peteyfrogboy

South Downs 12th Night was fun last night. It was a bit chilly in the hall, but it was a nice space with enough room for the (many!) children to run around without getting too much underfoot. The food was excellent, though by the time I had wrangled the children and got through the line some things were gone.

I didn't have a planned ball list, but it was a good crowd all the same. We had large and/or multiple sets until the very end of the night. Here's what I can remember doing, in rough order of appearance:

( Dance List )

I spent a large chunk of today fiddling around in Flash to make a little movie to illustrate the timing I use for 15th century Italian doubles in bassadanza (6/4) and quadernaria (4/4). Before I go to bed, I present it for you here.

Edited to add: It now includes sempii and doppii in bassadanza, doppii and saltarelli in quadernaria, and saltarelli and pive in their own misure. Unless I go back and add some descriptive text to the start of each movie, I think I'll leave it be for now.

This weekend we went to Red Tower, and it was wet. It didn't rain actively during the day on Saturday, but in the afternoon and evening it started up again. The event had a Roman theme this year, for which I was grateful, as it meant I got to wear a nice linen tunica instead of my usual sofa.

I spent the day wrangling the kids, with varying levels of success. adelavanbrugge got to do a good bit of socializing during the day, so hopefully I performed my duties in an acceptable fashion. They seemed to have plenty of fun playing with the other kids and wreaking havoc, and didn't get exceptionally muddy. I also kept them during court, which meant I missed Adela being inducted into the Order of the Red Raven, the baronial service order.

After court she and the kids went home, and I started in on my half of the event. Feast was tasty, if not exceptional, and the company was lovely. After feast, I set up the pavilion for the revel, which was my primary focus for the event (surprise surprise).

( The Masque )

Sometime last year, THL Miramah asked me to help her with a secret project. She's lost a lot of weight recently, and wanted to play a little trick on her husband Guillaume. Her plan was to show up at the masked ball at Lusty Month of May this year, wearing a late period Italian gown (as opposed to her usual T-tunics) and dance with him (she had never done any dancing), to see how long it took him to figure out it was her.

( The Dance )

( The Dress )

( The Result )

Last night at dance practice I remembered the difference between "practice" and "class". A "class" is when you know what you're doing and impart that knowledge to others in an intelligible fashion. "Practice" is when you bungle your way through a simple dance for an hour until you get it beaten into your brain. Villanella, you will not defeat me!

I'd like to learn to play the tune on the recorder, to further drill it into my head, but the arrangements I've found so far don't really sound quite like the recordings I've got. Not sure what to do there.

In other news, I got around to putting together an SCA resume for myself. Yes, it looks all pompous, but if you can't blow your own horn on your resume, where can you?

Lusty Month of May was a lot of fun this year. I conned greetpg into coming up from Florida for it, and she brought indywind and tlh_in_tlh with her to make a road trip of it. They all crashed at the house Friday night and we caravanned down in the morning with the kids.

( The Morning )

( The Afternoon )

( Feast )

( Dancing )

When I learned Chirintana from Mistress Judith some years ago, she made a point of saying that the last figure (a long line of people, being led by the person on the end) should not be done in the style of "tangle bransle". I must admit that I am weak, and every time I lead the dance it devolves into such silliness. In my defense, I present this image, from a 14th century fresco in Siena (coincidentally the same place that the source material of the dance is from). In the lower right hand corner is a group of ladies dancing, and one end of the line appears to be looping through itself. It may just be the line going under an arch made by two other people, but the position of the people on that end of the line makes the former case seem more likely.

The best comment I got after my dance class on Saturday: "I used to hate dancing, but now I don't." Yay!

Just got back from doing the dance practice in Tuscaloosa with andrevarigaldi. It went very well, though attendance was less than I'd hoped for. We had about 10-12 people from Tuscaloosa and Huntsville, which was still enough to do pretty much any dance we could think of. We covered a whole lot of dances over 6 hours or so of teaching, and everyone seemed to have a good time.

We'd like to try doing this again next summer, and hopefully hit two different places. We'll need to do better at getting the word out, but I think the concept is sound. I took a few pictures, which can be seen here.

I've finally gotten a time and place set up to hold a regional dance practice. If any of you are within day trip distance of Tuscaloosa, come on down! Here's the email I sent out to the lists and A&S officers:

Western Regional Dance Practice
Hosted by The Incipient Shire of Okeborne Keep
July 26, 2008
Tuscaloosa, AL

The Incipient Shire of Okeborne Keep will be hosting a regional dance practice on July 26, at the (air conditioned!) campus of the University of Alabama. The goal of this is to give the members of all nearby groups a chance to get together and learn some easy dances without the distractions of a full blown event. Garb is optional.

Classes will cover basic steps, simple dances from all the major styles of SCA dance, and the history and context of dancing in the Renaissance. There are no music activities planned, but musicians are welcome to attend.

Details and directions can be found here:

http://www.houseofpung.net/dance/rdp/main.html

--Lorenzo Petrucci

I just got back from running the European dancing at Lusty Month Of May. It went very well.

( Details )

So I started a little project over the last couple of weeks, trying to pull together all the various bits and pieces of dance info floating around on the web and make it more easily accessible. I've got most of the biggest chunks of data linked in, but I'm sure there are still lots of things I need to add. To see where things are at now, you can go here. Comments and suggestions welcome.

Saltare was a lot of fun this year.

( You can dance if you want to... )

For those of you who may be planning to make chopines, here is what Caroso has to say about them in Nobilta di Dame (1600) (translation by Julia Sutton):

( Snip Snip )

I've been doing (and teaching) Gracca Amorosa as it was taught to me, but there have always been things that bothered me about it, particularly how far the two dancers end up from each other by the end of each verse. Talking to grinnellian2001 about it recently, I began to take another look at the dance.

( Long Winded Navel Gazing )

This past weekend we went to our first event with the new, improved family unit. All things considered, it went pretty well.

( Red Tower )

( Next Project )

Yesterday I did a long daytrip for Legends. I taught my 15c Italian men's clothing class, which was well attended and sparked some good discussions. I also taught a dance class, featuring the dances for the evening revel (which I was allowed to hijack for my own nefarious purposes). andrevarigaldi Helped me put together an all-Italian ball list:

( Ball List )

The dance class was the last class of the day and I had a good turnout, so we were able to get through every dance on the list. The actual revel was more sparse, as it started fairly late, but we still were able to do most of the list before I hit the road to come home.

This weekend was Lusty Month of May. It was up against War Muster in Chattanooga, so I wasn't sure how many people were going to show up. I was pleasantly surprised in many ways.
( Details )

From Castiglione's Book of the Courtier, written between 1508 and 1528, in Hoby's 1561 English translation:

For unto suche maie well be saide that a worthie Gentlewoman in a noble assembly spake pleasauntly unto one, that shall be namelesse for this tyme, whome she to shewe hym a good countenance, desired to daunce with her, and he refusing both that, and to heare musick and many other entertainmentes offred him, alwaies affirming suche trifles not to be his profession, at last the Gentlewoman demaunding him, What is then your profession? He aunswered with a frowning looke: To fight.

Then saide the Gentlewoman: Seing you are not nowe at the warre nor in place to fight, I woulde thinke it best for you to bee well besmered and set up in an armorie with other implementes of warre till time wer that you should be occupied, least you waxe more rustier then you are.

Thus with much laughinge of the standers by she left him with a mocke in his foolish presumpcion.

I don't know why I bother adding the "sca" tag to these. I don't really post about anything else. :)

( Recent Events )