pennsicdance: ball suggestions

[Keith McClune]

Hi there:

     First, I think the ball list is pretty good.  But lumping all of the
Italians together reminds me of some folk I have encountered around here.  To
these people, ECD seems to be the be all and end all of SCA dancing.  To them,
ECD is "easy" and "fun"; anything else is "too hard" and, obviously, not "fun." 
I disagree with the first proposition and recognize that both can be fun (it
doesn't have to be either/or).

     Just to play Devil's Advocate for a moment ...

> From: "Gene Schwartzman" <emagene at erols.com>
> 
> Here's a simple summary of the list below:
> ECD - 10 dances (4 after midnight)
> Italian - 13 dances (2 after midnight and are repeats)
> Arbeau - 7 dances (2 after midnight)
> English Measure - 2 dances (none after midnight)
> 2 Galliards (not sure which category they would fall into)
> 
> What concerns me, is not the dances themselves, but the dance distribution
> that tends to focus heavily on one form or another at the beginning ....

My summary:
7 First edition (I think) Playford dances (1651) (1 after midnight)
3 Later Playford dances (2nd, 3rd, & possibly 4th edition) (all after midnight)
3 from Domenico
4 Ebreo/Cornazano (1 repeated after midnight)
3 Caroso
3 Negri (1 greatly simplified and repeated at about midnight)
5 Arbeau (1 after midnight)
2 SCA inventions in the style of Arbeau (1 after midnight)
2 English Measures
2 Galliards (one generic "European" and the other sounds French)
0 Burgundian
0 Arena
0 other period sources (except maybe the Galliards)

Clearly the list is unbalanced - too many Playford and, possibly, Arbeau dances.

Counting by country, though, I see 13 English dances (including the Galliard,
which is most identified with England's Queen Elizabeth I), 13 Italian, and 8
French (counting two SCA inventions, plus one of the galliards sounds French, to
me).  So more Burgundian dances (counted as French) would balance things out.

Looking by century, however, we have 7 fifteenth century dances (with one
repeated), 14 sixteenth century dances (one repeated), 10 seventeenth century
dances, and 2 twentieth century dances intended to emulate a 16th c. style. 
Clearly, we need more 15th c. dances (Italian and Burgundian, I suppose).  I
won't address whether it is appropriate to include any post SCA-period dances.

Or maybe the ball list we have now is pretty good after all.

Keith / Guillaume  S:}>