Pennsic 43 - Dance with Me!
Back from another Pennsic - the best dance event in the Known World! And there’s some shopping and fighting and other stuff too. For those who couldn’t be there and those who were there and would like to relive it through my eyes, enjoy. But be warned - it’s kind of a book. So many fun details to share!
charles_midair and I left just after lunch on Friday and made our traditional stop for dinner at Perkins on the way in. Also, per our new tradition, we had great fun listening to Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell me on the way - fun! Arrived on site at 5pm - in plenty of time for me to make the SCA Dance history ball at 8pm, especially given that charles_midair had come the weekend before to help set up camp, so the pavillion was already up. Yay!
Upon arrival, charles_midair dropped me off (since he’d already checked in) and I walked to troll. I thought I might have heard someone trying to get my attention, but failed to see who it was, so paid it no mind - there are a lot of people at Pennsic - I figured it was for someone else. Turns out it was Philip trying to whistle at me from his car, but failing to effectively do so. At least we connected at troll even if he did think I’d blown him off! But I was delighted to meet up with a friend so soon after my getting there.
I also loved Alex’s tale of his arrival. He had gone through troll and was chatting with the volunteers about it being his first Pennsic, and when asked what had brought him there, Jamie walked in (perfect timing). So Alex gestured that way, saying, “him!”
After I checked in, I headed to camp to unpack and get dressed. We have a pretty decent camp site, if I do say so myself!
Then it was off to the History of SCA Dance Ball, hosted by Baroness Gwenllyen and Baron Maximillian, with assistance from yours truly (though more on the planning side than the execution). In this ball, we brought back some of the old nonperiod favorites and paired them with period dances with similar fun elements. The hope was to lure some people back to the dance floor who have not been around for too long, and I certainly saw many such people there that night. I very much enjoyed seeing Aimee and Garrahan on the dance floor and chatting with them. It was all great fun - I believe I danced every dance in the ball! (One of the advantages to making a ball list is it usually contains dances you actually like to do!)
Saltarello la Regina as done in the ball was described by sionandreas most stately version he had every seen. That was rather kind - it was a dirge. And the repeat structure was a wee bit creative (only half the verses but double choruses - oops!) Laugh - it’s clear that our musicians are no longer quite so familiar with these old dances. That said, Siri did a great job leading the musicians pit! I had fun selling the improvised saltarello that followed it, and was rather more peppy. Juice of Barley went by so quickly - only 3 repeats of the dance. But this was made up for by the My Lady Cullen, which followed and went on forever (it had all the repeats!). I danced Korobushka with charles_midair, as is our tradition. My Baronial coronet kept trying to escape my head, first during the capriole in War bransle, then during Trenchmore. I later had to dance Bizzaria d’Amore with hands clamping it firmly onto my head for each chorus, laughingly concluding that the lack of information about what dancers did with their hands during dance must be because it was so obvious they were using them to keep their coronets on!
I had great fun at open dancing after the ball as well - dance fanatic reunion time! There were already some specific to this Pennsic traditions started - Triangle solos and magically appearing eggs. niquerio and aelkiss could not be at Pennsic (for the best of reasons - yay, baby - born Thursday, the night before we left!), but sent on the Triangle, which got much use, to the joy of some and dismay of others. New Bo Peep, especially, had to have a Triangle solo verse. But it was concluded that some could benefit from some triangle training. . .
Another tradition was the continued egging of Martin that started at St. Cecilia at the Tower. He had neglected to pick up his hard boiled egg when he got his lunch, so he went back for it later, but was then accused of stealing the egg. The tale grew, as these things often do, into a saga of him taking 7 or more eggs. This led to a tradition of hard boiled eggs suddenly appearing in his possessions. Let’s just say that he had no trouble feeding his family this Pennsic!
One of my favorite Pennsic traditions is breakfast with charles_midair most days. We often are pulled in very different directions at Pennsic, and it’s nice to get some time together to share stories and jointly spend time with other friends. I was not always able to drag myself out of bed (usually not so long after I’d managed to stumble into it) in time to do so with him before the scheduled battles, but we managed more often than not. Yay! I am also very proud of him for keeping up with his push ups all week! Go charles_midair! I, on the other hand, took no dedicated walks (walking for the sake of walking). I made 25,000 steps one of the days, and 30,000 on another, but otherwise was below my usual total. I’m likely one of the very few people who gets less steps at Pennsic than at home. But dancing is more vigorous than walking, so I don’t think I need feel particularly exercised deprived.
A tradition with which most Pennsic goers are familiar is the selling of the Pennsic Independent paper by small children with rather sharp young voices. This year, there was an adorable set of triplets doing so with their father. Most times I saw them, they let out their very shrill cries right behind Alex, who always had a slightly pained expression on his face, as if to say, yes, they are very cute and I wish they’d go be cute elsewhere. Which, of course, tended to prompt Jamie to ask, “Alex, can we have triplets?”
Saturday morning, magda_vogelsang and I headed over to Aethelmearc Royal bright and early so she could practice for Dancing with the Pennsic Stars for the first time with her partner, King Tindall. I provided music and an extra dancer body when helpful. He mentioned that it was difficult to remember the order of steps in Contrapasso, and he found our explanation of their progression so helpful, that he retained and expanded on it later. So it’s like dating. Holding hands, then getting closer and holding arms, and then both hands - and then you trade partners! I also approved of his idea for the improvised pavanne - instead of avoiding running into other couples, force them off the dance floor so you’re the last couple standing - demolition pavanne, anyone? Yay for a partner with a sense of humor!
I spent much of the day hanging out with friends. Philip joined us at lunchtime - funny how the conversation changes when he’s around. Hopefully, Lynette learned her lesson about insisting that he tell us something he warned us we probably didn’t want to know! There were 9 of us gathered by the end of lunch. so Alex picked up his recorder and started playing Pennsic Dance. And, of course, the rest of us danced it in the food court area. Our own little personal Flash Mob. Yay!
There was a group practice for Dancing with Pennsic Stars early that evening. I did not participate, but was hanging out in the back of the dance tent and was amused to keep overhearing participants’ stories about me!! In one, I was unnamed, but I’m guessing there aren’t too many Laurels they could have been referring to who did a pole dance in a talent show claiming it was a newly discovered Italian dance. (I won that year too!) And magda_vogelsang talked about my dancing Bizzaria d’Amore with the bouncing coronet at the SCA dance history ball. I felt so loved! Or at the very least infamous, which is almost as good!
Saturday also marked the return of Gwommy to Pennsic, via Bronycon, of which he had stories and pictures to share.
Pennsic was very well populated with adorable couples. Jamie declared himself and Alex adorable couple #1 and Matt and Meg adorable couple number 2. There was some disagreement about the numerical designations, but there is no question that they’re both quite adorable.
Of course, it’s all a brilliant plan on the part of the Cynnabar musicians and dancers to lure fun music and dance people from Ealdormere to our group with romance. So when charles_midair mentioned a recurring idea of his - that of kidnapping Lynette and bringing her home with us, it occurred to me that this would fall right in line with this scheme and would work admirably to lure Darius to Ann Arbor as well. I told them I thought they would do very well together and could also be an adorable couple (since they already are). Lynette was dubious, but Darius thought it sounded all right. Except he later declared that he thought he should negotiate the numerical designation - they were not going to be #3, but would claim #0. Not my designations, so not my problem! I would also add Noelle and Casey to the list of adorable couples - not Cynnabar, but so very adorable together!
Saturday night was the dance games ball, hosted by Gregory. Not being overly excited by the set list, magda_vogelsang and I headed back to camp to get cloaks with a vague statement about returning later. On the way back, we went to see Il Verdi Confusi, a commedia troupe with many friends in it, and we were very entertained. Sadly, not long after we left the dance tent, charles_midair showed up there looking for me, and on hearing that I was coming right back, waited. Oops. He had such lovely experiences as doing the period version of Trenchmore, where the first couple does everything and everyone else stands around as place holders, so he basically got to stand there watching Gregory dance, and once that repeat ended, so did the dance. By the time I got back, he was done and ready to leave - so sad! Though I can’t feel too bad for him - I understand he very much enjoyed hanging out with Robyn, as anyone with any sense would!.
On magda_vogelsang’s and my return to the ball, we began playing our own dance games with our friends, such as doing La Castellana for 3 couples to New Bo Peep, and then Boateman forward to Peas Bransle, and then backward at double speed. We did Ly Bens for 4 couples in a circle. And after the musicians finished playing, we went through it and then told them we were ready to start. We made a line of eight people in a Road to the Isles hold going forward and back. And Petite Rose turned from individual couples into one long line. I’m not sure if the host appreciated our games, so it was probably as well that we waited til late in the ball to start playing them. But we had great fun!
The fun continued with late night dancing, and then it was raining so we were trapped in the dance pavillion having fun. (Darn!) At one point, magda_vogelsang checked the weather and said the rain should end in half an hour, which was fine, until she added, which would put it at 3:35am. !!! That was decidedly later than we had anticipated. Whee!
