Try and get to know your target audience either before the event or early during it.

When we're booked for a wedding, for example, we try and ascertain from the bookers whether there's any dance requirements ("we like Scottish"), whether it's going to be a session for beginners, or whatever. Quite often the first two dances will identify complete beginners and experienced dancers. The point about weddings and similar functions is that they are usually, first and foremost, the choice of the person(s) in the public eye - the bride and groom, the birthday boy/girl, etc - and they may or may not have guests of a like mind.

Our public ceilidhs (and we had one last night) can be very different. We know we're going to get some hardened and experienced dancers so, like last night, when we got a battery of calls from the audience at the end of the evening for the Cornish Six Hand Reel, we took them through it at a cracking pace!