I usually do things basically by feel, and I also pay particular attention to
tune changes and give the band enough time to play the 3rd tune enough times.
I don't have any "rules of thumb", like watching a particular couple go up the
line and back, or any specific time length or number of times through, because
that gives me too much to keep track of.
Weather is also an important factor, especially in halls with no temperature
controls (like Glen Echo or Baltimore's Lovely Lane). In wintertime I might
run the dances a bit longer to minimize time not dancing so people don't start
to get cold. In the summer, I might run them shorter because with all the
sweating and water loss I don't want people to get exhausted.
The number of dances in a particular evening also is determined by a number of
factors. For evenings where there are a lot of beginners and I have to take
some time for walk throughs, I generally can fit in 10 to 11 dances in an
evening. For those where there are more experienced dancers, walk throughs are
shorter, or I can do more no walkthrough dances, and I can get up to 12 dances
or even more in an evening. One evening I was in a particularly nice groove
with a hall full of good experienced dancers, and I got in 14 dances that
evening. I think the average is about 4 dances per hour (15 minutes per dance,
including walk through time and between-dance time all combined with dancing
time).
Perry
From: Maia McCormick via Callers <callers@lists.sharedweight.net>
To: "callers@lists.sharedweight.net" <callers@lists.sharedweight.net>
Sent: Sunday, April 26, 2015 8:54 PM
Subject: [Callers] Dance length/dances per evening
Just polling the masses here--how long do you generally run your dances (in
times through the dance, time take, couples going up and back, etc.)? How many
dances do you generally manage to fit into a 3-hour contra evening? I've heard
different wisdom from different folks and am curious to add some more data
points!
Cheers,Maia
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