Sunday, I had breakfast with charles_midair, Henry Best, and Crespine (croissant with egg, cheese, and bacon). Then second breakfast with magda_vogelsang, Jamie and Alex (scotch egg). Of course, Henry passed by during my second breakfast and asked if my Pennsic is just a progression of me eating with friends, replacing the friends and eating again. Sounded all right to me! He then asked me how I stay this size, and I told him by dancing all night, of course! Yay, dancing! He said he’d take that under advisement.
It was a rainy day, and we spent a fair amount of time hanging out in camp. Various people (Jamie, Meg, and Matt) wore my straw hat, but with the veil in front (over their face). Jamie even danced Maraviglia d’Amore with me that way. Fun!
When the rain let up, we did some shopping , mostly helping Alex pick out fabric and trim to go with it to make tunics. It’s always fun to help friends spend their money well! My own Pennsic shopping netted me a fun new stripey chemise and matching coif.
Later that afternoon, we headed to the dance faculty social , with a stop for ice cream on the way, of course (with magda_vogelsang, Jamie, Alex and me running into Darius and Gwommy at the ice cream tent). With it being a rainy, muddy day, we were perhaps not as well dressed as usual for the group photo, but we were all in good spirits. Margaret gave a lovely talk about this year’s theme of New Beginnings and how everyone had come through amazingly and then handed out blank books (with hand painted covers) to each of the teachers and other volunteers. When she called me up, she referred to me as that insane lady who said I’d do whatever she needed, which ended up including teaching 4 classes and helping to host 2 different balls. I felt very appreciated - I was the only one she called insane!
magda_vogelsang and I then realized that the A&S display was only open for another hour. We had talked about going first thing in the morning, and Arina came by and mentioned that it was starting at 1pm. We then promptly forgot all about it until Martin asked if I’d gone and then called me a bad Laurel for not doing so. Very useful of him, as we’d been looking forward to going and almost missed it! Again, amazingly inspiring work by people from all kingdoms, and the artisans were enthusiastic about talking to us even at the end of a long day. Turns out the organisers had done an amazing job this year of providing support - drinks, snacks, breaks, etc. I also ran into Master Thomas from Caid, who we had met and danced with (including parts of Saint Paul’s Cathedral) last year, and I promised to send e-mail him links to Saint Paul’s Cathedral and other fun dance stuff. Yay!
That evening, charles_midair and I went to a memorial for Margaritte at Starry Knights camp. Finn hosted a lovely get-together of a few of Mary’s many friends to tell stories in Mary’s memory. The love and support were palpable, and it was amazing. He tasked us all with doing a service in the SCA in Mary’s memory, so she her positive impact on so many lives will continue. From there, we headed to the Beginner’s Ball, hosted by the Saltatoris Dance Guild, and helped introduce new people to dance. I also encouraged many of them to come to the teen revel (whether they were teens or not), since all the dances would also be taught there. It was a well-attended and very well run ball - yay!
Toward the end of the ball, Martin announced that Gwommy had been elevated to the Order of the Laurel at Terpsichore, but they had missed being there and had a gift to present to him in honor of the occasion, the perfect way for him to find his first apprentice. He asked whether we were familiar with the story of Cinderella. He then produced a pair of size 5 women’s purple boots (similar to Gwommy’s own signature boots) to use for this very purpose - Perfect!
Open dancing following the ball was great fun! I taught (or at least did quick run throughs of ) several dances, including Lo Spagnoletto and Ginevra Weasley. I announced that I wasn’t going to call Ginevra while dancing it because I wanted to flirt with Robyn :) Yay, Gwommy, for helpfully calling it from outside the dance to help out - thanks Gwommy! We had two sets of Two Fat Ladies, and my set had some people who really didn’t know it. While it fell apart spectacularly a couple times, it also quite incredibly came back together. Yay for good, fun dancers! Gwommy taught Newcastle from out of the set, and he and I swapped in and out for each other during the dance. We were the purple dancer :) Great fun!
Neither magda_vogelsang nor I were especially taken with the proposed addition of a turn single to the second chorus of Pennsic Dance, but it was fun to try. I just happen to think that dance is already pretty much perfect. Alex taught his new choreography with us as guinea pigs while Jamie came up with a roadmap for some music to make it workable - what a team! It was fun! Although I accused Alex of sabotaging us all thereafter in the final chorus of Newcastle, because his dance featured repeated use of the same figure without the turn single, and people already always want to skip that! Oddly, it seemed to have the opposite effect when I next did Newcastle, so perhaps I should thank him instead. . . .
magda_vogelsang and I were planning on making it an early night. We left the dance tent about 2:45am, so it was earlier than the previous night (albeit without the rain holding us hostage). Not really that early a night, but so much fun!
On Monday, I taught the first of my four classes, Grand Ball Prep. (I had been mindful of being thanked for things I had not yet done at the dance social). Before teaching, I headed to the Whose Line Doth it Be auditions, which are always fun to watch - a bonus show! I was sad to have to leave early. My class also conflicted with the planned Petit Vriens flash mob in the food court. So many fun things!
The class before mine ran a tad over, but with a dance that was in the ball (Jenny Pluck Pears), so I was fine with that. I had 5 couples, and taught Contrapasso from the Chigi manuscript (love that dance!), Petite Rose and Goddesses. Not a ton of dances, but introduced a nice selection of styles to my students that they really learned, and it went well.
Soon thereafter, it was time for my favorite Pennsic show, Whose Line Doth it Be? Everyone is so talented! It was great to have Calvin back and to have Ermenrich in the performance! And I’m always happy to see Edekyn perform. So many fun games. Highlights included Sharknado!!, Sleeping Beauty performed in ever smaller increments of time, a very steamy shower scene between Cubby and charles_midair with Shoshanna’s perfect timing on the ukelele, and the innuendo game (at which Kimberly was brilliant!) There were no teams this year, so everyone could play throughout. And after 8:30pm, the show was no longer PG-13. Both changes for the good! After the shower scene, charles_midair laughingly referred to his wife being in the audience, and Ceara, bless her, said not to worry - they’d take care of me! Yay!
The next time I took a shower in camp, charles_midair went for his own shower in the other stall and asked if I needed help scrubbing my back. Our exchange naturally devolved into a call back to the Cubby scene (he was welcome to do so after Cubby was done, and did he want me to send Cubby over)? And then we decided that in addition to Lynette, we should take Cubby home with us. It was looking to be a crowded truck!
After Whose Line, magda_vogelsang and I headed over to the Grand Ball. We arrived late and saw dancers set up in groups of 4. I asked Gwommy what dance they doing, and he replied, “Bizzaria!!!” I went all Kermitty, ran to magda_vogelsang and exclaimed that we needed to find partners. We ran to the other side of the dance floor, and grabbed 1 lord who didn’t know it at all, but was game to try and another lord who did not know it well (but had at least done it before). So we decided the ladies would do everything first and we’d call them through the rest. It was tons of fun and wonderful!!! Yay! The only dances we’d missed in the ball were Gathering Peascods and Montarde Bransle.
I had great fun chatting and dancing with Thomas - we tried to find out each others’ secret Laurel handshakes during Lorayne Alman, only to determine that neither of us knew any. Very silly! Philip claimed me as a partner for Madame Cecilia’s Alman - I love him as a partner for that dance! We had great fun playing it up and running into each embrace. As usual, I did La Castellana to New Bo Peep. And the next dance was La Castellana. So we did Hyde Park to that!
Philip was not going to do Horse’s Bransle, because they were partner switching and he didn’t want to lose his partner. And he claimed he couldn’t do the one couple version alone because he’s a follower. So Gwommy and I solved that problem by announcing that we’d do it and he could follow us. He didn’t realize we were doing the version with the Korobushka hold until we started it, and was about to claim he couldn’t do that version, but he was kind of stuck then and he ended up liking it better than he expected. Yay!
Jamie led the line of couples for Villanella, and by lead the line, I mean that all the other dancers were watching his feet in order to do it. Thanks Jamie!
I was also amused by the Gelosia set with Gwommy and magda_vogelsang as partners. When he returned to her at the end, she said, “You again!” And he replied, “Of course - you’re the only one wearing purple!”
Late night dancing featured Maurin’s request of Chiara Stella that kept not getting done (as he kept getting distracted) and the introduction of the Dance Amoeba! I stayed up until about 3am again.
[picture of dance Amoeba]
Tuesday was a crazy day, but full of dance and ice cream. I made myself available as a ringer and someone to fill out sets of 4 for Jamie’s class and was also willing to step out so any who wanted to learn the dances could do so. I did so for If All the World Were Paper and took the opportunity to go mail a post card. I got ice cream on the way back (it was right there and impossible to pass up) and was needed in a Newcastle set, so danced with chocolate chip cookie dough in hand. I finished the ice cream before we did the dance to music, which was helpful, since I encouraged the ladies to make it around the set in time by chasing them around the set with hands in the air and screams of “run, run!”
