[Callers] Dance length/dances per evening

[Kalia Kliban via Callers]

I usually warn bands that I tend to run dances just a little shorter 
than other callers.  My habit is about 5-and-a-bit dances an hour, 12 
minutes (give or take) from the start of teaching one to the start of 
teaching the next, but that definitely varies.  Size, energy, chattiness 
and skill level of the crowd make a huge difference, symmetry (or not) 
of the dance, the music (does it fit the dance really well?  Is it just 
a smokin' tune that should run a little longer?  Is it really fast, so 
the dancers will poop out earlier?), even the floor condition can affect 
how long I'll run.  I have a really hard time estimating when I'm 
halfway through a dance, and much prefer to give bands 3-and-out, though 
I frequently flex on that if they've got another tune in the wings, as 
Ryan mentions below.

Reading the responses from other callers tells me that my 12-minute 
timing sense isn't far off from other folks, but it may be that here in 
the Bay Area I run a little shorter than average.  Seems like the bands 
are always changing tunes right when my spidey-sense tells me it's time 
for "last 3".

Kalia Kliban
Sebastopol, CA

On 4/27/2015 2:20 PM, Ryan Smith via Callers wrote:
> There's a band I work with on a pretty regular basis that usually
> follows my lead, but will occasionally ask "For this set, can we choose
> when to go out?"  I trust them not to run it too long, and letting them
> choose when they go out gives them a lot of control over the musical
> experience, which ultimately seems to work well for the dancing
> experience.  I'll sometimes signal a band when they're not ready to go
> out yet, and I'm usually willing to be negotiated up from 3 more times
> to 5.  More than that, and we're starting to wear out the dancers.
>
> I think it's worth mentioning that if you know from the outset that you
> are going to want to run a dance longer or shorter than your average,
> for whatever reason, that if you communicate that to the band in advance
> it will help make sure that you're not cutting them off just as they
> wind up or leaving them sitting on a tune that they really didn't mean
> to play that long.  I know some bands that like to be signaled when you
> get to the middle of the dance, and will even ask to be signaled a
> little early for certain sets of tunes.