[Ansteorra] iso european dancers ??

[Sweet, Debby]

I'm lumping my answers in one bigger post, with lots of snips.

Susan the Curious said:
>I thought there was dancing periodically in Mooneschaddowe and it is close.

Currently there is no regularly scheduled  dance in Mooneschadowe. 


--Antoine said
> (This leads to a whole discussion of where [other than Bryn Gwlad]
>there are people practicing period music performance!)

The Merry Musicians of Mooneschadowe.


Myfanwy said:
>Dancing had been on a downhill slide for the last several years.  
>There was more dancing regularly at events.  People are 
>starting to be excited with European dancing and more dancing
>is beginning to occur.

Too true. In the past we had the Kingdom Dance event. If more people are interested in dancing, maybe it's time to think about rejuvenating that (or a similar) event.


Myfanwy said 
>Middle Eastern dance only requires one person to perform.  European dance has a
>minimum of two and sometimes more.  That right there leads to the difficulty of

DOING the dances. It's easy for any one person to find their own time to practice whatever they do. However, just like with fighters, the more dancers that can make the practice/ball, the more fun (& the more different dances) it's possible to do.


--Antoine said:
>The real question is, how do we interest more people in doing it,
>just for the fun of it?

That's the million dollar question, isn't it?

And then he (Antoine) said:
>Surely, picking some easy, fun dances, even if they're a little
>anachronistic, would be a good start?

Don't go there, man, just don't go there. The problem becomes when that is ALL that the dancers are willing to dance -- there are fun, easy, period, dances. And I'll stop there.


Beonne seo brune said:
>The only other European dancing I have seen was a small
>amount at the coronation held in the Shadowlands about 1.5 years ago,

And Myfanwy said 
>As somebody stated, Bryn Gwlad's Candlemas has started a tradition of having
>dances between the removes of feast.

Coronations and events like Candlemas/Yule Revel/12th Night are positively *made* for dancing. There is no (long) tournament to wear out the fighters. But the dancing needs to happen during the day, which is different, and unexpected. Or else like Candlemas, between the courses of a feast.  Not as the very last item in a long day that gets bumped because everything ran long and now we need to clean and get off site.   The standard cookie-cutter event with tournament(s) (maybe both chivalric and rapier), a&s, bardic, archery, etc., a feast and court simply wear people out. By the time court is over, say 9 or 10 pm, people are either ready to go home or ready to relax and party (which *sounds* good, but *isn't*, for dancing).

So there's a coronation that is coming up soon. Maybe the dancers/dance instructors can arrange some quality time at said event. And coronations would provide the dance community 2 events a year with dancing (possibly with live musicians as well instead of the bard in a box). Anyway, some wishful thinking here.

Estrill Swet - one time dance instructor of
Mooneschadowe