Pennsic - dance and courses
I only took 3 real SCA courses at Pennsic this year.
I made it to one Advanced Ball prep course. It wasn't what I was expecting. Somehow, I was expecting them to review a lot of the ball dances, just at a much quicker pace than they'd teach beginners. Instead it was a request course to learn the harder dances. We worked on Villanella (http://cunnan.sca.org.au/wiki/Villanella)
The ball was great. I spent so much time at the Fettered Cock talking that I missed the first two sets. Fortunately, Villanella was in the 4th (and last set) so I got to dance it. I ended up dancing it with Jamie Blackcloak who remembered it far better than I did. I got to dance Heart's Ease and Rufty Tufty with Aelfleda and screwed them up. A few people got screwed up because they put Heart's Ease first and usually Rufty Tufty is first. The couple we were dancing with insisted on dragging us through another dance by calling it. I got to dance the Black Allmande and quite a few bransles. Bransles are normally so easy that I joined in for the Official Bransle and was quite surprises when my partner picked me up and moved me. I quickly figured out the jumps but it was my cool little surprise moment.
I should get myself to dance practice more often (if we ever have dance practice), but I can't seem to get psyched up about dancing around in jeans and a T-shirt. The costumes and the pageantry are really part of the experience for me. Even going to dance practice in garb, like at Pennsic, seems to make me dance better and more stately. It's a shame that dance is always relegated to after court after feast, meaning we will get in 1 dance before someone with a broom tells us to get out.
I went to a course on camping in a more period way. I got there late and didn't get either a chair or a handout, so it was a little distracting. He talked about how you can either hide things (like under canvass or cotton cozies), really disguise things (like building a barrel around your huge water cooler), use period equivalents (like camping without a cooler using dried meats), or just ignoring. He comes from Caid and talked about how the king of Caid declared fire extinguishers to be period objects because despite it being wild fire alert season people complained about having to have fire extinguishers at outdoor events. It was only when he started talking about this that I noticed that there was a fire extinguisher in every A&S tent. Some things ought to be non-negotiable. It made me think of Autocrat's when I brought a metal fire bucket. It was too heavy for me to carry full of water from the pump. I asked two big guys (who will remain nameless). Both of them refused me - one because he thought we didn't need it and the other because it wasn't period. This is Autocrat's where we sit in camping chairs in front of our nylon tents looking at our cars, and a metal water pail is what's ruining your game. Kind of like how we spent time at Pennsic looking at women in modern belly dance costumes, men wearing two pieces of leather, kilts with no shirt, or a Celtic-printed blanket, and every 5th person is smoking cigarettes. If it's things like fire extinguishers or the ambulance parked at the Chiurgeons that ruin the periodness for people, then they need to get their priorities re-evaluated.
The best course I took, on starting a theatre troop, wasn't really a course but a discussion. I told people that I wasn't starting a real troop, but just doing more children's theatre. Everyone was encouraging. People who run plays at Pennsic and kingdom level troops gave me their email addresses to stay in touch. This is what I love about Pennsic - no matter how obscure your interests are (from Byzantine cooking to Renaissance Italian beekeeping) you can find other people who share your passions. This is why I always come back from Pennsic re-inspired. I also got some good tips and ideas.
I made it to one Advanced Ball prep course. It wasn't what I was expecting. Somehow, I was expecting them to review a lot of the ball dances, just at a much quicker pace than they'd teach beginners. Instead it was a request course to learn the harder dances. We worked on Villanella (http://cunnan.sca.org.au/wiki/Villanella)
The ball was great. I spent so much time at the Fettered Cock talking that I missed the first two sets. Fortunately, Villanella was in the 4th (and last set) so I got to dance it. I ended up dancing it with Jamie Blackcloak who remembered it far better than I did. I got to dance Heart's Ease and Rufty Tufty with Aelfleda and screwed them up. A few people got screwed up because they put Heart's Ease first and usually Rufty Tufty is first. The couple we were dancing with insisted on dragging us through another dance by calling it. I got to dance the Black Allmande and quite a few bransles. Bransles are normally so easy that I joined in for the Official Bransle and was quite surprises when my partner picked me up and moved me. I quickly figured out the jumps but it was my cool little surprise moment.
I should get myself to dance practice more often (if we ever have dance practice), but I can't seem to get psyched up about dancing around in jeans and a T-shirt. The costumes and the pageantry are really part of the experience for me. Even going to dance practice in garb, like at Pennsic, seems to make me dance better and more stately. It's a shame that dance is always relegated to after court after feast, meaning we will get in 1 dance before someone with a broom tells us to get out.
I went to a course on camping in a more period way. I got there late and didn't get either a chair or a handout, so it was a little distracting. He talked about how you can either hide things (like under canvass or cotton cozies), really disguise things (like building a barrel around your huge water cooler), use period equivalents (like camping without a cooler using dried meats), or just ignoring. He comes from Caid and talked about how the king of Caid declared fire extinguishers to be period objects because despite it being wild fire alert season people complained about having to have fire extinguishers at outdoor events. It was only when he started talking about this that I noticed that there was a fire extinguisher in every A&S tent. Some things ought to be non-negotiable. It made me think of Autocrat's when I brought a metal fire bucket. It was too heavy for me to carry full of water from the pump. I asked two big guys (who will remain nameless). Both of them refused me - one because he thought we didn't need it and the other because it wasn't period. This is Autocrat's where we sit in camping chairs in front of our nylon tents looking at our cars, and a metal water pail is what's ruining your game. Kind of like how we spent time at Pennsic looking at women in modern belly dance costumes, men wearing two pieces of leather, kilts with no shirt, or a Celtic-printed blanket, and every 5th person is smoking cigarettes. If it's things like fire extinguishers or the ambulance parked at the Chiurgeons that ruin the periodness for people, then they need to get their priorities re-evaluated.
The best course I took, on starting a theatre troop, wasn't really a course but a discussion. I told people that I wasn't starting a real troop, but just doing more children's theatre. Everyone was encouraging. People who run plays at Pennsic and kingdom level troops gave me their email addresses to stay in touch. This is what I love about Pennsic - no matter how obscure your interests are (from Byzantine cooking to Renaissance Italian beekeeping) you can find other people who share your passions. This is why I always come back from Pennsic re-inspired. I also got some good tips and ideas.