[Anst-dancers] Dance at Pennsic

[Craig Shupee']

Greetings Dancers:

I had a great time at Pennsic and am really happy to have see everyone.  
There was lots of fun and lots of energy.  There were also allot of people 
missing – who I hope to see again soon enough.

Here are some comments on what went on:

•	Extended dance tent was cool.  I really liked that we had more room for 
the floor.  But, the sloop on the east side is hard to dance on.  I almost 
prefer the barn floor to the dance tent floor for this reason.  Also, the 
tent still gets crowded.  It’s nice during first week, because it makes it 
seem like more people are there for dancing.  Also, it was a good place to 
stay out of the continued rain.  But before I left, it felt like it was 
getting a little too busy in there.  I was glad we moved stuff to the barn.

•	I missed allot of the dance parties, but what I made it too was fun.  
Mistress Katriana’s party was cool, and had really good food.  The First 
Coroso ball was fun because everyone got to dance as much as they wanted – 
though it did seem like there were not that many people there.

•	Wolgemut played Sunday night.  Partially in support of their new cd 
comprised of bransles… Who’d have thought that doing bransles for 2 hours 
straight could be fun, but I’m defiantly a convert.  They did also play 
Goddesses (unfortunately twice through…) but not much else.  It was tiring 
strenuous dance.  But completely exhilarating.  The dancers were at a 
fevered pitch and the barn was packed with tons of people just watching.  It 
felt like a rock concert with the mosh pit people dancing bransles.  I 
wanted to pull out a lighter and sway back and forth.  It was fun! ;-)

•	I got asked to lead dance allot – that was fun.  Mainly, people wanted to 
start doing new Balli other than just the basic five: Rostiboli, Amaroso, 
Anello, Gelosia, and Petit Riens.  People kept wanting to do Belfiore during 
the first week of dance (I wasn’t there second week).  I was pleasantly 
surprised at its growing popularity and its potential to enter the regular 
dance repertoire.  Though it’s an easy and fun dance with recordings 
available, it is still something challenging for musicians to play.  So if 
you ask for it, make sure your musicians review it with you first. We did 
well, but still had a couple false starts, especially with larger groups.  
(Its got allot of time signature changes and an irregular repeat structure 
which can be confusing to musicians not familiar with the tune). We also did 
Vita di Cholino and Voltate in ca Rosina a couple times.  There was enough 
interest that I did an impromptu class in my camp the first Friday 
afternoon, and people even stopped to join including the Queen of Trimaris.  
It wasn’t planned, but fun.

That’s all for now, and looking forward to next time!
~Philip White

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