Unlocking the Doors into Dance
Back from another weekend dance trip featuring Darius and Lynette’s fabulous house party, Step Spritely, and Sunday fun at the dance studio.
After eating an early lunch at home, I picked up magda_vogelsang around 11:30am on Friday and we drove to Brantford, Ontario. The roads were clear and we enjoyed good conversation and singing along to music from my iPod (classics such as Blame Canada, which always seems to come up on random play on this particular trip, and newer additions, like What Did the Fox Say?”) As we crossed the bridge, magda_vogelsang made some comment about getting our passports ready, not that there was any rush, since it was not like we were going to pull right up to an open booth. Guess what? We did! We were waved through after saying we were going to visit friends, were coming back Sunday and did not have any guns or other weapons with us. Yay!
Got to Darius and Lynette’s place around 3:15pm, and noticed a sign stuck in the door frame. We went up to the porch to find it said something along the lines of, “We’ll be back soon!” We tried the door, and it was locked, so we decided to take a walk around the block. On coming back to the house, we saw Lynette pull up so went and said hello to her. She went to the side door, and we gathered our things and went up to the front door. magda_vogelsang decided it would be amusing to ring the doorbell at this point, so she did. On opening the door, the sign fell out, and Darius and Sionn were there, as well as Lynette. I was confused that there were there - turns out they’d been back for some time, but had gone in the other door and hadn’t remembered to take down the sign. Good thing magda_vogelsang rang the bell, because Lynette just assumed we’d gotten in before and were going for a walk, so she wasn’t going to let us in. On reflection, we should have knocked in the first place - oops!
After getting our stuff in, I went out for a longer walk and then helped Lynette do the prep work for French Toast Casserole planned for Sunday. We then had some of her famous lasagna for dinner, along with a salad, and magda_vogelsang’s chocolate cherry cake for dessert - yum! Around 7:30, a message popped up from Jamie on facebook: “Hey Alina! Could you ask Lynette to tell Darius to check his cellphone?” Darius happened to be passing by at that time, and Lynette was nearby, so it was easily accomplished. So I said sure, but indicated that he hadn’t involved magda_vogelsang, Maurin, Arlee or Sionn and they were feeling left out, and he told me to tellmagda_vogelsang to check her facebook. When I hadn’t responded right away, he had sent her a message saying, “"Hi Magda! Could you ask Maurin to tell Alina to check her Facebook?" And then I got a Facebook message from charles_midair (who was at home in Ann Arbor with the gaming group, but still on Facebook, of course) saying that Jamie wanted magda_vogelsang to check her Facebook. All very silly! But eventually accomplished the goal of letting Darius know when Jamie and Jessica expected to arrive and that they would like to be picked up at the train station. By this time, we were ready to dance!
Friday night dancing was great fun, as always! We went through Fedelta and the Chigi Contrapasso, which I was teaching the next day, some things in the ball that Arlee wanted to go through, like the Ealdormere version of Ly Bens,plus some of my favorites like Bella Gioiosa, Ginevra Weasley and Bizzaria d’Amore. More fun people kept arriving and joining in on the dancing fun. One of the highlights was going through Jamie’s new choreography, Turn of the Key. He was going for a shorter, simpler dance requiring fewer people. It does require fewer people, so one goal out of 3 was met - success? Of course, a new choreography with original and complex figures that the choreographer understands but hasn’t taught before is always an interesting learning experience for everyone the first time through. I think we were all a bit dubious after that first run-through,, but once it started to gel, we began to appreciate its finer points. It is a very fun and interesting dance, and it will be even better when Jamie and niquerio do the music! Yay! With the event the next day, especially as we hoped to get an early start so as to beat the worst of the expected snow, we called it a night fairly early. I went upstairs about Midnight, read for a half hour (finishing my book) and stayed in bed til about 6:30am. My Fitbit claims I got about 5 ½ hours of sleep, although I think that’s a generous estimate. Actually, I know it is, because the Fitbit fell out of the wristband sometime during the night and spent a good part of it in the trash can thinking I was sleeping soundly.
After breakfasting on oatmeal and assorted other things (energy balls which I had intended to contribute to the dessert revel until I found out the no nuts on site rule), cookies (I had brought my usual homemade chocolate chip cinnamon cookies, and Maurin had brought some chocolate chocolate chip cookies - yum!), fruit (an orange and a mini banana), and lots of tea, we headed to the event, with 7 of us in Maurin’s van. Yay, for not having to drive! Especially as it had already started to snow, although it didn’t seem too awful yet. Thank you Maurin!
Once on site, we noticed that a rather large number of us were wearing some variety of red, so a color gradient photo was required. My sweater also got its own photo opp from someone who is hoping to make something similar.
