pennsicdance: ball suggestions

[Annikki Weston]

On Tue, 17 Sep 2002, Gene Schwartzman wrote:

> But to those people who just show up to the ball during Pennsic.. Italian is
> Italian... and actually to me Italian is all Italian.. 15th C or 16th C..

If you take it that way, there were 13 English dances lumping ECD and
English Measures together.

> and yes, you can take the high road, smug attitude about it, but the bottom
> line is that the group of people I stood next too, were constantly groaning,
> "not another Italian!" (and I wasn't one of them)

So what were they dancing?  Did they take note of all the people who were
dancing the Italians?  For the 15c ones, the crowds were large!  Some
were extroidinarily easy, too -- Petit Vriens, Pinwheel, and a Saltarello.
The floor was packed for all of them.  Did they join in the fun?

And meanwhile, others were going, "Not another ECD!"

We have a pretty even mix.  Go either way, and you start excluding people
more.

> Why?  Why intentionally exclude dancers that might want to dance? Why
> intentionally be exclusive?  Why not do something that everyone can
> participate in?

Often, showy dances are done during breaks so that the dancers who thrive
on them aren't excluded -- it's a break, people are catching their breath,
and they get a show from us nutcases who do Tesera in parking lots during
desert revel breaks at events.

> OK.. Ballo del Fiore is a nice dance.. I like the music, I like to dance it,

> dancer...  I'm not saying get rid of it.. on the contrary, I strongly
> recommend we keep it, but we should also teach it in classes and use it as a

It was taught at least once by me, and Judith probably taught it in her
ball-prep classes.  Part of the problem may have been that we only had the
seven (just got up and counted 'em!) flowers that I brought.  That limits
the dance to seven couples at a time.

> otherwise wouldn't dance, onto the dance floor.  Bel Qui (sp?) would be

It was done.  That is the Carolingian Pavanne, which is done as an
improvised Pavanne now by many.  But the music is still there and people
can dance the choreography if they wish.

Adele