Jamie’s class was followed immediately by the Playford Ball, which was quite fun. I had arranged for Ceara to braid my hair there, as that was the only time we could find to do it, and kept an eye out for her. magda_vogelsang said she’d be happy to fill in for me in a dance if Ceara showed up when something was about to start with me in a set. But then we got a set together for Parson’s Farewell including both of us. So Gwommy agreed to fill in for me if Ceara showed up. She did, in fact, and Gwommy and I both started following her away from the set. Nice try Gwommy - you were my substitute for the dance, not for the hairdo!! Ceara did an awesome job on the hair, as always - yay!
After the ball, we got ice cream (#2 for me) and caught the end of Wolgemut’s performance in the merchant area. I very much enjoyed chatting with Cecilia and Michaela while enjoying the show.
Then it was a dash back to camp to gather cookies and other useful items and a dash back to the dance tent for my Beginning 16th C. Italian dance class, which went extremely well. I had 4 couples, one brand new, and everyone enjoyed the dances. While teaching the Chigi Contrapasso, I got to my favorite figure where the lords push the ladies out of the circle, and then the ladies push them back. I taught is as, “The ladies then put the lords back in their place!” which everyone loved. Yay!
My original plan was to prepare a plate of cookies and head over to Starry Knights camp for our household’s annual bocce ball party, already in progress (which, for me, tends to be a Scrabble party). But it was raining. Hard. And there was a lot of mud between me and Starry Knights camp. And Dunstan was happy for my help with his Joy and Jealousy class (Bizzaria d’Amore and Contrapasso in Due). So I stayed in the dance tent. (Because I am a wuss!) This meant I was also on the spot to prepare set list boards and such for the teen revel, so while I was sad to miss the household event, it did make things a tad less hectic.
Ah, the teen revel - I could do a whole entry just on that! Early in the year, Luther asked me if I’d co-host this event with him, and I was happy to assist. His dad Gebhard was going to lead the band and we came up with a fun set list and event description, and there was much excitement! A lot can change between January and August, however. Luther was not able to make it to Pennsic after all and, for various reasons, Gebhard and I did not touch base until very late in the game. But he was still game to lead the music (with a modified set list to reflect dances he could actually play - picky, picky!) and I had great fun co-hosting the revel with the lovely Robyn, who did a fantastic teaching dances and encouraging people to dance. I’d brought homemade applesauce spice cookies and brownie bites for snacks. The revel was pretty lightly attended (which I blame primarily on the stormy, muddy weather - I wasn’t the only wuss, apparently), but those there had a good time.
After that, it was ice cream time (#3 that day for me, but who’s counting?) Yay!
[picture with Philip]
And then it was time for the “To Italy and Beyond!” ball (basically every type of dance other than Playford), hosted by the lovely Ginevra and Gianna. On seeing the name of the ball on the set list board, I suddenly shared an amusing thought with the others, which prompted us to approach Ginevra and do our best Buzz Lightyear impressions, raising our hands in the air and proclaiming, “To Italy and Beyond!” She laughed and told us we’d just made her night :) The ball was fun, although I’m not sure the warm up set idea was ideal in practice. The idea was to have a selection of the popular dances from the rest of the ball at the beginning and then repeat them later, so people wouldn’t miss out on them. But if you stay for the entire ball, this leads to rather a lot of repetition. Especially as many of the popular dances are in most of the balls. But, little nitpick aside, it was a good time and they were wonderful hosts. They had quite a nice spread of food too (to which I added the leftover cookies from my revel).
Late night dancing continued to get ever sillier as the week went on and we got more sleep deprived. We had the return of reverance lunges
We also decided to see how many people Jamie and Alex could encircle in a group hug - 9 of us, apparently! (They have long arms) During this process, Alex was looking around for Lynette, because he has a perfect sized spot just for her, and we proclaimed that there was always room for Lynette!
At one point, Sally was talking about things earlier in the day and then it occurred to her to wonder if it was, in fact, the same day. The response upon a look at a watch, “No - It’s been tomorrow for 15 minutes already!” We immediately realized the ridiculousness of that statement and found it hilarious. Yes, we were that tired and punchy!
But it was kind of an early night - I was in bed by 2am
Wednesday started off with a migraine (which was starting the night before, on reflection, but I wasn’t with it enough to take anything to stave it off. So my morning was quiet and, thankfully, the headache went away before the craziness began!
That afternoon, magda_vogelsang, Jamie, Alex and I headed to Casa Bardicci, getting me there in plenty of time for my 1pm class. I don’t recall exactly how it started, but magda_vogelsang and I had decided that Jamie was very good at walking to Casa Bardicci and we were joking about that being why we liked hanging around him and telling him so. Punchy, remember? We stopped for several photo opps on the way. Getting into the villa was a bit of a challenge, as it was a mud pit from all the rain, but we managed, without anyone getting an unintended mud bath.
Conandil was teaching her reconstruction of Bella Gioiosa in the hour before my class, and I did much eye rolling as she misstated information about how some people think you repeat the ritornello, but they’re wrong and Caroso says so, etc. Sigh. Just for the record, a ritornello in period music is a “go back to” section - in other words, it repeats. It used to be called a riprese, but the name was changed, presumably so as to avoid confusion with the dance step. In Bella Gioiosa, in particular, Caroso was unusually specific with respect to how the music should be played - AA BBB (repeated). In another of his dances, Caroso made reference to the fact that the ritornello is “always” played twice - if it only happens once, that makes no sense. niquerio has done some research (Yay, research!) into this topic that bears all this out and will hopefully some day turn it into an article for everyone’s further edification. She was kind enough to share her research with me, and I intended to have a chat with Maurin about this very topic, but, sadly, we never got around to it. Still, a public confrontation with a teacher during her class would not have been appropriate (and is really not my style), so I let it go and just exercised my eyes a bit. When I saw her later, the moment was gone, and I elected instead to have a pleasant conversation about how cute her son was dancing Pizochara.
Margaret was up on the second floor of the villa taking pictures, and was caught on camera doing so. We joked that someone should photo shop in a sniper rifle - I expect she’d be amused.
My class went well. I taught Bizzaria d’Amore and Lo Spagnoletto. I had 4 sets of people going through both (about all that would fit on the floor) with a couple more (Jamie and Alex) joining in when we danced. Even though I started teaching the turn in the chorus of Lo Spagnoletto wrong (one of those brain did it’s own thing moments), I soon realized my error and fixed it. All the sets looked great, and I had a student come up after and thank me saying that after I taught the dances, she really got them (and she was obviously very pleasantly surprised to have done so). Yay!
Following my class, Rebecca taught Villanella and La Castellana. I stayed for the class, as I like those dances and always enjoy her teaching. Chatted with one of my partners (who lives where the practice is to alternate which foot leads when doing multiple sets and turns, as opposed to how we do it in the Midrealm - always starting left) about how I sometimes explain the riprese/trab sequence with a turn in spez cadenza to ECD fans as a fancy set and turn. He then proceeded to do the sequence to the right, but with the turn to the left, so I could not help but good-naturedly tease that this was understandable since in some places the set and turn is always done left. His eyes narrowed a bit as he said he was not from one of those places, and I replied with glee, “I know!” We had much fun being silly. I also had great fun dancing with Udalrich (who was kind enough to provide music for my class, even though I didn’t ask him until the day before!)
The Caroso Ball, hosted by Maurin, was next. It began with Thyra choosing Conrad as a partner and Bizzaria d’Amore as the dance. And I was asked to find a partner for the second couple of their set. It was great fun, as you can see in the video on the facebook Pennsic Dance page.
After an hour or so of the ball, there was a break, and magda_vogelsang, Jamie, Alex, and I headed to Gianna and Ginevra’s Wine and cheese party. There were so much wonderful cheeses!! And other yummy food and drink. And excellent company. I was amused when I mentioned to Gianna that I’d been teaching next door, and she said she knew, because she could hear me calling while she was in the camp shower! But I was disappointed to hear that this did not, in fact, lead to her dancing in the shower. This is the first year I’ve made it to this party (since Wednesday is always a bit crazy), but it won’t be the last!
It was then time for the Cynnabar Thanksgiving dinner (to which I brought more cookies - I’d made two double batches). Yum! Followed by drunken court. There was some fun schtick with battling heralds (Ermenrich and Johannes) who kept switching out whenever the acting herald’s drink ran out. When we were invited to come up and swear fealty, Ermenrich was heard to swear his as Ermenrich von Douchebag - he insists he said DuisBERG, but we all heard differently. Sometimes, having a herald’s projecting voice is not an advantage.
Other highlights of Drunken court included Alex and Jamie each getting their elephant’s heart, Melisant receiving an elephant pin cushion made by our Baroness for running garb workdays and making us look good, and the Watchman of the Tower regalia now including a hood to which Kasha added a dancing porkchop (yay!) And there was much merriment and well-deserved recognition. Yay, Cynnabar!
Meanwhile, charles_midair had gone to East Kingdom Court to speak on behalf of Judith, who was being elevated to the Order of the Laurel. I wish I could have been there too! So well deserved! And charles_midair had great fun speaking as Middle Kingdom Seneschal there - he got silence on announcing who he was, but the crowd was cheering after his talk. Yay! Earlier, charles_midair had been getting ready and put on his winnegas (viking leg wraps) and then realized he’d put them on over the wrong pants. Sigh. So he took them off and redid them over the proper pants. He was telling Duke Dag about this, as he knew Dag would approve of him taking the trouble to get the right look. He then told Dag that he would be speaking for Judith in East Kingdom Court, and without missing a beat, Dag replied, “And you’re wearing that?”