We got to site in plenty of time for the first class period, which was warm up with the Old Almains. I danced a bit with some newer folk, but then joined in on some fun playing around. One of my favorites was Jamie’s mashup of Old Almain and Contrapasso (doing the various arming bits on the turns followed by figure eights on the subsequent doubles) - it was beautiful and may actually help me remember which one Old Almain is in the future! We also were amused when Guillaume called for Black Nag instead of Black Almain, so we decided to do it to the almain music. Phrasing got a bit odd in the middle, but we actually ended the dance at the end of the recording (I think twice through Black Almain got us through all of Black Nag). Yay, silliness!
I next went to Roselyne and Daniele’s Il Papa class, which was quite interesting. Neat to learn about dances that seem to bridge the 15th and 16th Century Italian styles. And Gwommy earned quite the glare from Meg. You see, previously aelkiss had messaged her pretending to be Jamie and asking her to write music in 5/7 time for a new dance. She had noticed that it was coming from aelkiss’s phone, but claimed to be convinced it really was Jamie because aelkiss would never do that to her, “because he was her friend”. She sent music, which wasn’t actually in 5/7, supposedly because she wasn’t really paying attention, which she entitled, “You’re Not My Friend Anymore!” so, in the Il Papa class, when there was a question as to how the dance should fit the music, Gwommy suggested to Meg, who was playing the music, that she try it in 5/7. It was a very good glare! The class was great fun, but I had to duck out a bit early (before our second repeat of the second dance), since I was teaching in the other room in the next class period and needed a few minutes to prepare.
My class went quite well. I taught Fedelta, Contrapasso in Due, and Contrapasso from the Chigi Manuscripts. Of course, I chose these dances, because they are fairly simple and the event tends to get a lot of new dancers. This year, attendance was quite low, and it was mostly ringers, so it’s no surprise that everyone got the dances quickly enough for me to basically teach the class twice (which I did, at Rosina’s request as she had missed the beginning). Fun dances and enough people to do them, unlike for my class at RUM. And I liked Swannoc’s “group hug” interpretation of the in and out part of Fedelta - such fun!
It was then time for the rather late lunch break (1:15pm - I’ve usually eaten three meals by that time of day). magda_vogelsang, Jamie and I walked over to the Symposium Cafe and had a lovely meal. Oddly, I wasn’t actually that hungry, but was feeling a bit off. In hindsight, that probably means that the migraine that hit after I got home was already beginning to stalk me, but it wasn’t too evident yet. Though it could well have been affecting my judgment, as such things are wont to do. Anyway, I had a lovely grilled veggies and chicken wrap in a spinach tortilla with some cream of broccoli soup - yum! And magda_vogelsang and split a piece of raspberry cream cake for dessert - super yum! We also each tasted a sip of Jamie’s kiwi banana milkshake, which was amazing. Good food all around, and with just the three of us, much better service than at dinner last year when there were more like 30 people. We have decided to do this again should the event be at the same site next year. Although if Darius manages to get the event moved to Brantford, that would be even better!
It was kind of amusing when it came time to pay the bill. The waitress asked if we wanted separate checks, and we said yes, but then indicated that if that weren’t possible because of magda_vogelsang and I splitting the dessert that would be okay. She assured us that was no problem and returned with two checks, putting me and Jamie on one and magda_vogelsang on the other. Not quite what we had in mind. . .
After lunch I went to Rosina’s class featuring fun mash-ups of Balli and English Country dance. We did Pizochara to Jenny Plucked Pears, which worked rather well. And then we did Picking Sticks to Pizochara, which was a lot odder - several tempii changes in the middle of figures and such. So the first was definitely the greater success.
It was then time for Maurin’s Giove class. I’d feel like a wimp for preferring Jupiter, the adaptation of the same dance that uses pive instead of contrapassi in the piva section of music, but Rosina feels the same way, so I don’t. Still, it was a fun challenge and a good class. Glad I got to it here, since I likely won’t at Terpsichore. Also, I think our decision not to include it in the ball at Terpsichore is the right call.
It was then about 4:15pm, and I guess I’m used to the Terpsichore class schedule, because I felt exhausted and done with classes, even though there were two more class periods. Several of us went to sit at a table near the lunch tavern and chat. Gwommy was knitting a scarf for his sister, and also had his purple and orange Doctor Who scarf with him, so it was kind of inevitable that that scarf would at some point end up worn by several of us at once. Fun!
