I include a mixer at nearly all of my home dances, typically the third dance of the evening. I love mixers, as a dancer. It's an opportunity to see who's in the hall. It's a chance to dance, briefly, with folks I don't know. And as a caller, I love calling them, to provide all of those opportunities, and for other reasons. I don't run most mixers for very long, perhaps 8-10 times, depending on the dance. That means that I'm adding one more dance into the mix, inthe course of which everyone is getting that many opportunities to dance with a different partner. Mixers also come in many shapes: big circle, Sicilian circle, scatter promenades, three person lines, and so on. That also allows me to vary the look and feel of the floor so that it's not all contra contra contra, and since the dance floor is part of life, I do believe that variety adds spice. David Millstone Lebanon, NH