After Baronial court, we headed to the dance tent for Dancing with the Pennsic Stars. charles_midair was one of the 3 judges and all the royal contestants were paired with dance experts, every one of which can be counted among my dance friends. Including magda_vogelsang dancing with King Tindall, Jamie dancing with Queen Ragni, and Darius dancing with Queen Dagrun of An Tir. The Queen of Northshield served as the Russian judge and was amazing. Everyone was awesome, and I wanted to vote for them all! Highlights included Tindall and Cameron doing a chest bump, choices of a third for Petit Vriens including Tindall’s young son (called a bold choice by charles_midair, “especially as your son dances better than you!”) and Cameron’s inviting one of the judges to act as their third, Amalie’s running off chased by charles_midair and Cameron after the Russian judge was particularly scathing, the Russian judge chastising the King and Queen of An Tir for kissing in public - “no one wants to see that kind of thing from a married couple!”, a couple of the royal contestants continuing to dance during the intermission, and the An Tir royalty getting their subjects to do the wave by walking in front of them (causing them to get up and sit down in a wave). So much fun! The queen of An Tir was eventually declared the winner, but they were all wonderful. And the event served to show that European dance is a ton of fun, even if you’re not an expert. I found the royals’ willingness to promote dance in such a fashion inspirational. I hope that if I ever end up wearing a crown that memories such as this will inspire me to provide like support to activities outside my usual areas of interest.
Dancing with the Pennsic Stars was followed by Bransle Fest. I love Wolgelmut, but am not a huge bransle fan. So magda_vogelsang, Jamie, Alex and I went shopping instead and then called it a night rather early - I was in bed by 1:30am! Really!
On Thursday, I slept in til almost 10. Then took my breakfast (french toast) to the dance tent, and followed it immediately with ice cream! Yay!
From there, six of us (me magda_vogelsang, Alex, Jamie, Holly and Darius) headed to the marketplace, where we listened to Aprill Knight play the Hurdy Gurdy. We requested Black Nag, which she was delighted to play for us, especially as she was eager to find out the right repeat structure and tempo for her upcoming CD with dance music. We were happy to help and had fun drawing a crowd with the combination of her playing and our dancing (some of us still with ice cream). We then helped by dancing and advising her on the playing of other dances about which she had questions, including Official Bransle, Amoroso and Petite Vriens. We also exchanged contact information so we can continue to consult from afar. Yay!
I then taught my last class - Dance Review by Request. I taught the Chigi Contrapasso, Montarde bransle and Newcastle. I had 10 people in the class and the two ringers were not even in the Newcastle set, because the beginners wanted to learn it. Everyone did very well and had a good time. I was again pleased with how it turned out, and hopefully my teaching Newcastle will help me remember it in the future (a technique that has worked before).
It was then time for my Scrabble date with Mistress Melisant back at Starry Knights camp. When I told my friends where I was going, they misheard her name as “Mister Smellysant” and then “Mister Smelling Salts”, though the best was Cathryn back at camp on hearing it as “Mister Smelly Socks”. Oh yes, she said, “He used to camp with us!” But no, my slurry speech aside, my date was with the lovely Melisant! We played two games and were each victorious in turn. Fun times! We also had a great time chatting with Finn and others who came by.
Thursday night was court night both for Ealdormere and the Midrealm. But there was so much else going on, I failed to make it to either. I was very pleased to hear that Meg got her Crucible in Ealdormere court - yay! So well deserved! Lots happened at Midrealm Court - it was so long, they had an intermission! (It was just under 3 hours, which means the 4 hour long East Kingdom Court the day before wins the prize - they can have it!) Still, I would have liked to be there to welcome Henry Best to the Order of the Laurel (I was very sorry to miss charles_midair speaking for him!) and to see Keely the Tinker put on Vigil. Cynnabar as a group did well too. Members of Cynnabar who helped set up the Dais for Opening Ceremonies received a Fretty and the Cynnabar Army received Dragon’s Teeth. Hoobah to all!
But much as I would have liked to be there, I am happy that I instead decided to help set up for Jamie’s Numerological Ball. There was a fair amount to do with moving new floor boards to the trailer and setting out the food. While he didn’t have the lovely spread provided by Ragni last year (what with her being queen and all), he managed to assemble quite an impressive spread indeed - Sugar cookies in the shape of numbers (a different number offered for each set),, energy bites, applesauce spice cookies, chocolate nests, chocolate chip cookies, and fruit. All the baked goods were homemade, and the number cookies were awesome!
This ball also featured the prettiest and coolest set list boards of the war - Holly did an amazing job on them!
Even though I was involved in the hosting of two other balls this year, Jamie’s ball was my favorite (not having to run it, but just helping out may be a factor in this). His set list was the most interesting and least repetitive of other balls, and the concept behind the ball was fun. The first set was all one couple dances, the second set all two couple dances, etc. Jamie is also very good asking people to help him with things that they are good at and enjoy doing (e.g. Holly making beautiful boards, magda_vogelsang and the number cookies).
Attendance was lighter than ideal, mostly because it was so late in the war and it was up against both a huge court and the Hoity Toity Party. I was a bit torn about that myself. I’d been looking forward to dancing at Casa Bardicci again as well, but was unhappy to learn that it conflicted with this ball. I wanted to stay for the ball, but also knew that Maurin had made a commitment to Bardicci to provide dance performers and didn’t want him to fall short of what would work well. Happily for me, Maurin said he had enough dancers if I wanted to stay at the ball, so I did - yay! And I made myself useful (in addition to being another dancer to fill out the later sets) by replenishing the food table as needed. The dancing was great fun, of course. Alex and I continued our tradition started earlier that week of grabbing each other as partner when a dance we both liked was called (like Whirligig), holding both hands, and jumping up and down like crazy people. We achieved some pretty amazing altitude too!
It was my last night at Pennsic, and I continued dancing until 3:30am. Late night dancing featured lots of Ma Navu (including at supersonic speed), Saltarello II, and Riuone as the last dance, which we did twice when more people wanted to do it after seeing it the first time, but we didn’t bother teaching it because it was said “Alina can pull anyone through this dance!” Yay!
After 3 hours of sleep, I marched out to the field with the fighters on Friday. I didn’t think I was going to make it, until Kathryn provided me with hot water for my tea (thanks Kathryn!) and the caffeine worked it’s magic. I was glad I was able to support charles_midair and the other Cynnabar fighters by doing this, and it is fun to parade around in a group.
I then headed back to camp to start packing up, but took a break to meet Martin and others for breakfast (including eggs, of course - but properly cooked, rather than just hard boiled)! Unintentionally taunted the others with my french toast plate - I forgot that the bread bowl place technically stops selling breakfast at 11am, which is when we were meeting. Apparently, magda_vogelsang and I got the last of the French toast. Oops! But, thankfully, Beast and Boar was still serving breakfast and everyone was well fed.
Then we said our goodbyes and headed back to camp. I had to pack up the rest of the stuff so we could leave right after charles_midair came back from Hjorleif’s knighting ceremony. After getting it all packed, magda_vogelsang and I decided one more ice cream run was required. We were joined there by Jamie and Alex (who decided he wanted real food). And, of course, we ran into more friends and said more goodbyes (Gwenllyen, Max, Noelle, Casey, Maurin and Caelia). When I got back to camp, charles_midair and others were already loading up the truck.
Had fun on the way home trading stories with charles_midair. All Pennsics are good, but this was a particularly good one, somehow. charles_midair later posted to the Midrealm facebook page about one aspect of this we had discussed, and he said it so well, I am just going to excerpt his words here:
I want to talk about what I see as one of the best aspects of the SCA. In my office as Kingdom Seneschal, I frequently see the worst. I have to deal with the fallout of injury, death, criminal prosecution, assault, rape, hatred, discrimination, etc. and etc. and on and on and on.
Yet at Pennsic this year, I took note of many things that caused my heart to swell and bring tears to my eyes, even though it is unfortunate that it still stands out to me. And here it is: in all of the courts, revels, events, combats, parties, and every other activity, not once did the person's or participant's gender, race, or sexual orientation seem to matter. At all.
Looking around there are still not many minorities represented in the SCA. Yet we all cheered on the heroic deeds of a warrior, of our brother, and his race didn't matter. A young lady who I also highly respect was made a Captain of the Red Company, and all those huge hulking men cheered and cried at the rightness of it, and will gladly follow, *follow*, her into battle.
At the dance tent I saw many same sex/gender couples dancing together, and no one batted an eye, or tried to break them up so they "wouldn't have to dance together." I even asked a guy to dance with me because, well, he is a friend and I wanted to dance with him. I would behave the same with a lady who is a friend, so why not a lord? And it was okay. No one gainsayed us. It wasn't a problem at all.
Again, I wish this was so common that I didn't even notice it, let alone discuss it. But so much of the modern world is not like this, and I felt the need to share.
