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I am entering my Anglo-Saxon poem in Performing Arts. Entries not music related are rare. Last year one of the Ashleys and another laurel did a selection for Macbeth. Before that, the last time I remember something non-music being entered was when a friend of mine entered a couple of sonnets - one Shakesperean and one Petrarchian. Anglo-Saxon poety is from an oral tradition, so I'm hoping to do it justice.
I am also running the revel after feast. I am stealing an idea from peteyfrogboy and having performances between sets of the ball. I have asked 6 people/groups to perform; 2 have said yes, 1 has said maybe, 1 has said they will not be attending, and 2 have not answered. I really hope Pasttime has enough people staying for the revel for them to perform. I have offered for them to open the ball if it would make it easier for people to attend. Mistress Jadi is going to do a Persian dance with live accompaniment (gotta love apprentices), and alasais is going to sing. I am hoping one of my maybe's writes me back with a yes so we will also have an instrumental performance. I am still undecided what I will do. My two choices are here: http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=ajfgnvd5wq3v_38c97mkb The first is a poem from Ebreo's 15th century Italian dance manual (I would do it in English). The second is set to the tune of the dance Heart's Ease. I don't think I want to do both, although I could if necessary. But I really need to work on memorizing my Anglo-Saxon poem.
This was something peteyfrogboy, myself, and another friend discussed on the way back from Saltare (our Kingdom dance event). There was so much going on at the event, that it was hard to choose what to do. Also, unless you had some idea about the dances being taught, it was difficult to tell what was geared toward beginners and what was more advanced. The dance mistress from Iron Mountain and the dance master and mistress from Thor's Mountain have all mentioned that they have some very new dancers who are very eager to learn. We wanted to have a regional dance practice that focused on beginner to intermediate dances, something everyone could learn and take back to their home groups. We threw out a number of idea of holding it, logistics, placement, and such. Last month I decided to take the ball (no pun intended) and run with it. alasais knew of a local place that had a large space for a reasonable price that would be rather equidistant for most of those that expressed interest in something like this (in fact, Atlanta is probably the farthest away and that's where most of the teachers are coming from). I immediately has offers from various people to teach, as well as those just interested in attending.
We are still waiting on final comfirmation that we have the place for the time period I REALLY want, or if it will be strictly 5 hours. If that is the case, one class will be cut and there will not be a break for lunch. If they let us stay the entire time we have requested, we will have classes on basic steps, Burgundian bassa danse, branles, 15th century Italian, English country dance, and little bits left over. peteyfrogboy even got the wonderful idea of putting together a basic dance CD to give those that attend. It will have most of the dances taught during the day, plus a few extra that are commonly done at revels. All the music is from freely available cd's, so no copyright issues. We eventually also want to have a beginning dance book/manual to go with it, but for this I have asked teachers to provide handouts of the dances they teach. It is easier to remember how a dance goes when you are back home teaching if you have the music and a cheat sheet of the steps. Hopefully the dance practice will go over well. If it does, we have already had a request to do one farther south, as well as an offer of a place to hold it.
I need to organize my dance notebook and my music notebooks. I have things scattered everywhere, making it impossible to find one thing easily. My dance notebook is already pretty organized. I need to split it into two notebooks so I can add to it as I learn more dances. My music notebooks are in desperate shape. I need to split them out by group piece and solo pieces, and organize from there. I see lots of sheet protectors and copies in my future. :-) I also would like to start working on the basic dance book to go with the cd. Shouldn't be too hard to organize; just have to actually sit down and do it. Once I know how many pages it will be (double sided of course) I need to research prices for binding. I think a comb binder would probably be easiest. Depending on the price, I'll just have a bunch made to go with the cd's. Most of the reconstructions are mine anyway. Those that aren't I will make sure to give full credit.
Since I am running the KA&S revel, I encouraged alasais to run the revel at RUM. She has never run a revel before, so I am going to back her up. Help with teaching dances during the ball, make sure people are actually listening to her, etc. It got me to thinking about other people we think of as active in dance but that don't teach. I think part of it is because they just don't have the opportunity. alasais is now in a group that has not done much beyond ECD, so she has the opportunity to teach some Italian dances. But most groups either have an active dance instructor or they are all beginners. I think on a local level I am going to start encouraging some of the regular dancers to teach occassionally. Pick a dance they really enjoy, even if it is something everyone knows backwards and forwards, and try teaching it to the group. It is so different teaching a dance than just doing it. And teaching to a group of friends and knowing there is back-up if you make a mistake or get flustered might make things more comfortable for them. If we can encourage more teachers locally, we will have a better chance of having more volunteers to teach at events like Saltare or to run revels at events. It benefits everyone - when you teach the dance you learn it better yourself. Also, it would keep the more advanced dancers from burning out because they are doing everything. At events like Saltare, it would also allow those doing original research or more advanced dances to concentrate on those rather than trying to teach a little of everything.
