dance-callers and SharedWeight lists]
A friend recently wrote me, "I am trying to pin down an unpindownable number:
namely the number of people in the world who regularly contradance. Any idea of
this number, or anyone who might steer me to it?"
I'm wondering if anyone on this list has tackled this question, has developed
even a crude methodology, and would be willing to share what you came up with.
As for "the world," with the exception of the folks in Denmark and in England,
I think we're really talking about the US and Canada in terms of any significant
numbers. I can ask friends ub Denmark for their estimates. The annual country
dance festival in Prague brings together several hundred dance enthusiasts from
central Europe, though their definition of "regular" is certainly different from
someone in the Boston or SF Bay or DC areas.
David Millstone
25 Mar
25 Mar
7:42 p.m.
Do we know what 'regularly' means?
Do we know what 'contradance' means?
In the UK there are many people who dance once or twice a year, every
year, at events put on by their PTA or church. If that is regular then
the answer is probably in the millions.
Similarly, what do we mean by contradance? Is this the narrow
definition of Modern Urban Contradance where devotees dance only in
duple minor sets to 32-bar tunes. Or does it include English Country
Dance (since both share the same historic 'country dance' parent )?
Michael Barraclough
www.michaelbarraclough.com
On Sun, 2012-03-25 at 13:31 -0400, David Millstone wrote:
[Duplicate posting to trad-dance-callers and
SharedWeight lists]
A friend recently wrote me, "I am trying to pin down an unpindownable number:
namely the number of people in the world who regularly contradance. Any idea of
this number, or anyone who might steer me to it?"
I'm wondering if anyone on this list has tackled this question, has developed
even a crude methodology, and would be willing to share what you came up with.
As for "the world," with the exception of the folks in Denmark and in England,
I think we're really talking about the US and Canada in terms of any significant
numbers. I can ask friends ub Denmark for their estimates. The annual country
dance festival in Prague brings together several hundred dance enthusiasts from
central Europe, though their definition of "regular" is certainly different
from
someone in the Boston or SF Bay or DC areas.
David Millstone
_______________________________________________
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Callers(a)sharedweight.net
http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers
7:57 p.m.
163,000
Michael Fuerst 802 N Broadway Urbana IL 61801 217-239-5844
--- On Sun, 3/25/12, David Millstone <David.Millstone(a)valley.net> wrote:
From: David Millstone <David.Millstone(a)valley.net>
Subject: [Callers] number of contra dancers?
To: trad-dance-callers(a)yahoogroups.com, callers(a)sharedweight.net
Date: Sunday, March 25, 2012, 12:31 PM
[Duplicate posting to trad-dance-callers and SharedWeight lists]
A friend recently wrote me, "I am trying to pin down an unpindownable number: namely
the number of people in the world who regularly contradance. Any idea of this number, or
anyone who might steer me to it?"
I'm wondering if anyone on this list has tackled this question, has developed even a
crude methodology, and would be willing to share what you came up with.
As for "the world," with the exception of the folks in Denmark and in England, I
think we're really talking about the US and Canada in terms of any significant
numbers. I can ask friends ub Denmark for their estimates. The annual country dance
festival in Prague brings together several hundred dance enthusiasts from central Europe,
though their definition of "regular" is certainly different from someone in the
Boston or SF Bay or DC areas.
David Millstone
_______________________________________________
Callers mailing list
Callers(a)sharedweight.net
http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers
8:09 p.m.
David,
What do you mean by "regularly"?
- At least twice in the past 5 years?
- At least twice in the past 2 years?
- At least twice in the past 12 months?
- At least twice in the past 3 months?
- At least twice in the past week?
I say twice, because I assume that by "regularly" you mean at least more
than once. Then depending on how you define "regularly" you will get
quite different answers. If you pick the first definition above, you
will get a much bigger number than if you pick the last definition.
A slightly easier question to answer is, "How many people attend a
contra dance on a particular night?" On any particular night, worldwide,
there will be many regular dancers dancing, as well and some new people.
A few regular dancers will not attend because they are sick, or vising
relatives in Alberta. The new dancers and the missing regular dancers
may cancel each other out, at last to some degree.
So, the number of people dancing, worldwide, on a particular night might
be a rough estimate of the number of regular dancers, worldwide. It may
be a bit low if we pick a night when there are no dances in Denmark, or
Oregon, but it would set a good lower bound.
So, how many people will be dancing, worldwide, on the the first
Saturday in May, May 5th?
