John -- Some of these things are not like the others.   The 16 bars of Nottingham Swing make up a standard-length dance, but hornpipes while typically notated in 4/4 are not reels (except for things like Morpeth Rant in New England, where they're played like reels), so the notation is 8-bar A, 8-bar B.  If you did it to a 6/8 jig you'd do AABB - 32 bars.  In any case, once through the dance is once through the tune.  So let's set that one aside. Your other examples are half-length dance sequences. I've never called "Canadian Barn Dance"  but it's kinda bitty, so I'd think landmarks in the tune would be helpful to the dancers. Schottische variation.   (Couples facing around the room. double-step forward (step-step-step-hop), double-step back, slide sideways away from partner, slide back, ballroom position).  Slide sideways along LOD, slide reverse LOD.  Polka around (2 full turns).  16 bars altogether).   I wouldn't call it for non-dancing crowds because it's unrelenting and because you need frame, etc, to get around in the polka bit, but I don't have any regular ceilidh-like dancing crowds and contra dancers mostly don't want to hippety-hop so much. My experience with La Chappelloise / Progressive Gay Gordons / All-American Promenade / Secessionist Reel, which I pretty much call only for non-dancing crowds, is that the non-dancers are barely listening to the music at all.  I have to teach step-step-step-pivot for the As, and then I have to keep prompting that (because I really want them all to be going forward or backward around the ring *at the same time as everybody else is* because of the chance for injury otherwise) and they're responding to prompts. That said: Can you trust the band to play a tune they'd usually play AABB as AB without slipping up? What about letting the band play a 48 bar or 64 bar tune they like and rarely get to play?  You don't have as much control on going out as you might want, but why do you even care with a round the room dance?  (I do have one band I work with where we do grand marches and sometimes play a five part tune and the leader is prepared to go out at the end of any part with about four bars notice, which is ideal for me, but if you don't have rapport and experience working together that's not a good thing to try.) There's less chance of things failing if you're signaling # of times through the tune, and you're not going to end with a couple out at the top if there's no top because it's a round-the-room dance.  It's not the end of the world if a mixer doesn't get you back to your partner, and in a big room it might take too long anyway.  "Scotland the Brave" is fine for Gay Gordons (and I bet Ragtime Annie would be fun). -- Alan

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/