We had decided that we wanted to run through Turn of the Key during the ball review class, since the light attendance at the event meant that both rooms would not be needed for ball prep. If we’d been more with it, we would have organized dinner before that. The dinner break was scheduled for 6:15pm to 7:30pm. My original thought had been to try a bar and grill type place, and I’d printed out a menu and everything. I had also printed out and brought a list of all the nearby food from Google Maps. However, magda_vogelsang had pointed out that with the dinner break starting after 6pm on a Saturday, any sit down place was apt to be crowded and slow, so maybe take-out would be better. I had noticed a Chinese place on the food list that delivered (and was in the same shopping plaza) and pointed that out. I’d even gone so far as to pull up their menu on my computer that morning and decide on something I might be inclined to order and show it around to others. We made a vague plan to call in an order about halfway through the ball prep class. And that was the last I thought of it.
magda_vogelsang said she was just about to suggest that we get an order together when we all decided to go dance Turn of the Key, which Rosina had yet to experience, and niquerio and aelkiss had yet to dance, though they’d seen it the night before. And I tried it from another position, which was not as challenging as I’d anticipated and included the fun half figure 8 figure that my other position had not. Needless to say, we got caught up in that and were rather late and not very organized in getting together a food order, which was only exacerbated by additional people opting in on the plan. So we had a huge order that wasn’t made until after 6pm (we were amused listening to Jamie ordering, because it sounded like he was announcing the winning lottery numbers), and it didn’t arrive until closer to 7pm. I later found out Darius thought I had taken charge of organizing dinner, but that was news to me. My idea was to go out to the bar and grill. But, of course, that meant no one was in charge, with predictable results.
The food was adequate for fueling purposes, but I would not feel inclined to order from them again. A lot of dishes were not quite what was expected. My shanghai noodles, for which I was supposed to choose my meat for ( I chose chicken) had an unexpected yellow curry sauce (I like curry, just didn’t expect it), very few vegetables, and a mixture of protein, including lots of shrimp, which would delight many people, but not me. There were tons of noodles though - it seemed like it might be a never-emptying bowl of noodles, and wouldn’t that have been awesome? We were able to eat and get ready for the ball before it started, and that, of course, was the important thing.
The ball opened with the old measures (processing before the royalty) and then there was a brief court. What little voice her Majesty had was quite croaky, so she allowed the local Baroness and Baron to speak for her. But we were all amused when she began to mouth along with them, and make rather masculine gestures when the Baron was talking. It was a riot! A lady came up to swear fealty and did so in song, which was quite lovely. But all were perfectly content when the queen croaked that it was the most beautiful swearing of fealty she’d ever received, but she would not be singing in response. She also made some a comment at some point about feeling she was channeling His Majesty with her deep voice. I was very pleased to be there to see Rosalyn and Daniele receive their grant level arts awards (Order of the Crucible) - very well deserved, and awesome scrolls by Emma and Martin. Hers had words from the Il Papa manuscript (from which they’d taught earlier) and his from the Book of the Courtier.
Then the dancing continued in earnest. As usual, it started off sticking to the ball list and then diverged into whatever people were there wanted to do. All of the dances from my class were done - yay! Some of us did the Chigi Contrapasso to the Contrapasso in Due music. I enjoyed lots of fun dancing, including doing Pizochara to Jenny Pluck Pears (though I still like Jenny Gioiosa and might be more inclined to do that in the future) and dancing Gracca Amorosa with Jamie, with us doing the chorus different each time (different Italian steps in the chorus bit, with our chase at the end). We also got to do Whirligig, which they were planning to skip at that point - Martin grudgingly said that would be okay, but we’re not taking the time to teach it. Even better! I was especially happy to get to do that there since I did not end up including it in the Terpsichore ball.
But the highlight of the ball had to be the best Ly Bens ever! I went out toward the dance floor when it was called and congratulated Daniele on his award and noted that we had not yet danced. He remarked that we had not and this should be remedied. And, with attendance as light as it was, it should, in fact, be possible to dance with everyone present. We started the dance, and he began acquiring shadows. A lot of them. And then I acquired my own set of shadows. There had to be at least a dozen people behind each of us. This made the diamond figure quite interesting, and the turn at the end a riot, complete with sound effects as we whipped them all around. So much fun! Afterward, I remarked to Daniele, “When you said we should be able to dance with everyone present, I did not realize that you meant all In This Dance!” Yay!
Some time after Midnight, we decided to call it a ball, as the weather was abysmal and we heard the roads were a mess. I think we left about 1am. What normally would have been less than an hour drive ended up taking well over 2, and probably the less said about the experience, the better. Thanks to Maurin for driving in such hellacious conditions and getting us back in one piece. Thanks to Jamie for figuring out how to tell the Garmin to avoid toll roads. Our trip featured a not very direct route, nasty icy roads, and following a very slow parade of tow trucks. I sat in the way back and kept my mouth shut (except when I was shovelling food into it - I suddenly became ravenous and was glad of my leftover Chinese noodles).
