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@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

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