Well, I can't say I didn't have the camera with me, but did I pull it out? Nope. I think I try to be everywhere at once at dances and can get more than a little scatter-brained. But still, there was a Jane Austen Ball AND a Halloween Masquerade, everyone was all dressed up and lovely at both dances, and I manage not a single picture! I need to make friends with more people who actually use their cameras... Feel free to send me pictures or post pictures in the comments here if you have some so that I don't feel too deprived. :(
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KCEnglishDance is hosting dances on Oct 4 and Dec 6. I'll probably do a Nov 1 Halloween dance, assuming I actually put things into motion. Come dance in your Halloween costumes! Though keep in mind what would be safe to dance in.
The Jane Austen club is having their Harvest Ball on Oct 18. It's downtown. Find something pretty to wear and come! http://www.jasnakc.org/jane-austen-regency-ball.html Of course, we have the monthly dance in Lawrence... It's going to be 4th Sundays instead of 3rd Sundays for August, September, and October. Jill and I are talking about putting together an advanced dance sometime on the second weekend of Sept. Will update the blog when I know when/where. http://www.kansasfolk.org/english/ St Louis is having a Contra/English dance weekend on Labor Day weekend. I go every year for English dance on Saturdays... there are two workshops and an evening ball on Aug 30. You should come! http://www.childgrove.org/hightea Fairfield is having their Bare Necessities Advanced Dance weekend in Fairfield, IA. It's about the same distance as St Louis. Whole weekend of dancing, and it's so much fun to dance with really good dancers. http://fairfolk.org/node/59 Awesome dance tonight!
Good turnout, exciting new people, callers did well, the band was in fine fettle, everyone clicked pretty well with even the tough dances... I'm happy. :) I hear more of our regulars are talking about moving (wasn't losing Natalie and Lutz enough?). Jennifer and Japeth are talking about better weather in Florida :( and Natalie, you might be getting company in Germany very soon... I'll get back to you on October's date... seems to be tough timing for a number of the organizers, so I'm trying to figure out whether I can/should move the date. But the weekends around it will also be messy, so it may stay as is. *sigh* Don't forget the Jane Austen group's October ball on the 18th! I thought I might want to try to have a dance for just kids again... My goal is to start with just kids and then see if we can encourage more kids to start regularly attending English Dance (I want a nice range of ages at our dances, and don't want the kids who do show up to feel like they don't belong). I think I might have time in late August or early November... As always, I have no idea how to advertise for kids...
Do you suppose they'd take me up on it? Any thoughts as to which month would be better for kids? Do you suppose Saturday or Sunday afternoons tend to work better? I wasn't terribly productive this weekend, but I did talk Otis into being a sounding board while I set the August program. Any time I asked him a question about his thoughts, he'd tell me that I am the expert. Didn't stop me asking him for opinions, though. We're focusing on double-figure-8s again... I promise I'll let up on those after this month. I just want to be sure we have them down before we move on.
The Evite link is up on the home page. The standard invitation link is http://www.evite.com/l/XezWQDs5Sb . Personalized evites will go out two weeks before the dance Don't forget to prepare something fancy for the Jane Austen club's ball on October 18! I know it feels like you have plenty of time, but if you haven't sorted out what you're wearing for the ball, those months manage to disappear pretty quickly. The first picture is our group of female callers: Deanna, me (Martine), Natalie, and Beata (We had another caller present, but he snuck out early). We had to get a few pictures before Natalie moves to Germany and Deanna gets so pregnant she can't dance... She commented that baby was slowing her down today. Additional dancers are Nalini and Bridget (who were so lovely they had to be in a few shots).
My co-conspirator is leaving me this summer. June is her last dance. It's been 2.5 years since she invited dancers to her house and handed me calling instructions in German... I have mentioned the bit where I neither speak nor read any German, right? It's been about two years since we put together a slightly more organized house party at my house (which was filled to capacity, btw).