We were better off than niquerio and aelkiss, whose car was hit by another car (denting the door), which then careened into yet another car and then drove off. They arrived back not long after we did. I told aelkiss that I’d heard they’d had even more excitement on the drive home than us, and he said something along the lines of, “Well, you know it was bad enough that you guys had to hit us, but you could have at least stopped.” I told him the van was out of control on the ice and despite our best efforts was absolutely unable to stop until, amazingly, it finally came to rest right in front of Darius and Lynette’s house. We laughed. We were all back safely and we could still laugh, so yay!
After 4 hours in bed (about 3½ hours of sleep according to my Fitbit), I got up and started making breakfast. We put the French Toast Casserole in the oven and I made a batch of vegetarian eggs to start with (eggs, garlic, butter, havarti cheese). Darius made bacon, experimenting with a microwave dish made for that purpose. He asked me how long he should put it in, and since I don’t make bacon that way, I had no idea so I directed him to my computer and told him to google it. The second batch of eggs was also cooked in bacon grease and had kielbasa in it. Everything turned out yummy (though I think the eggs with meat could have used a bit more cheese).
We then got ready to head over to the dance studio for the Sunday practice. Those of us who were walking were ready to go first, so I was given the key, and we headed over. The sidewalks were icy, but not unnavigable. I did look back a few times to make sure those walking behind us were all still upright and okay. When we got to the studio, we went to the wrong door first and then remembered that we always go in the other one. They key fit into that lock and we opened the door. I had trouble getting the key out of the door, but eventually managed to do so and we went in and started dancing.
What I didn’t realize was that in managing to get the key out of the door, I had also managed to lock it again. Oops. Yeah, I was a bit tired - it never occurred to me. So those walking behind us got there to find a locked door. They knocked and yelled, but we couldn’t hear them. They thought surely we would wonder where they were and come to check the door - that turned out to be an optimistic thought. They called Lynette’s cell phone, which was back at the house, so Darius answered. He was a bit confused I gather, wondering where the key was, only to be told it was inside with us. Of course, the U.S. phones were in airplane mode and couldn’t be reached. Others arrived, and Martin tried using his herald voice, all to no avail. Eventually, Jamie heard his phone and let everyone in. And Lynette used the key to unlock the door.
Once we all got into the dance studio, we had a great time, of course. We did a couple verses of Saint Paul’s Cathedral - yay! I even tried it as a side. And my outside corners tried it as Centres. Fun! Even if our new positions kept screwing people up who knew what positions we normally danced. We danced and got a recording of Two Fat Ladies (per Alex’s request - we should probably get that posted or e-mailed to him at some point), and then while another group was going through it, Magda and I went over Chiara Stella. At Rosina’s request, we did Fedelta and the Chigi Contrapasso again (and recorded those too, I believe) - yay! Swannoc and I kept flirting with each other in passing when we weren’t partners in Contrapasso, so we danced together for Fedelta.
I was one of the first to be done eating lunch, so I went back in the room and put on the music for Ginevra Weasley, which had the desired effect of attracting more dancers to the floor by the end of it (and I got to dance it, of course, so it would have been a win regardless). More dancing ensued, and then I realized that it was getting late (we only had the studio until 3pm), and I had yet to go through my verse of Saint Paul’s Cathedral. Jamie was with the musicians up behind the one-way mirror so I wandered over and mouthed and gestured what I wanted to do, which got them back to the dance floor rather quickly. I was not in good shape for trying to teach a dance for the first time or to remember to call it (sorry!), but it seemed to click for most people, and I was really happy with how it turned out - Yay! Must try again when more awake! By the time we finished, there were other people waiting to use the dance studio, so we had to vacate.
I again was in a group that walked back to Darius and Lynette’s place, and I managed to get Gwommy’s key in case we got there first. Of course, Gwommy ended up in a car in which no one had a key and got there before me, so I ended up tossing it to him anyway. It’s a wonder I keep managing to get people’s keys. . . .
magda_vogelsang and I then said our goodbyes and hit the road. She said she’d drive first for a change, and, as we traveled, it became more evident that a migraine was stalking me, so she ended up driving the entire way home. Thank you magda_vogelsang!
We once again had a super easy border crossing, for which I credit the Super Bowl. Very little wait. And the border guard was in the mood to joke around a bit. After the standard stuff, he said something like, “So, no cocaine or meth or anything like that?” He was clearly bantering, so magda_vogelsang replied, “Not this trip!” He laughed and said he looked forward to seeing us on our next one then!