At this Pennsic, my view of the SCA showed me egalitarianism. Thank you all for that gift. May it continue to grow and shine as an example for our everyday lives and world.
I think that about says it all. Except, of course, Yay!
charles_midair and I left just after lunch on Friday and made our traditional stop for dinner at Perkins on the way in. Also, per our new tradition, we had great fun listening to Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell me on the way - fun! Arrived on site at 5pm - in plenty of time for me to make the SCA Dance history ball at 8pm, especially given that charles_midair had come the weekend before to help set up camp, so the pavillion was already up. Yay!
Upon arrival, charles_midair dropped me off (since he’d already checked in) and I walked to troll. I thought I might have heard someone trying to get my attention, but failed to see who it was, so paid it no mind - there are a lot of people at Pennsic - I figured it was for someone else. Turns out it was Philip trying to whistle at me from his car, but failing to effectively do so. At least we connected at troll even if he did think I’d blown him off! But I was delighted to meet up with a friend so soon after my getting there.
I also loved Alex’s tale of his arrival. He had gone through troll and was chatting with the volunteers about it being his first Pennsic, and when asked what had brought him there, Jamie walked in (perfect timing). So Alex gestured that way, saying, “him!”
After I checked in, I headed to camp to unpack and get dressed. We have a pretty decent camp site, if I do say so myself!
Then it was off to the History of SCA Dance Ball, hosted by Baroness Gwenllyen and Baron Maximillian, with assistance from yours truly (though more on the planning side than the execution). In this ball, we brought back some of the old nonperiod favorites and paired them with period dances with similar fun elements. The hope was to lure some people back to the dance floor who have not been around for too long, and I certainly saw many such people there that night. I very much enjoyed seeing Aimee and Garrahan on the dance floor and chatting with them. It was all great fun - I believe I danced every dance in the ball! (One of the advantages to making a ball list is it usually contains dances you actually like to do!)
Saltarello la Regina as done in the ball was described by sionandreas most stately version he had every seen. That was rather kind - it was a dirge. And the repeat structure was a wee bit creative (only half the verses but double choruses - oops!) Laugh - it’s clear that our musicians are no longer quite so familiar with these old dances. That said, Siri did a great job leading the musicians pit! I had fun selling the improvised saltarello that followed it, and was rather more peppy. Juice of Barley went by so quickly - only 3 repeats of the dance. But this was made up for by the My Lady Cullen, which followed and went on forever (it had all the repeats!). I danced Korobushka with charles_midair, as is our tradition. My Baronial coronet kept trying to escape my head, first during the capriole in War bransle, then during Trenchmore. I later had to dance Bizzaria d’Amore with hands clamping it firmly onto my head for each chorus, laughingly concluding that the lack of information about what dancers did with their hands during dance must be because it was so obvious they were using them to keep their coronets on!
I had great fun at open dancing after the ball as well - dance fanatic reunion time! There were already some specific to this Pennsic traditions started - Triangle solos and magically appearing eggs. niquerio and aelkiss could not be at Pennsic (for the best of reasons - yay, baby - born Thursday, the night before we left!), but sent on the Triangle, which got much use, to the joy of some and dismay of others. New Bo Peep, especially, had to have a Triangle solo verse. But it was concluded that some could benefit from some triangle training. . .
Another tradition was the continued egging of Martin that started at St. Cecilia at the Tower. He had neglected to pick up his hard boiled egg when he got his lunch, so he went back for it later, but was then accused of stealing the egg. The tale grew, as these things often do, into a saga of him taking 7 or more eggs. This led to a tradition of hard boiled eggs suddenly appearing in his possessions. Let’s just say that he had no trouble feeding his family this Pennsic!
One of my favorite Pennsic traditions is breakfast with charles_midair most days. We often are pulled in very different directions at Pennsic, and it’s nice to get some time together to share stories and jointly spend time with other friends. I was not always able to drag myself out of bed (usually not so long after I’d managed to stumble into it) in time to do so with him before the scheduled battles, but we managed more often than not. Yay! I am also very proud of him for keeping up with his push ups all week! Go charles_midair! I, on the other hand, took no dedicated walks (walking for the sake of walking). I made 25,000 steps one of the days, and 30,000 on another, but otherwise was below my usual total. I’m likely one of the very few people who gets less steps at Pennsic than at home. But dancing is more vigorous than walking, so I don’t think I need feel particularly exercised deprived.
A tradition with which most Pennsic goers are familiar is the selling of the Pennsic Independent paper by small children with rather sharp young voices. This year, there was an adorable set of triplets doing so with their father. Most times I saw them, they let out their very shrill cries right behind Alex, who always had a slightly pained expression on his face, as if to say, yes, they are very cute and I wish they’d go be cute elsewhere. Which, of course, tended to prompt Jamie to ask, “Alex, can we have triplets?”
Saturday morning, magda_vogelsang and I headed over to Aethelmearc Royal bright and early so she could practice for Dancing with the Pennsic Stars for the first time with her partner, King Tindall. I provided music and an extra dancer body when helpful. He mentioned that it was difficult to remember the order of steps in Contrapasso, and he found our explanation of their progression so helpful, that he retained and expanded on it later. So it’s like dating. Holding hands, then getting closer and holding arms, and then both hands - and then you trade partners! I also approved of his idea for the improvised pavanne - instead of avoiding running into other couples, force them off the dance floor so you’re the last couple standing - demolition pavanne, anyone? Yay for a partner with a sense of humor!
I spent much of the day hanging out with friends. Philip joined us at lunchtime - funny how the conversation changes when he’s around. Hopefully, Lynette learned her lesson about insisting that he tell us something he warned us we probably didn’t want to know! There were 9 of us gathered by the end of lunch. so Alex picked up his recorder and started playing Pennsic Dance. And, of course, the rest of us danced it in the food court area. Our own little personal Flash Mob. Yay!
There was a group practice for Dancing with Pennsic Stars early that evening. I did not participate, but was hanging out in the back of the dance tent and was amused to keep overhearing participants’ stories about me!! In one, I was unnamed, but I’m guessing there aren’t too many Laurels they could have been referring to who did a pole dance in a talent show claiming it was a newly discovered Italian dance. (I won that year too!) And magda_vogelsang talked about my dancing Bizzaria d’Amore with the bouncing coronet at the SCA dance history ball. I felt so loved! Or at the very least infamous, which is almost as good!
Saturday also marked the return of Gwommy to Pennsic, via Bronycon, of which he had stories and pictures to share.
Pennsic was very well populated with adorable couples. Jamie declared himself and Alex adorable couple #1 and Matt and Meg adorable couple number 2. There was some disagreement about the numerical designations, but there is no question that they’re both quite adorable.
Of course, it’s all a brilliant plan on the part of the Cynnabar musicians and dancers to lure fun music and dance people from Ealdormere to our group with romance. So when charles_midair mentioned a recurring idea of his - that of kidnapping Lynette and bringing her home with us, it occurred to me that this would fall right in line with this scheme and would work admirably to lure Darius to Ann Arbor as well. I told them I thought they would do very well together and could also be an adorable couple (since they already are). Lynette was dubious, but Darius thought it sounded all right. Except he later declared that he thought he should negotiate the numerical designation - they were not going to be #3, but would claim #0. Not my designations, so not my problem! I would also add Noelle and Casey to the list of adorable couples - not Cynnabar, but so very adorable together!
Saturday night was the dance games ball, hosted by Gregory. Not being overly excited by the set list, magda_vogelsang and I headed back to camp to get cloaks with a vague statement about returning later. On the way back, we went to see Il Verdi Confusi, a commedia troupe with many friends in it, and we were very entertained. Sadly, not long after we left the dance tent, charles_midair showed up there looking for me, and on hearing that I was coming right back, waited. Oops. He had such lovely experiences as doing the period version of Trenchmore, where the first couple does everything and everyone else stands around as place holders, so he basically got to stand there watching Gregory dance, and once that repeat ended, so did the dance. By the time I got back, he was done and ready to leave - so sad! Though I can’t feel too bad for him - I understand he very much enjoyed hanging out with Robyn, as anyone with any sense would!.
On magda_vogelsang’s and my return to the ball, we began playing our own dance games with our friends, such as doing La Castellana for 3 couples to New Bo Peep, and then Boateman forward to Peas Bransle, and then backward at double speed. We did Ly Bens for 4 couples in a circle. And after the musicians finished playing, we went through it and then told them we were ready to start. We made a line of eight people in a Road to the Isles hold going forward and back. And Petite Rose turned from individual couples into one long line. I’m not sure if the host appreciated our games, so it was probably as well that we waited til late in the ball to start playing them. But we had great fun!
The fun continued with late night dancing, and then it was raining so we were trapped in the dance pavillion having fun. (Darn!) At one point, magda_vogelsang checked the weather and said the rain should end in half an hour, which was fine, until she added, which would put it at 3:35am. !!! That was decidedly later than we had anticipated. Whee!
Sunday, I had breakfast with charles_midair, Henry Best, and Crespine (croissant with egg, cheese, and bacon). Then second breakfast with magda_vogelsang, Jamie and Alex (scotch egg). Of course, Henry passed by during my second breakfast and asked if my Pennsic is just a progression of me eating with friends, replacing the friends and eating again. Sounded all right to me! He then asked me how I stay this size, and I told him by dancing all night, of course! Yay, dancing! He said he’d take that under advisement.
