The directors of our little club got married last weekend, which meant a lot of drunk dancers in the same place. The discussion turned to counting systems at one point, and that led to a rather spirited discussion about what was 'the best' way, and why.

The contenders were:
Hyperbeat Count - One measure = one count.
Half Count - the 'old school' modern jive count we use in classes, where we count numbers on odd beats in the measure, and '&' on the even beats.
Paired Count - the same as above, except for pedantic and technical quibbling about the difference between counting half the beats vs counting beat-pairs as metric compound units.
Single Count - One count = one beat, covering a minor phrase (i.e. up to 8). Sometimes bafflingly called "choreography count".
Straight Count - Simple duple rhythm count. Evenly subdividing the beats in two (1&2&3&4 etc.)
Rolling Count - Counting in triple rhythms, even if they aren't in the music. (1&a2&a3&a4&a etc.)

Keep in mind that this included both counts for teaching, and for the counts people used in their heads while dancing.

Personally, I think the advantages of the paired/half count outweigh the drawbacks for teaching (and yes, I was the pedantic quibbler!), but I rarely count while actually dancing. As for rolling count, I think its fine for swing and shuffle rhythms, but a bit silly for most of music we dance to. This view did not make me popular with my GSTDA-trained friends.

So, what do you use (if any), and why? Oh, and Merry Christmas.

Cheers,
Dave