The roads were clear and it was an uneventful trip home full of more song and good conversation. And thus ends another happy dance weekend. Yay, dancing!
After eating an early lunch at home, I picked up magda_vogelsang around 11:30am on Friday and we drove to Brantford, Ontario. The roads were clear and we enjoyed good conversation and singing along to music from my iPod (classics such as Blame Canada, which always seems to come up on random play on this particular trip, and newer additions, like What Did the Fox Say?”) As we crossed the bridge, magda_vogelsang made some comment about getting our passports ready, not that there was any rush, since it was not like we were going to pull right up to an open booth. Guess what? We did! We were waved through after saying we were going to visit friends, were coming back Sunday and did not have any guns or other weapons with us. Yay!
Got to Darius and Lynette’s place around 3:15pm, and noticed a sign stuck in the door frame. We went up to the porch to find it said something along the lines of, “We’ll be back soon!” We tried the door, and it was locked, so we decided to take a walk around the block. On coming back to the house, we saw Lynette pull up so went and said hello to her. She went to the side door, and we gathered our things and went up to the front door. magda_vogelsang decided it would be amusing to ring the doorbell at this point, so she did. On opening the door, the sign fell out, and Darius and Sionn were there, as well as Lynette. I was confused that there were there - turns out they’d been back for some time, but had gone in the other door and hadn’t remembered to take down the sign. Good thing magda_vogelsang rang the bell, because Lynette just assumed we’d gotten in before and were going for a walk, so she wasn’t going to let us in. On reflection, we should have knocked in the first place - oops!
After getting our stuff in, I went out for a longer walk and then helped Lynette do the prep work for French Toast Casserole planned for Sunday. We then had some of her famous lasagna for dinner, along with a salad, and magda_vogelsang’s chocolate cherry cake for dessert - yum! Around 7:30, a message popped up from Jamie on facebook: “Hey Alina! Could you ask Lynette to tell Darius to check his cellphone?” Darius happened to be passing by at that time, and Lynette was nearby, so it was easily accomplished. So I said sure, but indicated that he hadn’t involved magda_vogelsang, Maurin, Arlee or Sionn and they were feeling left out, and he told me to tellmagda_vogelsang to check her facebook. When I hadn’t responded right away, he had sent her a message saying, “"Hi Magda! Could you ask Maurin to tell Alina to check her Facebook?" And then I got a Facebook message from charles_midair (who was at home in Ann Arbor with the gaming group, but still on Facebook, of course) saying that Jamie wanted magda_vogelsang to check her Facebook. All very silly! But eventually accomplished the goal of letting Darius know when Jamie and Jessica expected to arrive and that they would like to be picked up at the train station. By this time, we were ready to dance!
Friday night dancing was great fun, as always! We went through Fedelta and the Chigi Contrapasso, which I was teaching the next day, some things in the ball that Arlee wanted to go through, like the Ealdormere version of Ly Bens,plus some of my favorites like Bella Gioiosa, Ginevra Weasley and Bizzaria d’Amore. More fun people kept arriving and joining in on the dancing fun. One of the highlights was going through Jamie’s new choreography, Turn of the Key. He was going for a shorter, simpler dance requiring fewer people. It does require fewer people, so one goal out of 3 was met - success? Of course, a new choreography with original and complex figures that the choreographer understands but hasn’t taught before is always an interesting learning experience for everyone the first time through. I think we were all a bit dubious after that first run-through,, but once it started to gel, we began to appreciate its finer points. It is a very fun and interesting dance, and it will be even better when Jamie and niquerio do the music! Yay! With the event the next day, especially as we hoped to get an early start so as to beat the worst of the expected snow, we called it a night fairly early. I went upstairs about Midnight, read for a half hour (finishing my book) and stayed in bed til about 6:30am. My Fitbit claims I got about 5 ½ hours of sleep, although I think that’s a generous estimate. Actually, I know it is, because the Fitbit fell out of the wristband sometime during the night and spent a good part of it in the trash can thinking I was sleeping soundly.
After breakfasting on oatmeal and assorted other things (energy balls which I had intended to contribute to the dessert revel until I found out the no nuts on site rule), cookies (I had brought my usual homemade chocolate chip cinnamon cookies, and Maurin had brought some chocolate chocolate chip cookies - yum!), fruit (an orange and a mini banana), and lots of tea, we headed to the event, with 7 of us in Maurin’s van. Yay, for not having to drive! Especially as it had already started to snow, although it didn’t seem too awful yet. Thank you Maurin!
Once on site, we noticed that a rather large number of us were wearing some variety of red, so a color gradient photo was required. My sweater also got its own photo opp from someone who is hoping to make something similar.