It was a rainy day, and we spent a fair amount of time hanging out in camp. Various people (Jamie, Meg, and Matt) wore my straw hat, but with the veil in front (over their face). Jamie even danced Maraviglia d’Amore with me that way. Fun!
When the rain let up, we did some shopping , mostly helping Alex pick out fabric and trim to go with it to make tunics. It’s always fun to help friends spend their money well! My own Pennsic shopping netted me a fun new stripey chemise and matching coif.
Later that afternoon, we headed to the dance faculty social , with a stop for ice cream on the way, of course (with magda_vogelsang, Jamie, Alex and me running into Darius and Gwommy at the ice cream tent). With it being a rainy, muddy day, we were perhaps not as well dressed as usual for the group photo, but we were all in good spirits. Margaret gave a lovely talk about this year’s theme of New Beginnings and how everyone had come through amazingly and then handed out blank books (with hand painted covers) to each of the teachers and other volunteers. When she called me up, she referred to me as that insane lady who said I’d do whatever she needed, which ended up including teaching 4 classes and helping to host 2 different balls. I felt very appreciated - I was the only one she called insane!
magda_vogelsang and I then realized that the A&S display was only open for another hour. We had talked about going first thing in the morning, and Arina came by and mentioned that it was starting at 1pm. We then promptly forgot all about it until Martin asked if I’d gone and then called me a bad Laurel for not doing so. Very useful of him, as we’d been looking forward to going and almost missed it! Again, amazingly inspiring work by people from all kingdoms, and the artisans were enthusiastic about talking to us even at the end of a long day. Turns out the organisers had done an amazing job this year of providing support - drinks, snacks, breaks, etc. I also ran into Master Thomas from Caid, who we had met and danced with (including parts of Saint Paul’s Cathedral) last year, and I promised to send e-mail him links to Saint Paul’s Cathedral and other fun dance stuff. Yay!
That evening, charles_midair and I went to a memorial for Margaritte at Starry Knights camp. Finn hosted a lovely get-together of a few of Mary’s many friends to tell stories in Mary’s memory. The love and support were palpable, and it was amazing. He tasked us all with doing a service in the SCA in Mary’s memory, so she her positive impact on so many lives will continue. From there, we headed to the Beginner’s Ball, hosted by the Saltatoris Dance Guild, and helped introduce new people to dance. I also encouraged many of them to come to the teen revel (whether they were teens or not), since all the dances would also be taught there. It was a well-attended and very well run ball - yay!
Toward the end of the ball, Martin announced that Gwommy had been elevated to the Order of the Laurel at Terpsichore, but they had missed being there and had a gift to present to him in honor of the occasion, the perfect way for him to find his first apprentice. He asked whether we were familiar with the story of Cinderella. He then produced a pair of size 5 women’s purple boots (similar to Gwommy’s own signature boots) to use for this very purpose - Perfect!
Open dancing following the ball was great fun! I taught (or at least did quick run throughs of ) several dances, including Lo Spagnoletto and Ginevra Weasley. I announced that I wasn’t going to call Ginevra while dancing it because I wanted to flirt with Robyn :) Yay, Gwommy, for helpfully calling it from outside the dance to help out - thanks Gwommy! We had two sets of Two Fat Ladies, and my set had some people who really didn’t know it. While it fell apart spectacularly a couple times, it also quite incredibly came back together. Yay for good, fun dancers! Gwommy taught Newcastle from out of the set, and he and I swapped in and out for each other during the dance. We were the purple dancer :) Great fun!
Neither magda_vogelsang nor I were especially taken with the proposed addition of a turn single to the second chorus of Pennsic Dance, but it was fun to try. I just happen to think that dance is already pretty much perfect. Alex taught his new choreography with us as guinea pigs while Jamie came up with a roadmap for some music to make it workable - what a team! It was fun! Although I accused Alex of sabotaging us all thereafter in the final chorus of Newcastle, because his dance featured repeated use of the same figure without the turn single, and people already always want to skip that! Oddly, it seemed to have the opposite effect when I next did Newcastle, so perhaps I should thank him instead. . . .
magda_vogelsang and I were planning on making it an early night. We left the dance tent about 2:45am, so it was earlier than the previous night (albeit without the rain holding us hostage). Not really that early a night, but so much fun!
On Monday, I taught the first of my four classes, Grand Ball Prep. (I had been mindful of being thanked for things I had not yet done at the dance social). Before teaching, I headed to the Whose Line Doth it Be auditions, which are always fun to watch - a bonus show! I was sad to have to leave early. My class also conflicted with the planned Petit Vriens flash mob in the food court. So many fun things!
The class before mine ran a tad over, but with a dance that was in the ball (Jenny Pluck Pears), so I was fine with that. I had 5 couples, and taught Contrapasso from the Chigi manuscript (love that dance!), Petite Rose and Goddesses. Not a ton of dances, but introduced a nice selection of styles to my students that they really learned, and it went well.
Soon thereafter, it was time for my favorite Pennsic show, Whose Line Doth it Be? Everyone is so talented! It was great to have Calvin back and to have Ermenrich in the performance! And I’m always happy to see Edekyn perform. So many fun games. Highlights included Sharknado!!, Sleeping Beauty performed in ever smaller increments of time, a very steamy shower scene between Cubby and charles_midair with Shoshanna’s perfect timing on the ukelele, and the innuendo game (at which Kimberly was brilliant!) There were no teams this year, so everyone could play throughout. And after 8:30pm, the show was no longer PG-13. Both changes for the good! After the shower scene, charles_midair laughingly referred to his wife being in the audience, and Ceara, bless her, said not to worry - they’d take care of me! Yay!
The next time I took a shower in camp, charles_midair went for his own shower in the other stall and asked if I needed help scrubbing my back. Our exchange naturally devolved into a call back to the Cubby scene (he was welcome to do so after Cubby was done, and did he want me to send Cubby over)? And then we decided that in addition to Lynette, we should take Cubby home with us. It was looking to be a crowded truck!
After Whose Line, magda_vogelsang and I headed over to the Grand Ball. We arrived late and saw dancers set up in groups of 4. I asked Gwommy what dance they doing, and he replied, “Bizzaria!!!” I went all Kermitty, ran to magda_vogelsang and exclaimed that we needed to find partners. We ran to the other side of the dance floor, and grabbed 1 lord who didn’t know it at all, but was game to try and another lord who did not know it well (but had at least done it before). So we decided the ladies would do everything first and we’d call them through the rest. It was tons of fun and wonderful!!! Yay! The only dances we’d missed in the ball were Gathering Peascods and Montarde Bransle.
I had great fun chatting and dancing with Thomas - we tried to find out each others’ secret Laurel handshakes during Lorayne Alman, only to determine that neither of us knew any. Very silly! Philip claimed me as a partner for Madame Cecilia’s Alman - I love him as a partner for that dance! We had great fun playing it up and running into each embrace. As usual, I did La Castellana to New Bo Peep. And the next dance was La Castellana. So we did Hyde Park to that!
Philip was not going to do Horse’s Bransle, because they were partner switching and he didn’t want to lose his partner. And he claimed he couldn’t do the one couple version alone because he’s a follower. So Gwommy and I solved that problem by announcing that we’d do it and he could follow us. He didn’t realize we were doing the version with the Korobushka hold until we started it, and was about to claim he couldn’t do that version, but he was kind of stuck then and he ended up liking it better than he expected. Yay!
Jamie led the line of couples for Villanella, and by lead the line, I mean that all the other dancers were watching his feet in order to do it. Thanks Jamie!
I was also amused by the Gelosia set with Gwommy and magda_vogelsang as partners. When he returned to her at the end, she said, “You again!” And he replied, “Of course - you’re the only one wearing purple!”
Late night dancing featured Maurin’s request of Chiara Stella that kept not getting done (as he kept getting distracted) and the introduction of the Dance Amoeba! I stayed up until about 3am again.
[picture of dance Amoeba]
Tuesday was a crazy day, but full of dance and ice cream. I made myself available as a ringer and someone to fill out sets of 4 for Jamie’s class and was also willing to step out so any who wanted to learn the dances could do so. I did so for If All the World Were Paper and took the opportunity to go mail a post card. I got ice cream on the way back (it was right there and impossible to pass up) and was needed in a Newcastle set, so danced with chocolate chip cookie dough in hand. I finished the ice cream before we did the dance to music, which was helpful, since I encouraged the ladies to make it around the set in time by chasing them around the set with hands in the air and screams of “run, run!”
Jamie’s class was followed immediately by the Playford Ball, which was quite fun. I had arranged for Ceara to braid my hair there, as that was the only time we could find to do it, and kept an eye out for her. magda_vogelsang said she’d be happy to fill in for me in a dance if Ceara showed up when something was about to start with me in a set. But then we got a set together for Parson’s Farewell including both of us. So Gwommy agreed to fill in for me if Ceara showed up. She did, in fact, and Gwommy and I both started following her away from the set. Nice try Gwommy - you were my substitute for the dance, not for the hairdo!! Ceara did an awesome job on the hair, as always - yay!
