dance event

[cellio]

I met jarethsgirl tonight. She's in her first year in the SCA and is interested in running a dance event, so I agreed to be her mentor. (New autocrats require a mentor here.)

This should be fun. Years ago, before the meme of "all events must be all things to all people" started to take hold, we held a series of dance events called Harvest Festival. (She's looking at a spring event, so she has to get a different name. :-) ) It sounds like she wants to do something similar -- dance sets interspersed with performances, fairly casual (not a formal collegium, just dancing with some instruction), and maybe a partial pot-luck (provided main dish, people bring sides) or maybe more conventional food. We've definitely got a bunch of local dancers who ought to be interested, and she'll talk to them about coordinating that part of the event (lining up teachers, assembling sets, etc). We're looking for an inexpensive site so we can make this a donation-funded event. I have some ideas, and she's going to look at options near where she lives and also get her hands on the "site book" (a binder full of notes on sites the barony has used in the past). This is a very reasonable event for a new autocrat to do; in fact, my first event as autocrat was Harvest Festival.

It'll be nice to see another event and a new autocrat, too.

Comments

[dmnsqrl.livejournal.com]

(New autocrats require a mentor here.)

Very. Wise. Idea. :)

[cellio]

I agree. There's a lot of accumulated wisdom about running events, and new people should get a guide (and not just a manual, not that we have a manual either).

We ran into a corner case some years back: a newcomer to the barony who said he had autocratted events elsewhere. Some of us suggested that he should have a mentor anyway because each group does things differently; the then-seneschal poo-pooed the idea as insulting to this obviously-experienced person. Guess what? The event had major problems. (A more-perceptive outsider would have asked for a mentor anyway. I know the idea was made known to him. Oh well.)

[lyev.livejournal.com]

So the venue is going to be something like Dancer's Revolt? I wish both of you the best. Yay dancing! :-)

[jarethsgirl.livejournal.com]

actually, Lyev, I was going to ask if you may be interested in assisting with the dance instruction ^_^...

[lyev.livejournal.com]

Sure thing! Just I've got annual commitments with

[Error: Irreparable invalid markup ('<a [...] http://www.midrealm.org/midrealm_calendar.phtml">') in entry. Owner must fix manually. Raw contents below.]

Sure thing! Just I've got annual commitments with <A HREF="http://www.aethelmearc.org/events.shtml>Seven Deadlies (Feb 4)</A> and <A HREF="http://www.midrealm.org/midrealm_calendar.phtml">Terpsichore (April 8)</A>, but otherwise I'd be honored to help you.

[jarethsgirl.livejournal.com]

great! We'll discuss on Thursday at dance practice then :)

btw I added you as well :)

[cellio]

Something of that sort, though without the pizza. :-)

jarethsgirl is planning to talk with folks at dance practice about running dance and music. We're thinking a dance coordinator (overall scheduler) and a bunch of leaders/instructors for individual sets. This also means, by the way, that if there are up-and-coming dancers who don't feel ready to run a ball yet (or a full dance practice), but who could lead five or six dances, this is a clear opportunity for them. So please suggest candidates. :-)

[lyev.livejournal.com]

I think you can guess the two people that I'd recommend for coordinator and teaching a set would be (no surprises). There's someone else locally that I don't think you know that could teach a set at this point too.

[jarethsgirl.livejournal.com]

if you were thinking Brandubh, that's who came to mind when I thought of someone who knew the dances well enough to teach them...

[chite.livejournal.com]

Harvest Festival was my very first event, and it basically got me into the SCA. Awesome.

[cellio]

Cool! I didn't know that.

I wish that KofC hall was still available. It was fun to watch figure dances from the balcony that went all the way around.

[indigodove.livejournal.com]

That was really a lovely hall. It had a nice "pretend-period" feel to it.

[indigodove.livejournal.com]

I would probably come to that...provided I can /find/ my old garb :-)

If I boned up (and this actually fits my schedule), I could offer my famous "if you can walk, you can dance" tutorial for absolute dance newcomers :-)

[cellio]

I'm sure we could find something for you to wear. :-)

[jarethsgirl.livejournal.com]

I know Arabella is "passing on" the Gold Key to *someone* (no one's stepped up yet, to my knowledge), and I helped inventory that stuff...I'm sure there's *something* you can borrow, hmm? ^_^

[jducoeur]

This is a very reasonable event for a new autocrat to do; in fact, my first event as autocrat was Harvest Festival.

Heh. This seems a universally good way to start. One of my friends is autocratting her first event in December -- which is *also* an all-dance event along very similar lines.

(Personally, I didn't actually autocrat one of these until relatively late. But the second event that I kitchened was one, and I half-autocratted that...)