We got to site in plenty of time for the first class period, which was warm up with the Old Almains. I danced a bit with some newer folk, but then joined in on some fun playing around. One of my favorites was Jamie’s mashup of Old Almain and Contrapasso (doing the various arming bits on the turns followed by figure eights on the subsequent doubles) - it was beautiful and may actually help me remember which one Old Almain is in the future! We also were amused when Guillaume called for Black Nag instead of Black Almain, so we decided to do it to the almain music. Phrasing got a bit odd in the middle, but we actually ended the dance at the end of the recording (I think twice through Black Almain got us through all of Black Nag). Yay, silliness!
I next went to Roselyne and Daniele’s Il Papa class, which was quite interesting. Neat to learn about dances that seem to bridge the 15th and 16th Century Italian styles. And Gwommy earned quite the glare from Meg. You see, previously aelkiss had messaged her pretending to be Jamie and asking her to write music in 5/7 time for a new dance. She had noticed that it was coming from aelkiss’s phone, but claimed to be convinced it really was Jamie because aelkiss would never do that to her, “because he was her friend”. She sent music, which wasn’t actually in 5/7, supposedly because she wasn’t really paying attention, which she entitled, “You’re Not My Friend Anymore!” so, in the Il Papa class, when there was a question as to how the dance should fit the music, Gwommy suggested to Meg, who was playing the music, that she try it in 5/7. It was a very good glare! The class was great fun, but I had to duck out a bit early (before our second repeat of the second dance), since I was teaching in the other room in the next class period and needed a few minutes to prepare.
My class went quite well. I taught Fedelta, Contrapasso in Due, and Contrapasso from the Chigi Manuscripts. Of course, I chose these dances, because they are fairly simple and the event tends to get a lot of new dancers. This year, attendance was quite low, and it was mostly ringers, so it’s no surprise that everyone got the dances quickly enough for me to basically teach the class twice (which I did, at Rosina’s request as she had missed the beginning). Fun dances and enough people to do them, unlike for my class at RUM. And I liked Swannoc’s “group hug” interpretation of the in and out part of Fedelta - such fun!
It was then time for the rather late lunch break (1:15pm - I’ve usually eaten three meals by that time of day). magda_vogelsang, Jamie and I walked over to the Symposium Cafe and had a lovely meal. Oddly, I wasn’t actually that hungry, but was feeling a bit off. In hindsight, that probably means that the migraine that hit after I got home was already beginning to stalk me, but it wasn’t too evident yet. Though it could well have been affecting my judgment, as such things are wont to do. Anyway, I had a lovely grilled veggies and chicken wrap in a spinach tortilla with some cream of broccoli soup - yum! And magda_vogelsang and split a piece of raspberry cream cake for dessert - super yum! We also each tasted a sip of Jamie’s kiwi banana milkshake, which was amazing. Good food all around, and with just the three of us, much better service than at dinner last year when there were more like 30 people. We have decided to do this again should the event be at the same site next year. Although if Darius manages to get the event moved to Brantford, that would be even better!
It was kind of amusing when it came time to pay the bill. The waitress asked if we wanted separate checks, and we said yes, but then indicated that if that weren’t possible because of magda_vogelsang and I splitting the dessert that would be okay. She assured us that was no problem and returned with two checks, putting me and Jamie on one and magda_vogelsang on the other. Not quite what we had in mind. . .
After lunch I went to Rosina’s class featuring fun mash-ups of Balli and English Country dance. We did Pizochara to Jenny Plucked Pears, which worked rather well. And then we did Picking Sticks to Pizochara, which was a lot odder - several tempii changes in the middle of figures and such. So the first was definitely the greater success.
It was then time for Maurin’s Giove class. I’d feel like a wimp for preferring Jupiter, the adaptation of the same dance that uses pive instead of contrapassi in the piva section of music, but Rosina feels the same way, so I don’t. Still, it was a fun challenge and a good class. Glad I got to it here, since I likely won’t at Terpsichore. Also, I think our decision not to include it in the ball at Terpsichore is the right call.
It was then about 4:15pm, and I guess I’m used to the Terpsichore class schedule, because I felt exhausted and done with classes, even though there were two more class periods. Several of us went to sit at a table near the lunch tavern and chat. Gwommy was knitting a scarf for his sister, and also had his purple and orange Doctor Who scarf with him, so it was kind of inevitable that that scarf would at some point end up worn by several of us at once. Fun!
