Yet the sense of being together and having fun, a sense of real community, in some ways seems to be higher than the more urban places. I find that at urban dances, some people seem to dance where the dance is the end product, and they care more about which set they get into, and wouldn't want to be in a set with beginners, and want to make sure that everyone can twirl 250,000 ties in every courtesy turn, and so on. For them the dance is the end, and they want to be personally challenged by new dances. For them, the dance is the means to having a good time with their friends. That's one thing which that organizer expects.
Most modern dances have equally active roles for both the first and second couple.
The Santa Barbara dances used to be very traditional, in that we had maybe fifty dances, and we would get to maybe fourteen dances in a night. If you came for five evenings of dance, then you got through the whole repertoire, and by the end of the year, you'd know the dances. If you came often enough, of course, you and everyone else already knew it. It was very rare that there was a new dance introduced. It's changed quite a bit from the traditional dance.