If you're late, you have to rush through the next figures. And being rushed doesn't permit contact. If you're early, that's a problem too, you have to stand around waiting for the next figure, or worse yet, you start others doing something early, and thus get more people off from the music. The Phrase of the Music . So much has been said about music but here it is again.
Music is a powerful force, and it's the backbone of the dance.
With contra and some square dancing, the dance and music are inseparably intertwined. Music is divided into sixteen beat major parts, and further subdivided into eight and four beat sub-phrases. The figures are choreographed to time out exactly with these phrases. Listen to music, count the eights and sixteens, see how the parts repeat, learn to sing a few tunes, learn to play it on that piano or guitar or jug at home. Get it so that when the dance is going on the parts and phrases jump out at you.