On 2015-10-18 1652, Rich Dempsey via Callers wrote: snip It's nice to have 7 couples to make a Triple Minor work well. Doing so keeps a relatively high number of folks from standing out at some point. One may also dance a Triple Minor as in the Scottish Country dance standardised way of using a four couple set. There it is oft referred to as "a dance for three couples in a four couple set." Triplets are great fun, as can be other Whole Set dances. In them one effectively gets to dance with many of the others in the set. Kathy Anderson ran a workshop some years back at a Contra dance weekend I was at covering dances for strange, small or mixed numbers, or some such name. Good fun. Wish I could find the notes from it. Not be missed are "other" country dances which, as they are not in a Longways Set For As Many As Will, 1s Improper formation, have largely been relegated in perception to the role of barn/community/family/ceilidh/eceilidh dance events. Not "proper" Contra. Check them out. Some are once-and-to-the-bottom, others shift within a given dance between dancing in duple minor sets to a whole set figure and back. It's all dance. The now late James Barber, television cooking show host we had "up/over here" a few years back (The Urban Peasant), had a catch phrase of, "Use what you got." That might apply here, for numbers, for choices. Cheers, John -- J.D. Erskine Victoria, BC Island Dance - Folk & Country Vancouver Island & BC islands dance info - site & mail list http://members.shaw.ca/island.dance/