Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: dance choreography
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1992 20:43:14

 GB> Greetings, all, and especially Vashti!
 GB>  (nice not to have to call the Steppes to see your name...)

 Thanks -- tho you DID have me confused -- thought you must have been one of our new folks I just hadn't met yet since you were signing onto the local board my husband, Tadgh runs.

 GB> ON the subject of Dance, what I have found to work fairly well 
 GB> at our practices here in Windhaven and at teh Demos and Events 
 GB> I've done dancing at recently, is this: 
 GB>  Having a cadre of experianced dancers, we set up any interested 
 GB> newbie dancers witha partner who knows what they are doing and can
 GB> coach them through  most of the dances.

 I do this too.  It still will take numerous practices before most remember  the dance.  Sometimes having a partner who knows it is a detriment, too --  they get you through the dance, but you didn't have to 'work' to do it, so  you aren't learning the dance, just keying off the experienced dancer.   Unless someone is hopeless or the dance is fast and very complex, I can get  almost anyone through any dance.  That doesn't mean they know it without me,  however.

 GB>  Also, I usually run through the dance once, using the 
 GB> "shorthand"  dance notation from the Rose &  Nefr manual.  This 
 GB> ensure that the cadre is all going to do the same dance, and gives 
 GB> the newbies and intermediate dancers a hint on what they're going 
 GB> to be expected to do.
 
 Yes, we usually at least talk through everything, even when we don't walk  through the dance (on the rare occasions I don't have newcomers in a dance!).
 It's especially a good idea at an event, where regional differences can  result in half the group going in opposite directions otherwise....
 
 GB>  Of course, this solution requires a cadre of semi-experianced 
 GB> dancers to start with...  But that's why I hold a dance practice 
 GB> every week.  Now if I could just find someone to teach me a couple 
 GB> of those bloody Galliards, and maybe Female Sailer...

 I have for the last three years held weekly practices.  They've averaged at  about 15-20 dancers until this summer, when we gained an large influx after  an SF con.  Now I routinely have 30+ dancers, split about evenly into men and  women.  It's great -- but we've had to reteach everything.  And I still don't  know all of the names of the new ones, but I'm working on it-- 4 of the new  young men attended their first event last weekend and loved it.

 Galliards are pretty easy -- 6 beats -- you kick left right left right, jump  into the air on 5, land on both feet, with left lightly behind on six.  Get  someone to show you at an event.  Once you have the timing down you can go  for the variant steps, like kicking out to the side or kicking like a bell  swings. Arbeau mentions some of the variants in Orcheosography.  For more of  them, get Julia Sutton's translation of Fabrito Caroso's Nobilita di Dame  (originally published in Italy in 1600) it's much 







pricier -- between $75-- $100 but is invaluable for the teacher who wants to get SERIOUS about  Elizabethan dance and can't translate the original documents yet.

 As far as Female Sailor, you'd do best to ask some of the Midrealm  dancemasters -- Master Sion Andreas or Mistress Urraca Yriarte, both from  Mynyd Seren, know the dance well.  .. You could invite them up to teach at an  event.  Sion is out of work right now, so if you ask him, paying his gas  and feast costs would be a good thing..... It's a fun dance, but can't really  easily be taught on paper.  My dancers are just becoming competant enough  that I don't have to do more than walk through it once each 







time we do it. 

 May you be well!

 -- Vashti, who teaches dances because that way she gets to dance more  often....  


 

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