Hi there

Im a professional big band leader working in England. Ive just been offered my first "strict tempo" dance gig and need some advice.

(Social dancing is fine with me but I'm not yet comfortable with strict tempo - is that just another name for ballroom dancing?)

I'm quite OK with tempos and choices of pieces to go with certain dances, but can you give me some advice as to a running order of dances for a 3 hour gig.

Is it standard to play 1 (let's say) quickstep or 2 together, maybe 3! etc

Any other snippets of advice you can offer me?

Many thanks

Dave

Much depends on the occasion,, is it for a " dance educated " group , or the general public ?
There would be 2 different approaches .

IF a strict B/room type, then there is a certain protocol to be followed .

Something of this order.. Open with 2 waltzes, and follow with 2 Q/ steps, 2 F/trots and 2 tangos .
A selection of latin rhythms would be next, possibly... 2 Chas... 2 Rumbas...2 Jives and 2 Sambas,

As an alternate, you could play the latin selection switching from the smooth dances to the rhythm .

If this is just a social event for the general public, then you need a completly different approach .

Tempi for the W.. 30/31 bars per. min..F/T about the same.. Q/step 50/52 and tango 32/34 .This would be for the strict tempo types, and I doubt tango would be on the agenda for social style .
When i run my public dances( I DJ ) the most popular are the Waltz, Q/steps and a mix of strict tempo and social tempo (38 42 bars )Foxtrots.. R and roll also goes down well .

By the way, you did not say which country you are based .

All the venues I dance in socially, where the music is being rotated in any sort of "order", take Quickstep first, and then Waltz. It is usual to play two of each type (unless the track is very long). Arrangements of 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 minutes are about ideal.

The social scene tends to be a little shy of Tango (but all the other Ballroom styles are popular), and Latin can be very sketchy: Cha Cha Cha, Rumba, Jive and Samba in order of declining popularity. Many social dances will have no Tango, or Samba at all (unless requested), and you may only get one Jive all night.

Interestingly, Jive is the one dance where a wide range of tempi is quite OK. Most social dancers will be most comfortable with 144-160 bpm, but you can go as slow as 120 (but only do it once!), and as quick as 176 - standard speed, but no one wants to kill themselves!

The particualr thing about England is the ubiquity of sequence dancing: find out what mix your customers expect. It is depressing, but true, that many social dances are of AT LEAST 50% modern sequence (and the standard of execution dire), and the format there is 4 bar intro + 16 bar phrasing (always, and no exceptions!). The sequence world is too stupid to have realised that Tango and Samba is danced in 2/4, so you have to give them 8 bars of intro, or give in, and give 'em 4/4. They can't tell the difference. Actually, they struggle to tell the difference between ballroom and Latin, and dance both identically (and ALL the Latin on 1, not 2).

For the social dances I promote, I run in the order Waltz, Quickstep, Cha Cha, Tango, Samba or Jive, Foxtrot, Rumba & repeat. That gives me a basic slow/quick combination, and mostly alternates ballroom & latin, for variety. I usually play three sets (just over an hour), take a short break, and play another three sets, alternating Jive and Samba, so I have played three of each, and make up the balance of the time with a little Argentine Tango, R&R, Paso Doble (just one!) and perhaps a Viennese Waltz. I do play about 10% modern sequence over the evening too, but always with a heavy heart.

Good luck!

daveh43. The music must be played at the correct tempo. It must to be strict tempo and have a four bar intro followed by eight bar phrasing of which there are usually eight, making 64 bars all up. Waltz's and Foxtrots played at 28 bars per minute would be OK. For Quickstep 48 BPM.( thats bars and not beats ). On any disk made for Ballroom Dancing will have this information written on the case.
You may or may not know that at the most major of all dance competitions Blackpool there has never been a vocalist.

