[Bg-dance] King's College

[Zach Most]

Like Star said, I think this will push us unto having an additional track for 
performance, and that's not a bad thing.  You know the material better than I 
do- teach on!
  Gaston




________________________________
From: Charlene Charette <charlene281 at gmail.com>
To: Barony of Bryn Gwlad European Dance list <bg-dance at lists.ansteorra.org>
Sent: Thu, March 31, 2011 10:17:58 PM
Subject: Re: [Bg-dance] King's College

On Thu, Mar 31, 2011 at 1:33 PM, Zach Most <clermont1348 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Perronnelle,
>   It's a lot to teach and to absorb in one event, and it would take up a
> substantial chunk of the schedule. That said, it's great stuff, and I would
> love to see more 15th century dances.  Could the dance steps be taught as
> part of one of the other classes?  Could you cover the steps and both dances
> in two hours?
>   Gaston

Choreography is easier to learn once you can do the steps without
thinking. The steps don't need to be done perfectly or with full
ornamentation, but there needs to be little  to no hesitation ("Oh my
gosh, I don't remember how to do a piva! Oops, too late").

Fifteenth-century Italian dances (with a few exceptions) take an hour
to teach if the students already have some familiarity with the steps;
if the steps are taught in the same class, the class needs to be at
least 90 mins. Whether it's two classes of "steps and choreography" or
three separate classes, it's still the same amount of material; it's
just a matter of how fast the students are asked to learn. [Note:
sixteenth-century Italian is a whole 'nother animal.]

I never could learn Italian dances as taught in the SCA (steps and
choreography all jumbled together), so I started going to early music
conferences (Amherst, Urbino). The main courses are often four hours
in the morning (afternoons are reserved for 2-3 shorter classes such
as music or reconstruction). Basic steps are taught (you might spend
30 minutes on one step) and are built up into sequences. The sequences
are then built up into choreography and, depending on the dances'
complexity, you might learn five dances in 10 days (40 hours). This is
MUCH more intense than most casual SCA dancers are going to want, nor
do I advocate such a rigorous course. I do, however, think we should
allow students time become comfortable with the steps.

On the third hand, this is King's College and not a dance symposium. I
don't want to take away schedule time from other teachers, which is
why I was asking. I could do one 90-minute class (one dance with both
steps and choreography) or two one-hour classes (one dance; one hour
for steps and one for choreography). If the event is set up for
one-hour classes, then a 90-minute might be a bad idea. It'll mess up
students' ability to take other classes because the classes will
overlap. Another option is to teach both dances as one-hour-each class
with the prerequisite that the students already know the steps. I've
been out of the dance loop for a while so I'm not sure what level
students I could reasonably expect.

Opinions?


--Perronnelle


-- 
Educate the children and it won't be necessary to punish the men.  --
Pythagoras (6th century BCE)
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