SCA: dance event

[cellio]

Today was the Dance and Romance event, a (mostly) dance event with games, music, and random schmoozing. I had a lot of fun. This was jarethsgirl's first event as autocrat and it went very smoothly. Ensemble Rigodon (that's On the Mark's SCA persona) performed and we were well-received; people even got up and danced to our last piece, Rostiboli Gioioso. That was fun! One of the songs we did was a poem by a local poetry laurel that I set to music (based on a minnesang); alas, the poet was not there to hear it. Oh well, some other time. The choir also performed and sounded good. The consort was supposed to perform, but either they didn't or I managed to miss it somehow, which is disappointing.

I played with the consort and other guest musicians for part of the evening ball. It's been a while since a local event had enough planned dancing to be worth bringing the dulcimer, so that was very pleasant. I haven't been paying much attention to dance practice, so I was surprised by some of the pieces that got done at the ball. I didn't know our dancers did Prexoniera (an Italian ballo) until I saw my arrangement of it in the music binder. There were several other balli too, and Gracca Amoroso (a later Italian dance that I have to re-learn one of these days). Cai and lyev seemed to be doing much of the teaching during the day and doing a good job of it.

I got to spend time talking with dr_zrfq, who came up from Atlantia, and lorimelton and ralphmelton, who don't often come to events but like to dance. I met some new members from our group and one of our neighbors who were at their first "regular" (local, non-camping) events.

I expected this event to draw 50-60 people. I didn't hear a head count, and we might not have one because there was no formal sign-in unless you needed to sign a waiver, but I think we were over 100. That's great for a (mostly) local dance event! We had some visitors from nearby groups, too.

The event was at the University of Pittsburgh's student union, in their ballroom. This was the first time we've used the site and it was nearly perfect for this event. It would work well for other non-fighting events without elaborate food needs, too. We had two rooms, one about twice the size of the other. The floors are carpetted (I tend to assume ballrooms have bare wood floors) and very comfortable to dance on. There were enough tables and chairs (while still having plenty of space to dance in), and we were able to have pot-luck food (no cooking facilities on site, but plugging in crock pots etc was fine). Apparently Pitt is enough of a union shop that we weren't allowed to do much setup and cleanup, which is both fine and surprising in a site we didn't have to pay for. Parking cost $5, but since the event was free that's fine. Parking was a couple blocks away -- a bit of a hassle for carrying the dulcimer, but not impossible.

We should do this again.

Comments

[cellio]

When it's set in 6/4, it's fitting 3 steps of a doppio in only two, um, 'accented beats'?

I assume you try to get people to step on 1, 3, 4, and 6, right? (That's what I do, anyway.) When playing (or arranging) for beginners I'll try to emphasize that rhythm in the music to give them minor beats to latch onto.

Modern music refers to this time signature as 6/4. Duple is not a bad way of describing it; that can be ambiguous between 6/4 and 4/4, so you have to clarify. In period, this would be referred to as an imperfect tempus and a perfect, er, prolation? Imperfect means "in 2"; perfect means "in 3". (Because the trinity is perfect. Really.) So first we divide into twos, and then within each two we divide into three.

Note, also, that there are no bar lines in renaissance music; you get a time signature that indicates these major and minor divisions and then you just read the notes, doing that. It's not as hard as it first looks, at least until you start playing multi-part music from original notation.

In the bassedances that are in 3/4 (Burgundian?)

Yes, Burgundian basse dance has, I believe, universal perfect tempus. That gives it rather a different feel from Italian bassadanza.

(side note: classes on music theory for dancers would be a fine thing, I know I need them!)

I'd be up for that. Can you suggest a venue?

[lyev.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the reminders on tempus/prolation(?), I vaguely recall them now. I had no idea that "in 3" is perfect by this notation for those reasons ;-)

I'd be up for that. Can you suggest a venue?

I'm sure that you'd get an interested audience at Pennsic. Terpsichore (Ann Arbor, April 8th IIRC) is a fine option too, but it involves a weekend trip. If this summer there's going to be another local collegium or event with dance classes, then that would be a good option. There are also Atlantian Dance Symposia, but I couldn't tell you exactly when or where the next one is.

I think you'd get the best draw of your target audience at Pennsic.

[cellio]

I'm sure that you'd get an interested audience at Pennsic. Terpsichore (Ann Arbor, April 8th IIRC) is a fine option too, but it involves a weekend trip.

And I'm reading torah that Shabbat, so I'll miss that one anyway. (That said, I don't do much travel for events these days anyway.)

Pennsic might be the answer. I'm not the most learned person there, but I'm learned enough and if I'm actually willing to teach, that puts me ahead of my betters. :-)

Please feel free to bug me about this when information about teaching at Pennsic comes out (and when, I hope, work won't have eaten my brain :-) ).