[Anst-dancers] Coronation and Suggestion

[Nadine Latief]

Since me and Signy were the only 2 guild leaders other then Guillaume and
Isabeau, that were actually dancing at Coronation, I'll throw in more of my
opinions:

I agree with Philip on the following points:
- The hall was dark, and not the ideal place to teach dance. Better for a
ball, then teaching. Also the darkness made dancing less noticable.
- The heralding was weak. Don Edward asked me about dancing, and I told him
it was supposed to be starting, and I realized afterwards that it already
had started, and so I went back to point him to the direction of dance. (He
wanted to videotape dancing because of interest in dancing at Waco, but he
had to leave and I guess he didn't have enough time to tape.)

However, here's the good stuff:
- I had a fun time dancing! And I'm glad I went :)
- Cross pollination happened: I got to show off one of my fav dances:
Gracca Amoroso. And I learnt 2 ECD dances that I've never done at my guild
(or at Pennsic for that matter).
- At feast, Signy, Guillaume, Isabeau (and even Ihon for a little bit) got
to exchange ideas and thoughts about dance.
- If Isabeau and Guillaume had not volunteered to run dance at Coronation,
it would not have happened. So thank you both. :)

my 2 saffices,
  Lowrie


At 05:44 PM 7/14/2003 +0000, you wrote:
>>So how did dance at Coronation go? I imagine it went well, seeing who was
>>running dance, but I would still like to know the details.
>
>Here are my observations... but realize that I didn't get to do any dancing.
>
>The hall was really not good for dancing.  It was dark and hot.  The 
>darkness made it difficult to see the teachers feet and movements, 
>especially in the cramped space.  It was also hard to hear with the amount 
>of ambient noise - so calling was difficult and a voice out of practice or 
>not projected correctly would loose strength and become horse.  This has 
>happened enough to me in this atmosphere, so I know it can happen.
>
>The dancing was also close to one of the doors, so there was allot of 
>non-dance traffic.  The dance banners were up on stands, so this helped stop 
>some of the pedestrian traffic, and helped delineate the dance floor.  Still 
>the physical atmosphere wasn't good.
>
>I don't know how successful Guillaume and Isabeau were getting dancers by 
>the end of the activity.  But it wasn't heralded well - mostly because the 
>hall was so difficult to get information out.  Also, because they were not 
>part of the local group, I think they missed some people who would have 
>danced.  On my way out I saw a goodly number of people who like to dance in 
>South Texas there, but not aware dance was going on on the other side of the 
>hall.  (See my comments about bad hall - dance was 20 yards away and you 
>couldn't tell).  There were also local to stargate dancers who were not 
>dancing - but when I let them know it was going on, and that Guillaume and 
>Isabeau were teaching they headed over and joined which was good.  Some of 
>this would have been combated better from local dance leaders to help them 
>get more people, but most of them were heavily involved with running the 
>event, and basically could not campaign among the people.  It helps that 
>Guillaume and Isabeau could teach at Stargate Sunday practice because they 
>will now know more of the people on a more personal level.  I think it shows 
>that the teacher program will be a big success.
>
>The only real disappointment was that dance happened so late in the day - 
>which his something we are trying to compete against.  It might have been 
>better to plan dance before the first court.  Having been to many 
>Coronations, I thought it was just extremely unlikely that dance could be 
>formally organized between courts.  And that's what happened - dance was 
>bumped back after the second court when people were leaving or getting ready 
>for feast.  I would have like it better if dance had been before court, 
>because then I could have danced. Unfortunatly - my ride had to leave after 
>second court so I was off.
>
>Had dancing been in the morning, then we would have had live musicians, 
>which would have pulled even more people over.  Unfortunalty, all the 
>musicians left before court, and a cd player had to be used.  We just did 
>this at Midsummers, but it was successful because the hall was set up for it 
>and small enough to here the music.  But at a Coronation, you can drag even 
>more people over by having them here the music.  But in this hall - the 
>sound just disappeared.
>
>As to how well Guillaume and Isabeau did competing against these factors I 
>cant say for personal experience.  I do know that there are people who could 
>give them general advice on how to improve the ball that danced.  Their 
>enthusiasm was deffinatly a good thing, and without it dance may not have 
>even happened at the event.
>
>It was good to see them leading dance again and their continued re-interest 
>in the dance community.  They certainly have a strong drive to help out.  
>And I know allot of people in dance and outside of dance appreciate it.
>
>Here's a suggestion...
>
>It was good to see Guillaume and Isabeau leading dance at Coronation.  But 
>this would have been a perfect opportunity for someone from Stargate to lead 
>dance who would not usually have opportunity.  Especially since it was a 
>small number of dancers and not a main focus of the event.   One of the 
>ideas of our charter os to get more people leading dance and running balls.  
>We need to support these people rather than taking their opportunities.
>
>This Pennsic I volunteered to help mentor people in running dance in the 
>barn.  Having run dance locally and having led dance in the barn gives me 
>the experience to mentor others and have them gain more experience and 
>confidence.  I think we should see more of that here in Ansteorra.  There 
>are certainly other people who can mentor and have the experience.  Lets see 
>more people helping others to teach. :-)
>
>~Philip
>
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