When doing the RSCDS Unit 2 and 3 course, candidate teachers are firmly instructed never to ask their class musicians for other than multiples of 8 bar phrases of quicktime music. So I was amused when David Queen, in a brilliant lesson at the 2021 London Branch day school, regularly asked for various different length phrases, such as 9 or 10 bars, and also “umpteen bars of reel time”.
The essential progression in this dance is in bars 9-32. The other phrases provide some relief and variation but leave the dancing couples in the same places. So although I advise sticking to multiples of 8 bars the dance can be done as 4x24, 4x32, 4x40 or 4x48 as desired.