pennsicdance: Dance Suggestions

[Maugorn at aol.com]

In a message dated 8/26/05 10:31:09 AM Eastern Daylight Time, 
john.white at drexel.edu writes:

   > While it would be nice to be totally open to musicians at
> every venue/party/event, it isn't really reasonable to expect
> that as (and if) we move to more specialized events

I am in 100% agreement here.  My entire point is that there ought to be room 
for both, and that room needs to be made for both the professional, the 
beginner, and even the not so beginner but competent 'amateur' or 'part timer'.

I absolutely don't want to give up my paid or compensated gigs at Pennsic.  
But I've also had HUGE amounts of fun and many pleasant surprises in the Open 
Band format.  This was fun that would not have happened if the music had gone 
to an exclusive or selective format for who gets to play.  And my faith in the 
power of the Music to shine thru the hands of even the most inexperienced 
folks  that it has been my privilege to play with (as well as some of the 
ass-kicking virtuosi who blew me away) has been rewarded EVERY TIME.

I'm just trying to remind folks that we should approach music with the same 
egalitarian attitude that we claim for the dancing.  Pennsic is EVERYONE'S 
event, and so EVERYONE should have a chance to participate, even tho sometimes you 
want or need to hire professionals for applications that require them.

And this should also be done even tho it doesn't always work as well as you 
hoped and/or planned.   If you cut out the bad surprises, you also cut out the 
good ones.
This ain't nobody's wedding or bar-mitzvah or million dollar gala raising 
money for orphaned baby whales.  This is social dance, and the occasional 
"adventure" will not detract from that, musically, socially, or even climatically.  
If you're there to have fun, with good people in the mix, the glitches will 
simply turn into topics of conversation and the challenges met and overcome 
together make the bonding all the stronger.
Perfection is over-rated.

I think the balance can be maintained very well if the professionals are 
hired to  play specific sets and that there are also sets for egalitarian play as 
well.  I think that this will give all the players less fatigue, give the 
professionals time to socialise, and solve little scheduling glitches like Conna 
mentioned where every evening she had free to play in the tent, unfortuitously, 
was a "closed" night.   (which makes me sad too, 'cause I LIKE playing with 
Conna and wanted to do more of it)

Maug