We had decided that we wanted to run through Turn of the Key during the ball review class, since the light attendance at the event meant that both rooms would not be needed for ball prep. If we’d been more with it, we would have organized dinner before that. The dinner break was scheduled for 6:15pm to 7:30pm. My original thought had been to try a bar and grill type place, and I’d printed out a menu and everything. I had also printed out and brought a list of all the nearby food from Google Maps. However, magda_vogelsang had pointed out that with the dinner break starting after 6pm on a Saturday, any sit down place was apt to be crowded and slow, so maybe take-out would be better. I had noticed a Chinese place on the food list that delivered (and was in the same shopping plaza) and pointed that out. I’d even gone so far as to pull up their menu on my computer that morning and decide on something I might be inclined to order and show it around to others. We made a vague plan to call in an order about halfway through the ball prep class. And that was the last I thought of it.
magda_vogelsang said she was just about to suggest that we get an order together when we all decided to go dance Turn of the Key, which Rosina had yet to experience, and niquerio and aelkiss had yet to dance, though they’d seen it the night before. And I tried it from another position, which was not as challenging as I’d anticipated and included the fun half figure 8 figure that my other position had not. Needless to say, we got caught up in that and were rather late and not very organized in getting together a food order, which was only exacerbated by additional people opting in on the plan. So we had a huge order that wasn’t made until after 6pm (we were amused listening to Jamie ordering, because it sounded like he was announcing the winning lottery numbers), and it didn’t arrive until closer to 7pm. I later found out Darius thought I had taken charge of organizing dinner, but that was news to me. My idea was to go out to the bar and grill. But, of course, that meant no one was in charge, with predictable results.
The food was adequate for fueling purposes, but I would not feel inclined to order from them again. A lot of dishes were not quite what was expected. My shanghai noodles, for which I was supposed to choose my meat for ( I chose chicken) had an unexpected yellow curry sauce (I like curry, just didn’t expect it), very few vegetables, and a mixture of protein, including lots of shrimp, which would delight many people, but not me. There were tons of noodles though - it seemed like it might be a never-emptying bowl of noodles, and wouldn’t that have been awesome? We were able to eat and get ready for the ball before it started, and that, of course, was the important thing.
The ball opened with the old measures (processing before the royalty) and then there was a brief court. What little voice her Majesty had was quite croaky, so she allowed the local Baroness and Baron to speak for her. But we were all amused when she began to mouth along with them, and make rather masculine gestures when the Baron was talking. It was a riot! A lady came up to swear fealty and did so in song, which was quite lovely. But all were perfectly content when the queen croaked that it was the most beautiful swearing of fealty she’d ever received, but she would not be singing in response. She also made some a comment at some point about feeling she was channeling His Majesty with her deep voice. I was very pleased to be there to see Rosalyn and Daniele receive their grant level arts awards (Order of the Crucible) - very well deserved, and awesome scrolls by Emma and Martin. Hers had words from the Il Papa manuscript (from which they’d taught earlier) and his from the Book of the Courtier.
Then the dancing continued in earnest. As usual, it started off sticking to the ball list and then diverged into whatever people were there wanted to do. All of the dances from my class were done - yay! Some of us did the Chigi Contrapasso to the Contrapasso in Due music. I enjoyed lots of fun dancing, including doing Pizochara to Jenny Pluck Pears (though I still like Jenny Gioiosa and might be more inclined to do that in the future) and dancing Gracca Amorosa with Jamie, with us doing the chorus different each time (different Italian steps in the chorus bit, with our chase at the end). We also got to do Whirligig, which they were planning to skip at that point - Martin grudgingly said that would be okay, but we’re not taking the time to teach it. Even better! I was especially happy to get to do that there since I did not end up including it in the Terpsichore ball.
But the highlight of the ball had to be the best Ly Bens ever! I went out toward the dance floor when it was called and congratulated Daniele on his award and noted that we had not yet danced. He remarked that we had not and this should be remedied. And, with attendance as light as it was, it should, in fact, be possible to dance with everyone present. We started the dance, and he began acquiring shadows. A lot of them. And then I acquired my own set of shadows. There had to be at least a dozen people behind each of us. This made the diamond figure quite interesting, and the turn at the end a riot, complete with sound effects as we whipped them all around. So much fun! Afterward, I remarked to Daniele, “When you said we should be able to dance with everyone present, I did not realize that you meant all In This Dance!” Yay!
Some time after Midnight, we decided to call it a ball, as the weather was abysmal and we heard the roads were a mess. I think we left about 1am. What normally would have been less than an hour drive ended up taking well over 2, and probably the less said about the experience, the better. Thanks to Maurin for driving in such hellacious conditions and getting us back in one piece. Thanks to Jamie for figuring out how to tell the Garmin to avoid toll roads. Our trip featured a not very direct route, nasty icy roads, and following a very slow parade of tow trucks. I sat in the way back and kept my mouth shut (except when I was shovelling food into it - I suddenly became ravenous and was glad of my leftover Chinese noodles).
