From: jonb@Ingres.COM (Jon Berger)
Subject: Re: waltz:  how fast is danceable?
Reply-To: jonb@ingres.com
Organization: Ingres, an ASK Company
Date: 18 Aug 92 18:32:35 GMT

In article <16092@pitt.UUCP>, T027420%UHCCMVS.BITNET@cunyvm.cuny.edu writes...
>From time to time, one hears grumbles that waltzes at
>contra dance evenings are too slow.  Im
>sure this topic has aired before, but just how fast
>is "danceable"?  I think the range probably runs from
>(quarter note=100) to (quarter note = 180), that is,
>real slow to Viennese brilliance.  Whaddaya say?

I'd be interested in hearing from other dance musicians about this, but
my possibly over-cynical impression is that if there are ten waltzers
on the floor there will be at least eleven opinions about how fast the
tune should be played, and none of them will coincide with the speed
it's actually being played at.  Well, ok, perhaps that's overstated, but
I really have observed that dancers can be finicky about waltz tempos
as they can about few other things, and that the range of opinions is
incredibly large.

Some of the factors that have to be taken into account when choosing
waltz tempos are:

  -- The exhaustion level of the dancers.  You'll want to play slower at
     the end of a killer contra set than at the end of a refined English
     set.

  -- What the dancers are wearing.  This may be a sort of special-purpose
     consideration, but I've played at a number of period-costume events,
     and people just can't move around as fast in whalebone corsets and
     Hussar dress uniforms as they can in, you know, clothes.

  -- The, how shall I put this, affection factor.  Achingly slow waltzes
     may be appropriate at a party where there are lots of couples,
     and they might not be at, say, a Morris ale.  (I found that out
     the hard way once; almost got a stick thrown at me.)  If it's the
     kind of waltz that involves turning the lights down, subtract ten
     metronome points.

  -- The musical requirements.  I don't disagree with Toby's point about
     the appropriate tempo for the music being generally slower than the
     appropriate tempo for dancing, but some tunes just have a slower
     feel to them than others, and I really think it affects the speed
     that dancers want to dance at.  A Cajun waltz just makes you want
     to dance faster than a schmaltzy Irish waltz.  Uhh, doesn't it?  

Bottom line, I think it's possible to get a feel for the appropriate tempo
by watching the dancers and constantly assessing whether they're happy
with how fast or slow they're dancing.  It doesn't always work, of course,
and it's nice to start out somewhere in the ballpark, but it's good to
be flexible.  And always keep in mind that you won't please everybody.
I've learned, over the years, that although dancers may say "That was
_way_ too slow" in the same tone of voice that might accompany something
like "You're a scrofulous gleet-sucking piece of pond slime," it doesn't
mean they don't like you or anything like that; it's just that dancing
shifts people's emotions into high gear.  Wouldn't be any fun otherwise.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
   -__ __ /_   Jon Berger              "If you push something hard enough,
  //_// //_/   jonb@ingres.com          it will fall over."
_/ ---------                              - Fudd's First Law of Opposition