Movimenti e riverenze
My workshop went very well! For a while I thought it would be just me, my friends, and a few stragglers--but the numbers grew as the hour went on, until we very nearly had too many dancers for the space!
My bransle CD, though I'd tested it at home, was for some reason too quiet to hear when I put it into the the same player I'd tested on. :P This cut down my curriculum some, since I'd been planning on at least three bransles, but it meant I had time for dances I'd brought along but categorized as "probably too complicated." So we ended up doing both Black Almain and Anello after all, and had time to do most of them more than once. (Handouts are available here.) I have high hopes that it was well enough received to be requested again next year.
I did wear the Lizgown, but didn't end up doing too much dancing--it's been long enough since I've taught these that I had to be very careful to watch my notes so I wouldn't get distracted and mess up the dancers by missing a call!
The dress itself got a lot of attention, especially as Aaron was trying to lace me into it; it's been a while for that too, and we probably could have done with a practice run ahead of time. Also, I forgot the attifet, and had to improvise by pinning the veil directly to my hair. This worked out reasonably well, except when I moved too much, the veil went every which way, and its weight pulled out a lot of the pins. (Regular sewing pins, since the long corsage pins I normally would use were home in the lining of the attifet. :P )
Afterwards, I changed back into something weighing less than a small child ("she could undress for half an hour and still be completely covered!") and went into the gym for the advanced contra hour. This was grand fun--tricky stuff with no walk-throughs. One square utterly defeated both me and Aaron, though--no matter how many times the caller went through the sequence, there just never seemed to be enough music to get everything in. I've had this problem with squares before, and I always wonder if it's me or if sometimes the callers get out of touch with the fact that the music and the steps have to match up?
My bransle CD, though I'd tested it at home, was for some reason too quiet to hear when I put it into the the same player I'd tested on. :P This cut down my curriculum some, since I'd been planning on at least three bransles, but it meant I had time for dances I'd brought along but categorized as "probably too complicated." So we ended up doing both Black Almain and Anello after all, and had time to do most of them more than once. (Handouts are available here.) I have high hopes that it was well enough received to be requested again next year.
I did wear the Lizgown, but didn't end up doing too much dancing--it's been long enough since I've taught these that I had to be very careful to watch my notes so I wouldn't get distracted and mess up the dancers by missing a call!
The dress itself got a lot of attention, especially as Aaron was trying to lace me into it; it's been a while for that too, and we probably could have done with a practice run ahead of time. Also, I forgot the attifet, and had to improvise by pinning the veil directly to my hair. This worked out reasonably well, except when I moved too much, the veil went every which way, and its weight pulled out a lot of the pins. (Regular sewing pins, since the long corsage pins I normally would use were home in the lining of the attifet. :P )
Afterwards, I changed back into something weighing less than a small child ("she could undress for half an hour and still be completely covered!") and went into the gym for the advanced contra hour. This was grand fun--tricky stuff with no walk-throughs. One square utterly defeated both me and Aaron, though--no matter how many times the caller went through the sequence, there just never seemed to be enough music to get everything in. I've had this problem with squares before, and I always wonder if it's me or if sometimes the callers get out of touch with the fact that the music and the steps have to match up?