pennsicdance: OOP Dance

[John White]

    Since you asked for comment, I'll comment.

    Once upon a time, I loved OOP dances.  Partly because a large part
of the dances we had when I started were out of period (I started in
the SCA 22 years ago, well before Playford was a common staple).  My
favorite dances were out of period - Mannshaft Pavane, Korobushka,
Moonshine, Troika.  They were (and are) fun dances and I still like
them.

    However, I've come to see recently that this really isn't the
place for some of these dances.  Hole in the Wall and the Russian
dances don't belong here.  I would argue that Mannshaft, as part of
our modern-day SCA history and heritage, should be remembered, but
I can see the arguments against it as well.

    People say, 'but they're fun'.  There are a lot of things that
are fun that don't belong in the SCA.  Monster Truck rallies are
fun (to some), and Kitaro concerts are fun (to some, me included
this time), but neither belongs at an SCA event, not even Pennsic.
As much as I hate the response of 'so, do them somewhere else'
(because for these dances, there isn't any place else (for me)),
that should be the official position.

    Relegating these dances to after midnight, at request, seems like
a fine compromise to me.  The people who want to can dance them, but
the people who would like to do and learn dances that pretty much
belong in our period, and who decry the OOP dances, get their 
'purity' in the prime-time barn.

    Of course, what is actually OOP?  Sellenger's Round is not in the
1651 edition of Playford, but I've never heard it called OOP....

         \\Dafydd

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