[Ansteorra] iso Eropean dancers

[Epperson, Sheryl]

When I started about 30 years ago, we regularly did European dance after court or feast at most events, including camping, at least in the northern regions.  Doing it at camping events would pretty much eliminate the problems of people scrambling to leave before site closes, and there is generally plenty of space.  Unfortunately, the lady who generally led the dancing stopped playing, and we lacked for music and someone with the organizational skills to get people motivated for a few years.  There are several people who have tried to get it going again periodically, and Mooneschadowe has a very skilled group of musicians who know many of the dance tunes, as well as a very good dance mistress.  Baroness Adena from Namron is more than willing to teach when requested, also.

One of the problems I perceive is that once the drums get started, it can be difficult to get anything else going.  I do enjoy Middle Eastern dancing, and the drums can get hypnotic at times, when there are several of our very good drummers going full blast.  

I don't think we need a championship of any type, however it is good for any activity when there is "official" notice of it and time placed on a schedule for it.  We just need to manage to get enough people interested to make a push for it to be scheduled more often.  

Annabelle
Barony of Namron



Date: Tue, 14 Feb 2012 13:43:26 -0600
From: Laura Young <laura.young.9191 at gmail.com>
To: "Kingdom of Ansteorra - SCA, Inc." <ansteorra at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Ansteorra] iso european dancers ??
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	<CALDGe3xGT5XBC5mM-wgmWuANNCi6k_123OM0CWqx9ZJ60UMckw at mail.gmail.com>
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"But two people have so far chimed in
with concerns about how to name a champion for an activity that,
except for a few isolated enclaves, seems to be dormant at best."

I only brought up competition because I was going down Lord Blackmoon's
list of concerns.

"That's when the critical mass gets formed, I'd think: when enough
people want to do it after court at an average event, "

One problem with this scenario is that court is often the last item on the
docket and everyone is scrambling to get out before site closes.  The
dancing this weekend was something to do to entertain the people waiting
for the Laurels (who were being as slow as possible on purpose, I know
:P).   I would have loved to see some dancing during the day at 12th Night,
although adding space for dancing would add another requirement to an
almost imposible set of site requirements, (location, price, kitchen,
seating, etc).  Sigh, never an easy answer.

Beonne

On Tue, Feb 14, 2012 at 1:33 PM, Randy Shipp <randyshipp at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Tue, Feb 14, 2012 at 1:23 PM,  <myfanwy at pug.net> wrote:
> > I don't think that the lack of competition is holding back the activity.
>  I'm sorry if I gave that impression.
> >
> > Myfanwy
>
> ----------
> No apology necessary, of course!  But two people have so far chimed in
> with concerns about how to name a champion for an activity that,
> except for a few isolated enclaves, seems to be dormant at best.
> Besides my original comment about not allowing competitiveness to be
> the prime motivation for any SCA activity (as opposed to fun,
> scholarship, fellowship, pageantry, etc.), it also seems premature to
> concern ourselves overmuch with how to identify and reward the best
> among a currently non-existent group of dancers.  The real question
> is, how do we interest more people in doing it, just for the fun of
> it?  That's when the critical mass gets formed, I'd think: when enough
> people want to do it after court at an average event, when the very
> absence of a competitive aspect makes even those with two left feet
> feel comfortable jumping up and joining in for a few laughs and a few
> minutes of enjoying period music.  I'm just afraid that a lot of
> people will be put off if they think they have to be "good enough" to
> get up and dance.
>
> I'm only going on snatches of rumors I've heard, but I'm under the
> impression that one of the problems that was faced by period dancers
> in the past was that the "good" or "dedicated" dancers lost interest
> in doing the simpler dances that could be more easily learned and
> enjoyed by the novice, casual dancers.  Surely, picking some easy, fun
> dances, even if they're a little anachronistic, would be a good start?
>
> In Service,
>
> --Antoine
> Barony of the Steppes
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