This one's especially for
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Yesterday's escape from work featured a pissing match with PublisherDude over two sidebars that the NL people wrote and want in the book, and he think are bad science (they're not; I fact checked them, insofar as one can fact check something that says "Your genetic make-up may play a role in determining your predeliction towards certain aspects of ( Read more... )

Since summer I've been heading out to a small local historical village in a former farming community (now a bedroom community of Toronto) every few weeks on an irregular schedule to teach their volunteer dance troupe some dances appropriate to the period. The schedule has been irregular because the volunteer group meets fortnightly, and because my ( Read more... )

Old news in the blogosphere, I know*, but T.A. Faulkner's 1892 classic From the Ball Room to Hell just deserves to be posted here, tying together as it does dance and sexuality in a Victorian context ( Read more... )

This is just a quick, mostly very prosaic update. I'm tired and headed for somnolence very shortly.

Those of you who are going to be in Toronto this weekend should consider dropping by the Spring Arts Fair at the Tarragon. It's free, and "promises an explosion of new play development activities including play readings, staged performances, and the ( Read more... )

If I were a Victorian or Edwardian representation of a figure at King Arthur's Court, which one would I be?

Next question: what would I wear to a party?

Dear readers,

I humbly request your assistance and collective wisdom.

The theme for the Fancy Dress Ball at Newport this year is King Arthur's Court. I need to come up with an appropriate ( Read more... )

This Friday evening's waltz class reinforced one of my failings as an instructor: dancing is easy for me. Some things I never had to learn, per se; I cannot remember not knowing how to do them. The possibly innate understanding of these things is part of what makes me a dancer.

I have, like most dancers, had to learn steps. I have had to learn ( Read more... )

We thought that we had, in these pages, addressed all that needed to be said regarding invitations to dance; however, on occaision, we are reminded of the myriad other means of perhaps inadvertently offending one's desired partner.

( An Unfortunately Phrased Invitation )

Recently after a ball, I fell into conversation with Mrs. B.

“I was standing when a waltz was announced and E. (a gentleman acquaintance of many years) came over to me and talked himself out of dancing with me right in front of me,” she informed me ( Read more... )