pennsicdance: Elitism and the real Caroso Ball

[Courtney Meredith]

re: percieved elitism at Pennsic balls and parties in general:

Possibly one of the things going on here is people not recognizing that the
Pennsic "core repetoire" is quite a bit different from what it was, say, 5
years ago - take a look at the list Lyev posted, which based on what was
taught at classes and programmed for open dancing.  Since most people think
that what they learn first is The Standard (some part of me is still
convinced that *of course* absolutely *everyone* knows the bassedance
Casulle la nouvelle), it is very easy for people to not go to "ball prep"
classes, thinking they already know the basics, and then wonder where all
those dances on the ball playlist came from.

re: Caroso-style and "real"/seicento Caroso balls:

A "real" or seicento Caroso ball is about as elitist, focused, estoteric,
special-interest, or whatever you want to call it, as a dance session can
get these days.  I thought that putting it against Midnight Madness was as
off-prime-time as one could get, and thus the perfect timeslot.  For me, 5pm
- 9 pm is not usable for dancing, whether classes or balls/parties.

Caroso-style and seicento Caroso both:we're still tinkering with the Caroso
format, and sometimes it works out better than others.  Caroso's Nobilta has
some references that indicate he had problems with some people not getting
asked to dance and others getting asked a lot.  The researcher in me says
"oh wow, we've got the same problem he had", and the SCA dance mistress says
"oops, we've got the same problem he had, how do we fix it?".  I don't have
an answer yet.  What I *want* to do is manipulate the rules, social
conventions, atmosphere, and whatever, so that we have the form (or maybe
illusion) of playing by period rules, while actually getting a friendly
social dance event with dancing opportunities fairly distributed.  Anybody
who's got ideas about how to make this happen more reliably, especially in
large groups, please talk to me.

I know that gender-segregated seating triggers old and unpleasant
associations for some people, but for others it is either fun or a useful
mental tool or both.  My personal reaction to someone sitting on the 'other'
side is that the person is signalling that they *don't* want to be asked to
dance, they're where they are because they want to talk to a friend.  

As far as I can tell, intermediate-level dancers generally dislike the
Caroso-style format.  That's fine - it would be a boring world if we all
liked the same things, and besides, not all the advanced dancers like it.
My advice to anyone who doesn't like them is "go do something else for that
time", which I think is reasonable, since sessions like this only happen in
contexts where there's lots of nornal-format dancing.  And try again in a
couple of years to see if you like it better then, since tastes do change
(and maybe we'll have fixed some of the problems).

Mara

Meredith Courtney
Comverse