The members of these 2 lists probably have contacts with or attend
nearly every regular dance in the world (and quite a few irregular ones,
too). If everyone on these lists who attends a dance on May 5th would
take a count and send both the name of the dance and the attendance to
someone, a count of the total number of dancers at the known dances
could be made. It would take some work, as people would need to find a
contact at dances they could not attend, but wanted to report. And the
organizer who was doing the analysis would need to do enough planning
ahead of time to be sure that as many dances, worldwide, were covered,
as possible.
Rich Hart.
On 3/25/2012 1:31 PM, David Millstone wrote:
[Duplicate posting to trad-dance-callers and
SharedWeight lists]
A friend recently wrote me, "I am trying to pin down an unpindownable
number: namely the number of people in the world who regularly
contradance. Any idea of this number, or anyone who might steer me to
it?"
I'm wondering if anyone on this list has tackled this question, has
developed even a crude methodology, and would be willing to share what
you came up with.
As for "the world," with the exception of the folks in Denmark and in
England, I think we're really talking about the US and Canada in terms
of any significant numbers. I can ask friends ub Denmark for their
estimates. The annual country dance festival in Prague brings together
several hundred dance enthusiasts from central Europe, though their
definition of "regular" is certainly different from someone in the
Boston or SF Bay or DC areas.
David Millstone
8:52 p.m.
The number would get that much more accurate if you did that survey for every night of the
month - well, at least you would have a fairly accurate estimate of how many6 people have
contradance in that month anywhere in the world. Since Houston dances on the 2nd and 4th
Saturdays, May 5 would not include us.
What an interesting question - and what an interesting process to develop what will only
ever be a best estimate but never a precise number that is correct.
Fascinating, even for this non-mathematician!
Dorcas Hand, Houston
-----Original Message-----
From: callers-bounces(a)sharedweight.net [mailto:callers-bounces@sharedweight.net] On Behalf
Of Rich Hart
Sent: Sunday, March 25, 2012 3:10 PM
To: millstone(a)valley.net; Caller's discussion list
Subject: Re: [Callers] number of contra dancers?
David,
What do you mean by "regularly"?
- At least twice in the past 5 years?
- At least twice in the past 2 years?
- At least twice in the past 12 months?
- At least twice in the past 3 months?
- At least twice in the past week?
I say twice, because I assume that by "regularly" you mean at least more than
once. Then depending on how you define "regularly" you will get quite different
answers. If you pick the first definition above, you will get a much bigger number than if
you pick the last definition.
A slightly easier question to answer is, "How many people attend a contra dance on a
particular night?" On any particular night, worldwide, there will be many regular
dancers dancing, as well and some new people.
A few regular dancers will not attend because they are sick, or vising relatives in
Alberta. The new dancers and the missing regular dancers may cancel each other out, at
last to some degree.
So, the number of people dancing, worldwide, on a particular night might be a rough
estimate of the number of regular dancers, worldwide. It may be a bit low if we pick a
night when there are no dances in Denmark, or Oregon, but it would set a good lower
bound.
So, how many people will be dancing, worldwide, on the the first Saturday in May, May
5th?
The members of these 2 lists probably have contacts with or attend nearly every regular
dance in the world (and quite a few irregular ones, too). If everyone on these lists who
attends a dance on May 5th would take a count and send both the name of the dance and the
attendance to someone, a count of the total number of dancers at the known dances could be
made. It would take some work, as people would need to find a contact at dances they
could not attend, but wanted to report. And the organizer who was doing the analysis would
need to do enough planning ahead of time to be sure that as many dances, worldwide, were
covered, as possible.
Rich Hart.
On 3/25/2012 1:31 PM, David Millstone wrote:
[Duplicate posting to trad-dance-callers and
SharedWeight lists]
A friend recently wrote me, "I am trying to pin down an unpindownable
number: namely the number of people in the world who regularly
contradance. Any idea of this number, or anyone who might steer me to
it?"
I'm wondering if anyone on this list has tackled this question, has
developed even a crude methodology, and would be willing to share what
you came up with.
As for "the world," with the exception of the folks in Denmark and in
England, I think we're really talking about the US and Canada in terms
of any significant numbers. I can ask friends ub Denmark for their
estimates. The annual country dance festival in Prague brings together
several hundred dance enthusiasts from central Europe, though their
definition of "regular" is certainly different from someone in the
Boston or SF Bay or DC areas.
David Millstone
_______________________________________________
Callers mailing list
Callers(a)sharedweight.net
http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers
4415
days inactive
4415
days old
contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net
5 comments
6 participants
participants (6)
-
David.Millstone＠valley.net -
Dorcas Hand -
Hanny Budnick -
Michael Barraclough -
Michael Fuerst -
Rich Hart