pennsicdance: RE: Separate Balls

[Catherine E. Dean]

Greetings All,

I have a couple thoughts on this issue which I shall share.

First, as Greg and possibly Judith have pointed out, it's HARD to get the 
barn for an entire evening during war week.  Two balls would mean that at 
least one had to be pushed earlier in the week than tuesday.  And since 
many people have complained about the ball being that early in war week, 
I don't think two balls would be feasible for that reason alone (even 
discounting any other logistical issues with getting musicians, dancers, 
and volunteers to run things).

Second, and I think this is far more important, dividing the ball into two, 
one for people who enjoy "fun" dances and one for people who enjoy 
"Italian" dances (note the quotation marks there), will only serve to further 
segment the dance population at Pennsic.  As we have discussed ad 
nauseum on this list, English country dance is neither inherently easy nor 
is it inherently fun and Italian dance isn't inherently difficult or 
inherently 
boring (and vice versa)--it's entirely a matter of personal preference and 
familiarity.  I think one of the truely successful things about the parties at 
war this year was that they managed to be specialized without merely 
drawing from one "faction" of dancers.  For the English revel there are all 
kinds of possibilities--ECD, Old Measures, Gresley stuff, Galliards and 
voltas, even Caroso, etc.  For the Pre-1600 night we could have an even 
wider range.  I think we need to keep the focus on providing something for 
everyone.  Everyone has their own set of tastes.  I, for one, love Italian 
dances (both types) and Branles and am less fond of ECD.  I have friends 
who never dance branles but love Italian and ECD.  I have other friends 
who never dance Italian but love Branles and ECD.  I could go on.  No two 
dancers are alike.

The point is that everyone needs to compromise and everyone 
(unfortunately including people who will never read this e-mail, but will 
show up at the ball and be frustrated because they don't know half of the 
dances being danced) needs to realize that there will be a (probably 
large) number of dances that they will not personally choose to dance.  As 
a corollary, another thing that I also think we have been doing more of and 
which I think is wonderful is having other things to do at dance parties 
(and perhaps even the ball??)--eat, sit, chat, play games.  All very period 
things to do which help alleviate boredom between dances that a 
particular dancer wishes to dance.

Just my two cents.
Katherine

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Catherine E. Dean
SCA: Katherine Mercer, Editor _The Letter of Dance_
cdean at gwu.edu      
Jane Austen Aficionado, Renaissance Dancer, and Future Museum Professional Extraordinaire
No one who had met Catherine would have supposed her to have been born a heroine --JA
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