From: justin@inmet.camb.inmet.COM (Justin du Coeur MKA Mark Waks)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Catrin's Wedding; Dance in the Society; Authenticity; Period Dance
Date: 5 Nov 92 18:41:02 GMT
Organization: The Internet

Greetings unto the Rialto from Justin du Coeur!


Re: Wedding Event

Quick announcement for my lady, the once-and-always autocrat:

As many of you know, Lady Catrin (our resident theater expert) is
engaged to The Sir Michael of York. Carolingia will be having an event
to celebrate their wedding, tentatively scheduled for February 14th.
For more details, write to Lady Caitlin Davies at "waks@world.std.com".


Re: Dance in the Society

Aoghann expressed some concern that high standards of authenticity in
dance precluded SCA inventions. Several people pointed out that this
isn't so. I'll go a little further: it is my opinion that anyone who
really considers themselves to be a serious dancemaster or dancemistress,
in the period sense, *should* be doing inventions -- it was an important
part of the dancemastering business in period (at least in Italy, where
dance was most important). If you hold to the idea that a Laurel is
someone who could make a living at an art in period (which I hold as
at least an ideal), then a dance Laurel probably ought to be able to
write convincing inventions. (Note that I an *not* up to this point
yet, although I'm getting there...)

However, as Robyyan notes, this isn't easy, and most of the Society's
better-known inventions range from the mediocre (SCA Maltese Bransle,
as I usually see it done) to the pretty bad (Mannschaft Pavan), mostly
because the people writing the dances don't have a really good feel
for the period aesthetics yet. So, while I *do* recommend that people
write new dances in the period style, I recommend that they first make
sure that they understand what that style looks like. I also recommend
against mixing styles too much -- most of the Society's worst inventions
come from a "Chinese-menu" method of writing, where they take a little
of this repertoire, a little of that one, mix them together, and wind
up with something unrecognizeable...


On this subject, William demonstrates rather well that humor is the
best way to defuse an argument, with one of the best rants I've seen
this year. My problem is: how do I preserve this for posterity? It's
too big for a quote, and no part of it is as good as the whole. I may
have to run the thing in the Letter of Dance, I think...


Re: Authenticity in the Society

William also writes:
>I honestly do not believe that the SCA as a whole will ever become
>the least more authentic than it is today. In 27 years, we have had
>plenty of time to achieve authenticity, if that had been what we were
>aiming for. But it was not.

I think you're being far more pessimistic than the facts warrant.
On the contrary, in my ten years in the Society I've seen *considerable*
improvements in authenticity across the board, and without silly
crusades by the mythical Authenticity Police. Some examples:

-- As I said earlier, dance is slowly but quite steadily improving.
   More and more groups do some period dance, and a few now do nothing
   but. As more dancemasters learn about period dance, they teach it
   to their groups, and things get better.

-- When I joined, Carolingia was unusual in that it actually did
   Shakespearean drama in a more-or-less period style. Now, with the
   help of folks like Catrin and Earl Sebastian, we're doing far better
   than that, with drama from a variety of periods and styles. And
   others are starting to do the same...

-- Ten years ago, carpet armor was routine on the list fields. Today,
   I rarely see it -- plate and leather are *far* more common, partly
   because we are developing a collection of reasonably good and affordable
   professional armorers.

-- Cooking is improving, slowly but steadily. More and more cooks are
   learning that period food can be just as good (or better) than
   modern, if you know what you're doing. Yes, we still tend to have
   probably-OOP honey butter on the tables -- but even that is slowly
   getting replaced by just-as-good period alternatives like Rastyns...

In general, I think that this sentence:

>Individuals will improve.

underestimates the amount of communication in the Society considerably.
Most of those individuals who are improving are also teaching, with
more or less success. (Remember, one of the key qualifications for the
Laurel is *teaching* -- mere self-improvement isn't (or, at least,
should be) sufficient.) It's a gradual process -- we don't have many
cases where someone learns something new, and suddenly everyone around
them is doing that. But we *do* have many cases where someone improves
themselves, and through teaching or selling their wares, gradually
improves the folks around them.

In the short term, the Society looks completely stagnant. But when
you take a longer-term view, I think that we're actually doing
fairly well -- we *are* getting more authentic, just not very fast...


Re: Period Dance

Several people have responded to William's assertion that period dances
are all dull. Unfortunately, they all give as a counter-example the
Caroso/Negri repertoire, pointing out (rightly) that it is, well,
challenging. I'm worried that people might get that idea that there
are *two* classes of period dance -- the easy ones that are boring,
and the ones that are too hard for them to do.

