ES - Where to find dance classes.

Amy & Bill Morris awmorris at flash.net
Thu Oct 21 13:09:31 PDT 1999


A (very) brief review of SCA dance.  

Period dance falls into the same three general categories as modern
dance.  You can pick what fits your preferences or persona.  Couples
social dancing, fairly simple to learn and forgiving of mistakes.  In
the SCA this is usually the English or Scottish Country style, though
other styles exist).  This tradition is still alive, and Email me for
DFW contacts.  Performance dancing, Most of the Italian or Burgundian
dance done in the SCA was originally written for a few people to do
while the rest watched.  The Steppes guild is mostly performance with
some couples dancing.  The Middle Eastern dance done in the SCA mostly
falls into this category.  These dances can be solo, couple or
occasionally larger numbers.  The third category is general social
dancing. In the SCA these are mostly from Arbeau, line or circle dances,
with no couple requirement (though they are often done in couples). 

Performance dancing is healthy in Ansteorra right now, social dancing is
struggling.  Most guilds end up concentrating on fairly difficult
performance dancing, social dancing happens sporadically at events. 
Most of our event sites do not have space for dancing for dozens of
couples, but Coronation should.        

A note to the wise:  good dance description did not arrive until the
19th century with Labanotation and other similar systems.  Period
pictures or sculpture of dance is rare and of dubious reliability.  Most
people concentrate on enjoying themselves and try to avoid getting
involved in various controversies about exactly how the dances were
done.                         

Coronation should be a good opportunity for social dancing.  IF we
coordinate beforehand with the site and feast stewards for space.  This
would consist of brief teaching followed by dance, brief teaching
followed by dance, etc.  

Cyniric, if you are interested in early English dancing the best you can
do locally is probably to contact the local Morris dancing side.  I know
several of them, but they aren't SCA connected.

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