We were better off than niquerio and aelkiss, whose car was hit by another car (denting the door), which then careened into yet another car and then drove off. They arrived back not long after we did. I told aelkiss that I’d heard they’d had even more excitement on the drive home than us, and he said something along the lines of, “Well, you know it was bad enough that you guys had to hit us, but you could have at least stopped.” I told him the van was out of control on the ice and despite our best efforts was absolutely unable to stop until, amazingly, it finally came to rest right in front of Darius and Lynette’s house. We laughed. We were all back safely and we could still laugh, so yay!
After 4 hours in bed (about 3½ hours of sleep according to my Fitbit), I got up and started making breakfast. We put the French Toast Casserole in the oven and I made a batch of vegetarian eggs to start with (eggs, garlic, butter, havarti cheese). Darius made bacon, experimenting with a microwave dish made for that purpose. He asked me how long he should put it in, and since I don’t make bacon that way, I had no idea so I directed him to my computer and told him to google it. The second batch of eggs was also cooked in bacon grease and had kielbasa in it. Everything turned out yummy (though I think the eggs with meat could have used a bit more cheese).
We then got ready to head over to the dance studio for the Sunday practice. Those of us who were walking were ready to go first, so I was given the key, and we headed over. The sidewalks were icy, but not unnavigable. I did look back a few times to make sure those walking behind us were all still upright and okay. When we got to the studio, we went to the wrong door first and then remembered that we always go in the other one. They key fit into that lock and we opened the door. I had trouble getting the key out of the door, but eventually managed to do so and we went in and started dancing.
What I didn’t realize was that in managing to get the key out of the door, I had also managed to lock it again. Oops. Yeah, I was a bit tired - it never occurred to me. So those walking behind us got there to find a locked door. They knocked and yelled, but we couldn’t hear them. They thought surely we would wonder where they were and come to check the door - that turned out to be an optimistic thought. They called Lynette’s cell phone, which was back at the house, so Darius answered. He was a bit confused I gather, wondering where the key was, only to be told it was inside with us. Of course, the U.S. phones were in airplane mode and couldn’t be reached. Others arrived, and Martin tried using his herald voice, all to no avail. Eventually, Jamie heard his phone and let everyone in. And Lynette used the key to unlock the door.
Once we all got into the dance studio, we had a great time, of course. We did a couple verses of Saint Paul’s Cathedral - yay! I even tried it as a side. And my outside corners tried it as Centres. Fun! Even if our new positions kept screwing people up who knew what positions we normally danced. We danced and got a recording of Two Fat Ladies (per Alex’s request - we should probably get that posted or e-mailed to him at some point), and then while another group was going through it, Magda and I went over Chiara Stella. At Rosina’s request, we did Fedelta and the Chigi Contrapasso again (and recorded those too, I believe) - yay! Swannoc and I kept flirting with each other in passing when we weren’t partners in Contrapasso, so we danced together for Fedelta.
I was one of the first to be done eating lunch, so I went back in the room and put on the music for Ginevra Weasley, which had the desired effect of attracting more dancers to the floor by the end of it (and I got to dance it, of course, so it would have been a win regardless). More dancing ensued, and then I realized that it was getting late (we only had the studio until 3pm), and I had yet to go through my verse of Saint Paul’s Cathedral. Jamie was with the musicians up behind the one-way mirror so I wandered over and mouthed and gestured what I wanted to do, which got them back to the dance floor rather quickly. I was not in good shape for trying to teach a dance for the first time or to remember to call it (sorry!), but it seemed to click for most people, and I was really happy with how it turned out - Yay! Must try again when more awake! By the time we finished, there were other people waiting to use the dance studio, so we had to vacate.
I again was in a group that walked back to Darius and Lynette’s place, and I managed to get Gwommy’s key in case we got there first. Of course, Gwommy ended up in a car in which no one had a key and got there before me, so I ended up tossing it to him anyway. It’s a wonder I keep managing to get people’s keys. . . .
magda_vogelsang and I then said our goodbyes and hit the road. She said she’d drive first for a change, and, as we traveled, it became more evident that a migraine was stalking me, so she ended up driving the entire way home. Thank you magda_vogelsang!
We once again had a super easy border crossing, for which I credit the Super Bowl. Very little wait. And the border guard was in the mood to joke around a bit. After the standard stuff, he said something like, “So, no cocaine or meth or anything like that?” He was clearly bantering, so magda_vogelsang replied, “Not this trip!” He laughed and said he looked forward to seeing us on our next one then!
The roads were clear and it was an uneventful trip home full of more song and good conversation. And thus ends another happy dance weekend. Yay, dancing!