academie: Dancing at Ymir

[ThatUrsula at aol.com]

Greetings, Dance Mavens.

I've put my foot in it and have offered to run dance at Ymir.  Before I make 
the general announcement, I was wondering of anyone could put me in touch 
with musicians who would be willing to play for Ymir.

Here is what I have in mind so far:

I want to keep the dance list fairly simple because we have little time for 
practices between now and Ymir, and many of us are still a bit rusty:

ANY NUMBER OF COUPLES
Black Alman
Candlestick Bransle
Dargason
Earl of Salisbury Pavane
Horses Bransle
Official Bransle
Quadran Pavane
Rostiboli Gioioso
Saltarello la Regina
Sellenger's Round
Washerwoman's Bransle

SETS OF 3 COUPLES
Black Nag
Jenny Pluck Pears

ANY NUMBER/GENDER
Bransle Charlotte
Maltese Bransle

SETS OF 4-6 COUPLES
Gathering Peasecods

SETS OF 2 COUPLES
Heart's Ease
John Tallow's Cannon
Rufty Tufty

SETS OF THREE (any gender)
Petit Vriens

I'll be bringing candles, holders and candle globes for candlestick bransle 
and maybe John Tallow's Cannon, and lengths of cloth for people to tie to 
their arm to indicate that they are interested in dancing and are not just 
watching (you can remove the cloth if you need a rest and put it back on when 
you're ready to resume).  I'm gonna ask that the hall lights be lowered and 
provide either real or electric candles to provide more intimate lighting for 
dancing but arrange for lighting for the musicians' music stands.

I'd also shoot for a formal deal with the bardic folk that we have a set of 
dancing and then let the bards take over for a bit, then dance, then bardic 
for the rest of the night. Or something like that.  Only one way to find out 
if it will work...

Let me know if you have any comments or suggestions for the smooth running of 
the dance.   Just think about what you liked about other dances you've seen 
and what annoyed you about them and think what we can do to make it better.  

Personally my turn-offs are too much light (hard to have a magical experience 
under flourescent lighting and lots of it), and interruptions for court 
business (fooey), having another activity going on at the same time in the 
same room with the dancing, and non-dance traffic across the dance floor 
during the dancing.

As for teaching during the day, unfortunately I'll be cooking, serving and 
cleaning up for the breakfast and lunch, but I may have an hour before feast. 
 The problem with that is that people tend to have too much to do - on top of 
catching up with friends they haven't seen in a while.  If any are interested 
in running formal classes during the day, I'd be happy to help with local 
logistics.  Also, having an extra person or more to coach all the sets 
instead of one person yelling to be heard would be another good thing.  

RSVP - Ursula von Bremen
 

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