I will miss her. You will miss her because she and I do all the dance organizing together (I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to do without her). While I'm the one who said "I wonder if we could start up a dance in KC", she's the one who said "That sounds like so much FUN! Yes, let's do it!" Her enthusiasm and contributions have made our dance a regular event. Aside from egging me on, she's also the one who says "Really? Don't you think that dance is a bit too advanced for our dancers?" I have to admit, I'm not good with restraint, and the more challenging programs are my fault. Then there's the bit where my work goes bonkers in January and February, and she's determined to not skip a dance just because I'm struggling to keep my sanity. She's the primary contact for phone calls (which is a good thing because she is far more tactful than I am) and reminds the church we're coming and will gently break the news that "Martine, don't panic... We've been double-booked." I do rescue mode pretty well, but panic mode comes first, and that's the part I have trouble with. And on the rare occasion that we call any dances that we have not organized ourselves, Natalie is the one who has talked me into it. I am intensely grateful that she splits all the teaching with me... the first three dances we put on had me doing all the calling, and I definitely do not enjoy calling the way I enjoy dancing. I would not have continued our efforts if I had not been able to talk her into joining me (she was terrified the first dance she called, but I remind her that she was the reason my first calling experience involved instructions in German), and I think we've done pretty well in the end. And then there's the best part: "Let's get together to talk about and/or practice the dances... and THEN we need to watch an Austen movie and stay up 'till after 1AM!" She makes it so much FUN! Dear Co-conspirator, have no doubt that I will miss you dreadfully. I've been asked for links that may be of use, so...
For older dances, The Round has the five Cecil Sharp books that are out of copyright online: https://round.soc.srcf.net/dances/cdb (it's easiest to search for dances using the cumulative index link). And Bob Green has been working on a video archive of dances, which is an excellent resource: http://dancevideos.childgrove.org/ecd There used to be a website that had animated versions of the various moves, but it seems to have disappeared. Settling for written definitions, The Round has a list of more figures than we are likely to ever use: https://round.soc.srcf.net/dances/elements Once again, you may notice that we use two resources a lot: Simple Pleasures and 21 Easy English Country Dances. Those were the two I recommended in my blog for starting one's dance collection Updated Forms page to include a resources section. I never was happy with that page. I think it looks better now. The news about a snow storm on our dance day had me anxiously watching the weather through most of the week. They kept promising it'd all end in the morning, though, so I crossed my fingers and had my DVR record each and every one of the news forcasts so that I could find out the latest news. Unhappily, it was an ice storm. Happily enough, it did end fairly early in the morning, so it had most of the day to melt. We didn't have to cancel! Awesome.
The live music was fabulous! I'm not sure I caught all the instruments that were being played, but there was a piano, an accordian, a flute, a bass (I do so love that instrument), a guitar, i missed what the precussion was... The musicians were a dream to work with. AND they say they are seriously considering joining us for our April dance! How exciting! Our six callers did a wonderful job. Thank you so much (because if you did not help, I would never get to dance), and I hope we will enjoy more of your calling in the future. I danced with some delightful new dancers that I'm hoping I'll see again, and encountered a few I had not seen in ages. Our five callers did a wonderful job. And somehow, despite a late start, we finished ON TIME. I wasn't sure we'd manage, but we did! I'm still struggling to figure out how to teach the beginners when they are always the ones that arrive late... perhaps just start in with something tough (because it always seems that the advanced dancers are the ones that arrive at the beginning), follow with something easier that more could join in for, and after the first three dances declare a break for everyone but the beginners so we can teach them moves they need to know? Now we need to throw something together for our March advanced dance so we can decide what we're doing in April. I want to call Ramblin' Rosie (do we have music for that?), Chocolate Equation, Natalie will probably want Kelstern Gardens, Beata would love to see Postie's Jig... Perhaps we'll toss in Mr Bev. Maggot and either Potter's Wheel or Hambleton's Round O. Other suggestions? We managed Pony Express at the Ball! It's one of my favorite dances, and we did it! We rock! Totally doing it again next time. :)
Anyone have any other favorites from the ball that we need to repeat? Still have extra programs... did everyone wander home with theirs? |
KC
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