Generally, I expect to call 9-12 dances in a regular evening contra/community dance venue. With 10-11 being the greatest majority of the gigs.

I usually prepare a program with 10-11 dances, but of course once the evening begins, things can change, sometimes quite radically.

The length of each dance -- really depends on the choreography of that dance and the crowd and the music and the time of night (and a few other judgements as well). The first and second dances can be slightly longer than normal to reinforce the moves and help get newcomers adjusted to the progression and responding to the calls. Or they can be shorter than normal to accommodate the flow of new folks as they walk into the hall.

And then there is the music, which I consider greatly as part of my judgements. If a band is in a groove, I'll want to continue their flow and thus continue the dance for a couple of extra times. Also, the common use of three tunes (rather than two or one) for a dance makes it a real judgement call, since sometimes a band may play the first tune longer than normal, so my choice is to cut off the third tune earlier than the band may like or allow the dance to go a bit longer. Of course, that also depends on a lot, including the actually tune being played and what the band is doing with it and the nature of the dancers. Conversely, if an old-time band plays one tune for each dance, I'll usually make those dances a bit shorter, especially for a firm contra crowd where the dancers may get bored with one tune that has no changes in texture or modulation.

Woody

On 4/26/2015 9:31 PM, Jack Mitchell via Callers wrote:

For me, it really depends on the size and energy level of the dance. For a larger dance with lots of energy, I will run around 15 min per slot...so 3-4 minutes to get a new partner, 3-4 min to walk thru and 8 or so minutes to dance (around 16 times through the tune). Square and mixers run shorter frequently, doing a square and a mixer means that I get an extra dance in overall.

Smaller dances, or dances where some of the dancers have problems with stamena, I tend to run shorter -- frequently more like 10 minute slots. Have gotten 10-12 dances in a 2.5 hr (including break) dance. Have a friend who called 14 dances in a 2 hour dance because the band was an old time band and was just playing one tune per dance, the same way every time through, so she just ran all the dances much shorter.

My goal is generally to get people down the hall and partway back during the dance for a single progression dance. YMMV

Jack Mitchell

On Sun, Apr 26, 2015 at 5:54 PM -0700, "Maia McCormick via Callers" <callers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:

Just polling the masses here--how long do you generally run your dances (in times through the dance, time take, couples going up and back, etc.)? How many dances do you generally manage to fit into a 3-hour contra evening? I've heard different wisdom from different folks and am curious to add some more data points!

Cheers,

Maia