A few pointers I would suggest is that while the caller is teaching the dance the band should remain quiet ie. no noodling of practicing tunes which can distract the dancers. Additionally, peoples attention span is often short (esp beginners) so the band should be ready to play as soon as the caller is finished with instructions.

Whatever you do never stop in the middle of the dance, at least keep the rhythm going. I once joined a fiddle player at a contra dance and when he changed tunes I tried to figure out the melody (it was all over the place). It turns out he forgot the tune and was searching all over for it but kept the dance going until he got it.

Ive played for Scottish Country dances, ceilis and contra (the last two not that much) and Ive found that the most important parts of the music are a clean & strong start and finish. Clean transitions between tunes are important so you should start preparing for them as youre on the last few bars of the ending tune.

Good contra dance bands, will often do things like dropping out for a bar(at a certain part of the melody) and just play rhythm which often gets the dancers going even more as they fill in the music in their heads.

Also its keep it down the 2nd to last time through and really go strong the last time. or throw in a great dance tune just before the break. Its hard to say exactly which tunes are the best for dancing but the dancers can tell you or you can tell by just watching them. Tunes that have a good strong rhythm usually, heavily ornamented tunes often dont work as you cant put in the ornaments anyway. Its good to keep the tempo steady and not speed up or slow down, (usually slowing down is not the problem). Have a couple waltzes for the end. Ive found that a good waltz tempo is hard (so I have to get up and move around on stage) I have been told that beginners find faster waltzes easier to dance to. Anyway keep in mind you have a captive audience, and have lfun. To me most of traditional folk music is really about dance so its good to have that connection. Petr.