-> Terence2:
FWIW - I get the feeling that it will be mainly for folk who attend dance classes, so they will presumably be of some standard - so I suppose I go with the order you suggested. I'm surprised at starting with waltzes - am I to assume we're talking about Vienesse Watzes to begin with?

->Telemark:
..if the dance was for "educated dancers" would you go for the format you suggest under "social dances"? I think you and Terence2 are suggesting similar orders.

-> Polished:
..but are you not talking about sequence dancing? Or am I confusing myself again?

If you're playing in England, for social dancing, I would not expect to be offered a Viennese Waltz more than once (or perhaps twice), and certainly NOT at the beginning of a dance, but well on into the evening.

Terence & I sound broadly in agreement: the mix for social dances to some extent depends upon the region where your playing, for all that England is a (comparatively) small country, there can be material differences, particularly from North to South. Some DJs/Bands will follow competition order, not for aesthetic reasons, but because of background or habit. For social dancing, a mix of slow and fast tempi, and a mix of Ballroom and Latin styles, with a few Modern Sequence dances, seems appropriate, and is generally appreciated by the dancers.

Polished isn't talking Sequence: but referring to the fetish among competitive dancers (fortunately now running out of steam, a little) to choreograph amalgamations in inflexibly arranged 'phrases' that rarely have any real musical imperative or logic, and which leads to a robotic sameness in the resulting dancing. It has no currency at all on the social scene: we have more sense!

The sequence dance format is always for a 4-bar intro, and then 16-bar phrases (which can be 8 + 8 if the music suggests).

daveh43. No I was not refering to Sequence Dances. I am refering to the International Style both Standard and Latin.
A word about Sequence Dances. Because every one on the floor are doing exactly the same steps to the same tempo. Unless the dance has been composed by a skilled composer it does go out of Rhythm. That means in time but out of Rhythm. There are a few which do not go out of rhythm . One that springs to mind is the Feta Foxtrot. This one was obviously composed by a person who knew what he was about. Because there are three beats to a bar in a Waltz Sequence Dance it has no trouble there with that basic timing.. The problem starts with the Foxtrot Quickstep and Tango. Take the UK Foxtrot. It starts on the LF on the count of Slow 12 and continues into the Feather on 34. It is out of Rhythm at the very start. From there it goes in and out of rhythm through the whole of 16 bars of music. In the International style in a competition this would not be in favour with the adjudicators. In the short it means that we cannot throw together groups of variations which will not fit the music or will not fit one group with the other. Good Luck.

Not living in England, I can't comment about the social dances, etc. there.
But in my experience here, and to make this answer very simple, I would agree with Polished in that you simply have to play music at the correct tempo and bars per minute. You learn to strict tempo music in dance studios and you like to be able to hear the same when going to dance in public. However, live music can sometimes be difficult to dance to because there is no regard for strict tempo. In other words, you can't rely on a steady tempo and beat, like you do when listening to recordings in a studio. A lot of the studios that promote social events may try a live band, but usually resort back to the studio's recorded music for such events, then they will promote it as "dancing to strict tempo" in the same fashion you were taught.
Good luck. It sounds like it will be a great experience.

Dheun. I was once told that Victor Silvester a former World Ballroom Champion and teacher who formed his own orchestra and recorded for his own studio because there was very little suitable around for Strict Tempo Dancing. From there he never looked back. That was in the early 20's
To get to the storey. We were told that he used a Megatonne to make sure he was perfectly in time. He sold 75 Million dance records between 1930 to 1980
Victor came to our Town Hall in Wembley once a year. If you didn't buy a ticket months ahead you never got in.
Actually he had quite a history. At the outbreak of World War 1 he put his age up and volunteered for the army. Sadly he was part of a firing squad. For those who dont know. As a dancer he revolutionized the Modern Waltz by introducing the Natural Turn as we know it today in the first World
Championship held in London. That was in December 1922. Before that they did some Rotary type turn where the feet used to pass.
That was the day the Modern Waltz was born. December 1922