I am also running the revel after feast. I am stealing an idea from peteyfrogboy and having performances between sets of the ball. I have asked 6 people/groups to perform; 2 have said yes, 1 has said maybe, 1 has said they will not be attending, and 2 have not answered. I really hope Pasttime has enough people staying for the revel for them to perform. I have offered for them to open the ball if it would make it easier for people to attend. Mistress Jadi is going to do a Persian dance with live accompaniment (gotta love apprentices), and alasais is going to sing. I am hoping one of my maybe's writes me back with a yes so we will also have an instrumental performance. I am still undecided what I will do. My two choices are here: http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=ajfgnvd5wq3v_38c97mkb The first is a poem from Ebreo's 15th century Italian dance manual (I would do it in English). The second is set to the tune of the dance Heart's Ease. I don't think I want to do both, although I could if necessary. But I really need to work on memorizing my Anglo-Saxon poem.
This was something peteyfrogboy, myself, and another friend discussed on the way back from Saltare (our Kingdom dance event). There was so much going on at the event, that it was hard to choose what to do. Also, unless you had some idea about the dances being taught, it was difficult to tell what was geared toward beginners and what was more advanced. The dance mistress from Iron Mountain and the dance master and mistress from Thor's Mountain have all mentioned that they have some very new dancers who are very eager to learn. We wanted to have a regional dance practice that focused on beginner to intermediate dances, something everyone could learn and take back to their home groups. We threw out a number of idea of holding it, logistics, placement, and such. Last month I decided to take the ball (no pun intended) and run with it. alasais knew of a local place that had a large space for a reasonable price that would be rather equidistant for most of those that expressed interest in something like this (in fact, Atlanta is probably the farthest away and that's where most of the teachers are coming from). I immediately has offers from various people to teach, as well as those just interested in attending.
We are still waiting on final comfirmation that we have the place for the time period I REALLY want, or if it will be strictly 5 hours. If that is the case, one class will be cut and there will not be a break for lunch. If they let us stay the entire time we have requested, we will have classes on basic steps, Burgundian bassa danse, branles, 15th century Italian, English country dance, and little bits left over. peteyfrogboy even got the wonderful idea of putting together a basic dance CD to give those that attend. It will have most of the dances taught during the day, plus a few extra that are commonly done at revels. All the music is from freely available cd's, so no copyright issues. We eventually also want to have a beginning dance book/manual to go with it, but for this I have asked teachers to provide handouts of the dances they teach. It is easier to remember how a dance goes when you are back home teaching if you have the music and a cheat sheet of the steps. Hopefully the dance practice will go over well. If it does, we have already had a request to do one farther south, as well as an offer of a place to hold it.
I need to organize my dance notebook and my music notebooks. I have things scattered everywhere, making it impossible to find one thing easily. My dance notebook is already pretty organized. I need to split it into two notebooks so I can add to it as I learn more dances. My music notebooks are in desperate shape. I need to split them out by group piece and solo pieces, and organize from there. I see lots of sheet protectors and copies in my future. :-) I also would like to start working on the basic dance book to go with the cd. Shouldn't be too hard to organize; just have to actually sit down and do it. Once I know how many pages it will be (double sided of course) I need to research prices for binding. I think a comb binder would probably be easiest. Depending on the price, I'll just have a bunch made to go with the cd's. Most of the reconstructions are mine anyway. Those that aren't I will make sure to give full credit.
Since I am running the KA&S revel, I encouraged alasais to run the revel at RUM. She has never run a revel before, so I am going to back her up. Help with teaching dances during the ball, make sure people are actually listening to her, etc. It got me to thinking about other people we think of as active in dance but that don't teach. I think part of it is because they just don't have the opportunity. alasais is now in a group that has not done much beyond ECD, so she has the opportunity to teach some Italian dances. But most groups either have an active dance instructor or they are all beginners. I think on a local level I am going to start encouraging some of the regular dancers to teach occassionally. Pick a dance they really enjoy, even if it is something everyone knows backwards and forwards, and try teaching it to the group. It is so different teaching a dance than just doing it. And teaching to a group of friends and knowing there is back-up if you make a mistake or get flustered might make things more comfortable for them. If we can encourage more teachers locally, we will have a better chance of having more volunteers to teach at events like Saltare or to run revels at events. It benefits everyone - when you teach the dance you learn it better yourself. Also, it would keep the more advanced dancers from burning out because they are doing everything. At events like Saltare, it would also allow those doing original research or more advanced dances to concentrate on those rather than trying to teach a little of everything.