[Anst-dancers] Dance Manual Question and 25 Year

[Miriam Robinson Gould]

>There's not going to be a substitute for manually reformatting the
>dances that people submit. It requires a good deal of intelligence to
>take a dance submission, fix its problems, and format it for the
>manual. Also, not all reconstructions are good and worthy of including
>in the manual. I'm not saying that Isabeau & I should be the only ones
>who decide what reconstructions are good and bad, but someone should.
>I would be against any system that automatically takes reconstructions
>and uploads them to the web page, and includes them in the manual.
>
I know that I am coming into this discussion later than most and so am not 
aware of all of the discussions that have happened about the manual.  Has 
there been a discussion about what the criteria are for the standards that a 
reconstruction should meet to be included in the manual?  If not, then it 
seems like that's something that should happen so that inclusion is not just 
based on one or two editor-in-chiefs' opinions.  If so, are those criteria 
posted anywhere?  I have some thoughts, but I don't want to suggest anything 
that's already been discussed.

Also, it sounds like there is a bunch of stuff up already on a website.  
Would someone be able to give me the URL to that?  I'd like to catch-up.  :)

>OK, this is not a guild issue. This is not a guild project. Whose
>reconstruction of La Caccia we'll be doing at 25th year is not up for
>debate. Isabeau has been asked to coordinate dance by the people
>running the event. We told people several months ago our intention to
>perform La Caccia at 25th year.

I don't save e-mails so I can't check this, but my impression from Isabeau's 
post a few days ago was that she was looking to see if the guild was 
interested in doing guild-labeled performances, including La Caccia D'Amore. 
  It sounds now that this was a misread on my part, and that the two of you 
are planning on doing this dance as a non-guild performance and she was 
checking for interest in doing other performances?  Is this correct, 
Isabeau?  I don't think anyone is being spiteful or trying to steal your 
dance in suggesting using the Sutton version, merely thinking of ways to 
standardize practice of a performance in a group that's too geographically 
separated for rehearsals.  However, if it's just you and Isabeau and your 
students doing La Caccia, then it's not an issue.

>A nice performance idea for the guild would be to showcase each local
>group's research and efforts. Each would present a performance of a new
>reconstruction or choreography that they have researched and practiced.

This is the type of thing I was suggesting would be feasible in the type of 
format that we did in Carolingia.  Philip's (I think it was Philip) 
suggestion of a ball with a historical dance theme would work nicely.  For 
ours, the theatrical element was very very simple--not scripted, and not 
really rehearsed.  But having the individual dances tied together by a bit 
of simple theatre gave a unifying frame, which would be particularly good if 
we were looking to advance awareness of the guild through the program 
because then it can be an Ansteorra Dance Guild Performance (or showcase).

In service,

Sayidda Tahira bint Ibrahim al-Ishbiliyya

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