Re: AABB, or AB?

For an easy dance like Barn Dance I will have stopped calling long before then and usually give the band a nod for 'whenever you like'. Having told them that before they start. Couples can easily drop out if they've had enough of the couple dances (not for Nottingham Swing though) Some tunes just don't sound right played ABAB, others sound wrong as AABB. The tune that I think of a 'St Bernard Waltz' is much more than twice through the dance. You need to beware of 16 bar tunes for 32 bar dances too. Circle Waltz is 32 bars - 16 bars of progression then on the B music you 'keep this one and...' The music tells you what to do with a 32 bar tune, it would spoil it to use one of the many 16 bar waltzes. And I do a dance 'Oh Mr. Porter' involving clapping in the second part, it was really disconcerting when a band used a 16 bar tune. Would have been fine only they changed tune just as I was about to chant "over, under, over, under, front behind & both" Mo Waddington ----- Original Message ----- From: JD Erskine island.dance(a)shaw.ca [trad-dance-callers] To: Trad Dance Callers Sent: Sunday, December 17, 2017 10:46 PM Subject: [trad-dance-callers] AABB, or AB? Hullo All, I'm curious what others do in the case of 16 bar dances. If one has a dance like the Canadian Barn Dance, the similar La Chapelloise/Cdn Gay Gordons, or Nottingham Swing, and so on, that repeat after 16 bars of music do you: Ask the musicians to play a tune AB or Generally allow or expect a two part/32 bar AABB tune and (try to) keep track of when one is in the B zone, ask for once more and expect two more repetitions of the dance? (or plan _further_ ahead, four dance repetitions out, for twice more the music.) Do you feel there a best practise? Does it depend on whether you regularly work with a band/group of musos? How confident they are, if _they_ can track that. Should it all be on the caller? Or do you simply avoid this situation? I have some 3 to 5 dances of this nature I regularly have handy and have been taking it all on myself. I have several bands I regularly work with where I might choose these dances and it was suggested by one group recently they might provide AB/16 bars. This would actually be a tracking relief for me and I think provide a more (logical?) musical framework for the dancing of it. Thanks, John -- J.D. Erskine Victoria, BC Island Dance - Folk & Country dance info - site & mail list Vancouver Island & BC islands http://vecds.ca/island.dance/