Thanks, Cup of Tea, good explanation.

As far as contradance repertoire is concerned, I had the pleasure in Pittsburgh a couple of years ago to lead a scratch band with a couple of excellent local musicians for their regular contra. We played a repertoire of entirely English dance music (including several tunes of mine), and it worked out just fine. Old English tune books are full of hornpipes, written without dotting, that are really good for dancing when played pretty much as reels as COT suggests.