After the ball, we got ice cream (#2 for me) and caught the end of Wolgemut’s performance in the merchant area. I very much enjoyed chatting with Cecilia and Michaela while enjoying the show.
Then it was a dash back to camp to gather cookies and other useful items and a dash back to the dance tent for my Beginning 16th C. Italian dance class, which went extremely well. I had 4 couples, one brand new, and everyone enjoyed the dances. While teaching the Chigi Contrapasso, I got to my favorite figure where the lords push the ladies out of the circle, and then the ladies push them back. I taught is as, “The ladies then put the lords back in their place!” which everyone loved. Yay!
My original plan was to prepare a plate of cookies and head over to Starry Knights camp for our household’s annual bocce ball party, already in progress (which, for me, tends to be a Scrabble party). But it was raining. Hard. And there was a lot of mud between me and Starry Knights camp. And Dunstan was happy for my help with his Joy and Jealousy class (Bizzaria d’Amore and Contrapasso in Due). So I stayed in the dance tent. (Because I am a wuss!) This meant I was also on the spot to prepare set list boards and such for the teen revel, so while I was sad to miss the household event, it did make things a tad less hectic.
Ah, the teen revel - I could do a whole entry just on that! Early in the year, Luther asked me if I’d co-host this event with him, and I was happy to assist. His dad Gebhard was going to lead the band and we came up with a fun set list and event description, and there was much excitement! A lot can change between January and August, however. Luther was not able to make it to Pennsic after all and, for various reasons, Gebhard and I did not touch base until very late in the game. But he was still game to lead the music (with a modified set list to reflect dances he could actually play - picky, picky!) and I had great fun co-hosting the revel with the lovely Robyn, who did a fantastic teaching dances and encouraging people to dance. I’d brought homemade applesauce spice cookies and brownie bites for snacks. The revel was pretty lightly attended (which I blame primarily on the stormy, muddy weather - I wasn’t the only wuss, apparently), but those there had a good time.
After that, it was ice cream time (#3 that day for me, but who’s counting?) Yay!
[picture with Philip]
And then it was time for the “To Italy and Beyond!” ball (basically every type of dance other than Playford), hosted by the lovely Ginevra and Gianna. On seeing the name of the ball on the set list board, I suddenly shared an amusing thought with the others, which prompted us to approach Ginevra and do our best Buzz Lightyear impressions, raising our hands in the air and proclaiming, “To Italy and Beyond!” She laughed and told us we’d just made her night :) The ball was fun, although I’m not sure the warm up set idea was ideal in practice. The idea was to have a selection of the popular dances from the rest of the ball at the beginning and then repeat them later, so people wouldn’t miss out on them. But if you stay for the entire ball, this leads to rather a lot of repetition. Especially as many of the popular dances are in most of the balls. But, little nitpick aside, it was a good time and they were wonderful hosts. They had quite a nice spread of food too (to which I added the leftover cookies from my revel).
Late night dancing continued to get ever sillier as the week went on and we got more sleep deprived. We had the return of reverance lunges
We also decided to see how many people Jamie and Alex could encircle in a group hug - 9 of us, apparently! (They have long arms) During this process, Alex was looking around for Lynette, because he has a perfect sized spot just for her, and we proclaimed that there was always room for Lynette!
At one point, Sally was talking about things earlier in the day and then it occurred to her to wonder if it was, in fact, the same day. The response upon a look at a watch, “No - It’s been tomorrow for 15 minutes already!” We immediately realized the ridiculousness of that statement and found it hilarious. Yes, we were that tired and punchy!
But it was kind of an early night - I was in bed by 2am
Wednesday started off with a migraine (which was starting the night before, on reflection, but I wasn’t with it enough to take anything to stave it off. So my morning was quiet and, thankfully, the headache went away before the craziness began!
That afternoon, magda_vogelsang, Jamie, Alex and I headed to Casa Bardicci, getting me there in plenty of time for my 1pm class. I don’t recall exactly how it started, but magda_vogelsang and I had decided that Jamie was very good at walking to Casa Bardicci and we were joking about that being why we liked hanging around him and telling him so. Punchy, remember? We stopped for several photo opps on the way. Getting into the villa was a bit of a challenge, as it was a mud pit from all the rain, but we managed, without anyone getting an unintended mud bath.
Conandil was teaching her reconstruction of Bella Gioiosa in the hour before my class, and I did much eye rolling as she misstated information about how some people think you repeat the ritornello, but they’re wrong and Caroso says so, etc. Sigh. Just for the record, a ritornello in period music is a “go back to” section - in other words, it repeats. It used to be called a riprese, but the name was changed, presumably so as to avoid confusion with the dance step. In Bella Gioiosa, in particular, Caroso was unusually specific with respect to how the music should be played - AA BBB (repeated). In another of his dances, Caroso made reference to the fact that the ritornello is “always” played twice - if it only happens once, that makes no sense. niquerio has done some research (Yay, research!) into this topic that bears all this out and will hopefully some day turn it into an article for everyone’s further edification. She was kind enough to share her research with me, and I intended to have a chat with Maurin about this very topic, but, sadly, we never got around to it. Still, a public confrontation with a teacher during her class would not have been appropriate (and is really not my style), so I let it go and just exercised my eyes a bit. When I saw her later, the moment was gone, and I elected instead to have a pleasant conversation about how cute her son was dancing Pizochara.
Margaret was up on the second floor of the villa taking pictures, and was caught on camera doing so. We joked that someone should photo shop in a sniper rifle - I expect she’d be amused.
My class went well. I taught Bizzaria d’Amore and Lo Spagnoletto. I had 4 sets of people going through both (about all that would fit on the floor) with a couple more (Jamie and Alex) joining in when we danced. Even though I started teaching the turn in the chorus of Lo Spagnoletto wrong (one of those brain did it’s own thing moments), I soon realized my error and fixed it. All the sets looked great, and I had a student come up after and thank me saying that after I taught the dances, she really got them (and she was obviously very pleasantly surprised to have done so). Yay!
Following my class, Rebecca taught Villanella and La Castellana. I stayed for the class, as I like those dances and always enjoy her teaching. Chatted with one of my partners (who lives where the practice is to alternate which foot leads when doing multiple sets and turns, as opposed to how we do it in the Midrealm - always starting left) about how I sometimes explain the riprese/trab sequence with a turn in spez cadenza to ECD fans as a fancy set and turn. He then proceeded to do the sequence to the right, but with the turn to the left, so I could not help but good-naturedly tease that this was understandable since in some places the set and turn is always done left. His eyes narrowed a bit as he said he was not from one of those places, and I replied with glee, “I know!” We had much fun being silly. I also had great fun dancing with Udalrich (who was kind enough to provide music for my class, even though I didn’t ask him until the day before!)
The Caroso Ball, hosted by Maurin, was next. It began with Thyra choosing Conrad as a partner and Bizzaria d’Amore as the dance. And I was asked to find a partner for the second couple of their set. It was great fun, as you can see in the video on the facebook Pennsic Dance page.
After an hour or so of the ball, there was a break, and magda_vogelsang, Jamie, Alex, and I headed to Gianna and Ginevra’s Wine and cheese party. There were so much wonderful cheeses!! And other yummy food and drink. And excellent company. I was amused when I mentioned to Gianna that I’d been teaching next door, and she said she knew, because she could hear me calling while she was in the camp shower! But I was disappointed to hear that this did not, in fact, lead to her dancing in the shower. This is the first year I’ve made it to this party (since Wednesday is always a bit crazy), but it won’t be the last!
It was then time for the Cynnabar Thanksgiving dinner (to which I brought more cookies - I’d made two double batches). Yum! Followed by drunken court. There was some fun schtick with battling heralds (Ermenrich and Johannes) who kept switching out whenever the acting herald’s drink ran out. When we were invited to come up and swear fealty, Ermenrich was heard to swear his as Ermenrich von Douchebag - he insists he said DuisBERG, but we all heard differently. Sometimes, having a herald’s projecting voice is not an advantage.
Other highlights of Drunken court included Alex and Jamie each getting their elephant’s heart, Melisant receiving an elephant pin cushion made by our Baroness for running garb workdays and making us look good, and the Watchman of the Tower regalia now including a hood to which Kasha added a dancing porkchop (yay!) And there was much merriment and well-deserved recognition. Yay, Cynnabar!
Meanwhile, charles_midair had gone to East Kingdom Court to speak on behalf of Judith, who was being elevated to the Order of the Laurel. I wish I could have been there too! So well deserved! And charles_midair had great fun speaking as Middle Kingdom Seneschal there - he got silence on announcing who he was, but the crowd was cheering after his talk. Yay! Earlier, charles_midair had been getting ready and put on his winnegas (viking leg wraps) and then realized he’d put them on over the wrong pants. Sigh. So he took them off and redid them over the proper pants. He was telling Duke Dag about this, as he knew Dag would approve of him taking the trouble to get the right look. He then told Dag that he would be speaking for Judith in East Kingdom Court, and without missing a beat, Dag replied, “And you’re wearing that?”