The reality is that period dance follows a pretty broad spectrum. Indeed,
it follows two spectra: both sedate to bouncy, and easy to hard. There
are dances from period pretty much anywhere in that range. To illustrate,
here's a quick rundown of the major period dance forms, and where they
lie on these two spectra:

-- Bransles: medium to bouncy, easy to medium. Arbeau describes a *lot*
   of bransles, and few are actually done much in the Society. The liveliest,
   such as Hay Bransle or Official Bransle (aka "Toss the Wench"), I'd
   put up against damned near anything in terms of sheer exhastive power.
   Arbeau is the main source, although not the only one, and there are
   a couple dozen of these.

-- Galliards: *the* dance of the 16th century, the one that *every* person
   of any culture was clearly expected to know. Period aerobics -- fun
   and tiring. Takes a little while to get the hang of it (typically a
   few weeks, practicing once a week), but you never lose it once you've
   got the rhythm -- I'd put it as medium or so on the hardness scale.
   There are literally hundreds of period variations on the galliard;
   books were written on just this dance.

-- Other Arbeau dances: all over the map. Corantos, like the Galliard, take
   a little time to get the step for, but are ultimately not too hard.
   (And unlike the galliard, there aren't an infinite number of variations.)
   The Buffins, a sword dance, is moderately hard, and *very* tiring, but
   looks fantastic if you practice enough. Spanish Pavan is medium-bouncy,
   and moderate on the complexity scale; his basse dance and alman are
   both fairly sedate, the former being moderate and the latter being easy.

-- English Country: absolutely everywhere. From sedate to bouncy, from
   pretty easy to fairly hard. Note that the sedate<->bouncy scale
   depends largely on how you do the dances. We have few details on the
   proper style of this form; the SCA's usual reconstruction is *probably*
   a bit easier and a bit bouncier than the period reality, but it's hard
   to be sure. As I've said before, I tend to rule out the duple minors
   as being the style that was coming in at the very end of period; even
   so, there are several dozen dances left in the first few editions of
   Playford.

-- Early Italian (Domenico/Ebreo): sedate through medium-bouncy, generally
   medium-hard. Not done in the Society much, because no good translations
   of the originals exist yet. (This will hopefully change in the next year
   or so.) Perhaps the most beautiful form of dance ever done, IMO. This
   stuff is actually not too hard, but doing it *well* takes some practice.
   Not many steps to learn, but style is everything here. Several dozen
   dances that I have heard about...

-- French basse dance (Brussels/Moderne/Toulouze): sedate, fairly easy.
   It takes a session or two to get the steps down, but once you have the
   steps, the dances are trivial. The only common SCA exemplar is
   Cassoule La Nouvelle, but there are many, many more (100+). The music
   *should* be improvised; half the fun is listening to the music, if
   your musicians are good enough. The only form that is scientifically
   built -- once you know the rules, you can write new dances to match
   your music pretty much willy-nilly...

-- Late Italian (Caroso/Negri): medium through very bouncy, medium through
   very hard. The dance of choice for most experienced dancers, who are
   looking for something challenging and fun. There are somewhere between
   one and two hundred distinct dances in this repertoire; Ballo del Fiore
   is probably the easiest. The most complex are a real challenge, both
   in step repertoire and pattern. However, many of these dances have
   regular patterns and repeats, and aren't nearly as tricky as they look
   at first glance; these dances are about as hard as English Country.
   Both Robyyan and Sion Andreas taught dances from this repertoire at
   Pennsic this year, which substantial success.

-- Almans/Pavans: very easy through moderate, sedate through moderate. Some
   of these are ridiculously easy, but some are quite nice. The Black Alman
   is arguably the perfect dance to teach at demos: fast enough to be
   fun, but not exhausting, complex enough to be interesting, but easy
   enough to pick up in about five minutes. About a dozen dances, I'd
   guess.

I think that that's all of the major repertoires; I've undoubtedly missed
some minor dance forms, but I think that the above represent the substantial
majority of the dances that are extant. Like I said, there's something there
for everyone; a good dance practice or event should have a nice even
blending of the lot...

				-- Justin du Coeur
				   Philosopher on Feet

Random Quote du Jour:

"If you meet the Buddha in talk.bizarre, flame him."
		-- John Woods