pennsicdance: Period dance and modern music

[Elaine Cohen]

Hi there!

> > Is doing a period dance to the 'Mortal Combat'
> > soundtrack
> > historically accurate?  No.  Is it fun and creative?
> > Yes.
. . .
>SO now that that is off my chest, I feel much better....

As the person who taught the Twirling to Twisted Tunes class at Pennsic, I
feel obliged to respond. I haven't responded to the thread so far, due to lack
of time to get sucked into this debate.  So rather than respond to your individual
points, I'll just put down my thoughts.

The genesis of this sort of dancing and this class.  The practice of doing SCA dance to rock music started in our group when several dancers in the Barony had to miss Crystal 
Ball, our annual dance event road trip, due to a wedding.  We decided that there was no 
reason that we couldn't dance in that venue just as well.  Thus was born  Bizzaria d'Amore 
to Safety Dance by Men Without Hats.  And the circular variant of Road to the Isles/Scotland the Brave to Vogue by Madonna had long been a traditional wedding favorite of my lord and myself.  (The poor DJ at this wedding - he saw all this going on, and then when everyone fled the dance floor on his calling for the Hokey Pokey, he called out in an exasperated voice, "What?  You only like hard stuff?")  We realized that we had something of a collection going and set about compiling a list.

Some of the reasons that this perversion of period dance was so enjoyable was that it gave a really different feel to the dances, and made it far more obvious that differences in 
the styling of the music should affect how one performs a dance.  It was also necessary 
to know the dance really well in order to master doing it to completely unrelated music.  (Of 
course, one can also achieve this effect by dancing a period dance to a different period 
tune.)  Doing a dance differently also gave me a new appreciation for the dance as it is 
done traditionally - it forced me to take a new look at it.

After that, our Barony started having special silly dance practice every
Halloween where we do SCA dances to modern rock music and dress up 
in Halloween costume or on some theme (e.g., leather and velvet).

Upon hearing tales of the enormous fun that was had at such practices (we have lively well-attended dance practices anyway, but this boosted the energy level even higher), friends from afar requested that I do a Pennsic class on period Italian dance to modern music.   (Our list included Bizzaria to Safety Dance, Villanicco to Stand, Rostiboli Gioioso to Only One (which is actually predates that wedding, and is not something we've been able to get to work very well since - I believe the dance had to be altered to work with that music).  Part of my motivation (and why I agreed to do this class) was to demonstrate that 
there is no reason to perceive those who love period dance as stuffy.

I didn't have enough Italian dances that worked well enough to fill the class, so I expanded it a bit.  My original list for the class was, in fact, period dances (Bizzaria, Villanicco, Horses Bransle, Black Alman)  When we got through those, people in the class who had heard about the Personal Jesus Hole in the Wall were anxious to try it, so we did it. I purposefully requested a time slot late in the war, when I, for one, am beginning to get punchy and a bit anxious to return to the modern world. 

I apologize to those in neighboring classes who were disturbed by the music. Not realizing how far that music carried was thoughtless of me. I did turn it down on request, but expect that in order to make it audible to those dancing, it likely continued to be audible to neighboring classes. I am very sorry to have been the cause of those bad experiences. I do believe that the people who attended the class got something appropriate out of it (the people who spoke to me gave very positive feedback), and the passersby who stopped and said something to me were vastly entertained.  I am willing to admit that this may not be sufficient to justify the imposition on others.

I do not intend to propose teaching this class at Pennsic again - it's the type of class that once it's been done once there doesn't need to be done again.  I would not include such 
a class or such tunes in a ball at our baronial dance event.  However, if the organizers of 
another group's event wanted me to do something similar at their event, I would gladly do so.

I hope this helps, at least the apology if nothing else.  If I don't respond to further posts, please note that it is more a time issue than one of disinterest or offense.

Alina

THL Alina of Foxwood
Barony of Cynnabar