After Baronial court, we headed to the dance tent for Dancing with the Pennsic Stars. charles_midair was one of the 3 judges and all the royal contestants were paired with dance experts, every one of which can be counted among my dance friends. Including magda_vogelsang dancing with King Tindall, Jamie dancing with Queen Ragni, and Darius dancing with Queen Dagrun of An Tir. The Queen of Northshield served as the Russian judge and was amazing. Everyone was awesome, and I wanted to vote for them all! Highlights included Tindall and Cameron doing a chest bump, choices of a third for Petit Vriens including Tindall’s young son (called a bold choice by charles_midair, “especially as your son dances better than you!”) and Cameron’s inviting one of the judges to act as their third, Amalie’s running off chased by charles_midair and Cameron after the Russian judge was particularly scathing, the Russian judge chastising the King and Queen of An Tir for kissing in public - “no one wants to see that kind of thing from a married couple!”, a couple of the royal contestants continuing to dance during the intermission, and the An Tir royalty getting their subjects to do the wave by walking in front of them (causing them to get up and sit down in a wave). So much fun! The queen of An Tir was eventually declared the winner, but they were all wonderful. And the event served to show that European dance is a ton of fun, even if you’re not an expert. I found the royals’ willingness to promote dance in such a fashion inspirational. I hope that if I ever end up wearing a crown that memories such as this will inspire me to provide like support to activities outside my usual areas of interest.
Dancing with the Pennsic Stars was followed by Bransle Fest. I love Wolgelmut, but am not a huge bransle fan. So magda_vogelsang, Jamie, Alex and I went shopping instead and then called it a night rather early - I was in bed by 1:30am! Really!
On Thursday, I slept in til almost 10. Then took my breakfast (french toast) to the dance tent, and followed it immediately with ice cream! Yay!
From there, six of us (me magda_vogelsang, Alex, Jamie, Holly and Darius) headed to the marketplace, where we listened to Aprill Knight play the Hurdy Gurdy. We requested Black Nag, which she was delighted to play for us, especially as she was eager to find out the right repeat structure and tempo for her upcoming CD with dance music. We were happy to help and had fun drawing a crowd with the combination of her playing and our dancing (some of us still with ice cream). We then helped by dancing and advising her on the playing of other dances about which she had questions, including Official Bransle, Amoroso and Petite Vriens. We also exchanged contact information so we can continue to consult from afar. Yay!
I then taught my last class - Dance Review by Request. I taught the Chigi Contrapasso, Montarde bransle and Newcastle. I had 10 people in the class and the two ringers were not even in the Newcastle set, because the beginners wanted to learn it. Everyone did very well and had a good time. I was again pleased with how it turned out, and hopefully my teaching Newcastle will help me remember it in the future (a technique that has worked before).
It was then time for my Scrabble date with Mistress Melisant back at Starry Knights camp. When I told my friends where I was going, they misheard her name as “Mister Smellysant” and then “Mister Smelling Salts”, though the best was Cathryn back at camp on hearing it as “Mister Smelly Socks”. Oh yes, she said, “He used to camp with us!” But no, my slurry speech aside, my date was with the lovely Melisant! We played two games and were each victorious in turn. Fun times! We also had a great time chatting with Finn and others who came by.
Thursday night was court night both for Ealdormere and the Midrealm. But there was so much else going on, I failed to make it to either. I was very pleased to hear that Meg got her Crucible in Ealdormere court - yay! So well deserved! Lots happened at Midrealm Court - it was so long, they had an intermission! (It was just under 3 hours, which means the 4 hour long East Kingdom Court the day before wins the prize - they can have it!) Still, I would have liked to be there to welcome Henry Best to the Order of the Laurel (I was very sorry to miss charles_midair speaking for him!) and to see Keely the Tinker put on Vigil. Cynnabar as a group did well too. Members of Cynnabar who helped set up the Dais for Opening Ceremonies received a Fretty and the Cynnabar Army received Dragon’s Teeth. Hoobah to all!
But much as I would have liked to be there, I am happy that I instead decided to help set up for Jamie’s Numerological Ball. There was a fair amount to do with moving new floor boards to the trailer and setting out the food. While he didn’t have the lovely spread provided by Ragni last year (what with her being queen and all), he managed to assemble quite an impressive spread indeed - Sugar cookies in the shape of numbers (a different number offered for each set),, energy bites, applesauce spice cookies, chocolate nests, chocolate chip cookies, and fruit. All the baked goods were homemade, and the number cookies were awesome!
This ball also featured the prettiest and coolest set list boards of the war - Holly did an amazing job on them!
Even though I was involved in the hosting of two other balls this year, Jamie’s ball was my favorite (not having to run it, but just helping out may be a factor in this). His set list was the most interesting and least repetitive of other balls, and the concept behind the ball was fun. The first set was all one couple dances, the second set all two couple dances, etc. Jamie is also very good asking people to help him with things that they are good at and enjoy doing (e.g. Holly making beautiful boards, magda_vogelsang and the number cookies).
Attendance was lighter than ideal, mostly because it was so late in the war and it was up against both a huge court and the Hoity Toity Party. I was a bit torn about that myself. I’d been looking forward to dancing at Casa Bardicci again as well, but was unhappy to learn that it conflicted with this ball. I wanted to stay for the ball, but also knew that Maurin had made a commitment to Bardicci to provide dance performers and didn’t want him to fall short of what would work well. Happily for me, Maurin said he had enough dancers if I wanted to stay at the ball, so I did - yay! And I made myself useful (in addition to being another dancer to fill out the later sets) by replenishing the food table as needed. The dancing was great fun, of course. Alex and I continued our tradition started earlier that week of grabbing each other as partner when a dance we both liked was called (like Whirligig), holding both hands, and jumping up and down like crazy people. We achieved some pretty amazing altitude too!
It was my last night at Pennsic, and I continued dancing until 3:30am. Late night dancing featured lots of Ma Navu (including at supersonic speed), Saltarello II, and Riuone as the last dance, which we did twice when more people wanted to do it after seeing it the first time, but we didn’t bother teaching it because it was said “Alina can pull anyone through this dance!” Yay!
After 3 hours of sleep, I marched out to the field with the fighters on Friday. I didn’t think I was going to make it, until Kathryn provided me with hot water for my tea (thanks Kathryn!) and the caffeine worked it’s magic. I was glad I was able to support charles_midair and the other Cynnabar fighters by doing this, and it is fun to parade around in a group.
I then headed back to camp to start packing up, but took a break to meet Martin and others for breakfast (including eggs, of course - but properly cooked, rather than just hard boiled)! Unintentionally taunted the others with my french toast plate - I forgot that the bread bowl place technically stops selling breakfast at 11am, which is when we were meeting. Apparently, magda_vogelsang and I got the last of the French toast. Oops! But, thankfully, Beast and Boar was still serving breakfast and everyone was well fed.
Then we said our goodbyes and headed back to camp. I had to pack up the rest of the stuff so we could leave right after charles_midair came back from Hjorleif’s knighting ceremony. After getting it all packed, magda_vogelsang and I decided one more ice cream run was required. We were joined there by Jamie and Alex (who decided he wanted real food). And, of course, we ran into more friends and said more goodbyes (Gwenllyen, Max, Noelle, Casey, Maurin and Caelia). When I got back to camp, charles_midair and others were already loading up the truck.
Had fun on the way home trading stories with charles_midair. All Pennsics are good, but this was a particularly good one, somehow. charles_midair later posted to the Midrealm facebook page about one aspect of this we had discussed, and he said it so well, I am just going to excerpt his words here:
I want to talk about what I see as one of the best aspects of the SCA. In my office as Kingdom Seneschal, I frequently see the worst. I have to deal with the fallout of injury, death, criminal prosecution, assault, rape, hatred, discrimination, etc. and etc. and on and on and on.
Yet at Pennsic this year, I took note of many things that caused my heart to swell and bring tears to my eyes, even though it is unfortunate that it still stands out to me. And here it is: in all of the courts, revels, events, combats, parties, and every other activity, not once did the person's or participant's gender, race, or sexual orientation seem to matter. At all.
Looking around there are still not many minorities represented in the SCA. Yet we all cheered on the heroic deeds of a warrior, of our brother, and his race didn't matter. A young lady who I also highly respect was made a Captain of the Red Company, and all those huge hulking men cheered and cried at the rightness of it, and will gladly follow, *follow*, her into battle.
At the dance tent I saw many same sex/gender couples dancing together, and no one batted an eye, or tried to break them up so they "wouldn't have to dance together." I even asked a guy to dance with me because, well, he is a friend and I wanted to dance with him. I would behave the same with a lady who is a friend, so why not a lord? And it was okay. No one gainsayed us. It wasn't a problem at all.
Again, I wish this was so common that I didn't even notice it, let alone discuss it. But so much of the modern world is not like this, and I felt the need to share.
At this Pennsic, my view of the SCA showed me egalitarianism. Thank you all for that gift. May it continue to grow and shine as an example for our everyday lives and world.
I think that about says it all. Except, of course, Yay!