« Forth to the Flurry | Main | Repo! The Genetic Opera »

February 16, 2009

Comments

Feed You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.

It sounds like you had a great time!

snow-berms along the roads and sidewalks that were three to five feet tall

Goodness. Those Saratoga people must be giants if they don't mind such high sidewalks.

Say, what is a period-style snowball start? I have an idea of what they might be, since you then mention something called simultaneous starts, but I'd rather ask than make a total fool of myself with foolish assumptions. (Partial foolishness, I can deal with, though.)

Did your eyebrows come back after that drink? Maybe not, if they were afraid that you'd lash out at them.

I see you managed to eat okay; I wondered if there might have been problems on the Saturday, what with so many people going out to celebrate Saints Cyril and Methodius feast day.

Susan... my secret nostalgia for the era

Wait a minute. How old were you when Disco was still around?

I was a kid in the 1970s. Old enough to be jealous of the cool things grownups did, but not old enough to be doing them. Old enough to buy the music on vinyl.

Snowball start is my term. In a country dance you have a line of couples. You can imagine them numbered top to bottom 1-2-3-4 etc. In modern style, the entire set of couples would begin at once, with each odd-even couple pair dancing with each other. (Couple 1 with couple 2, couple 3 with couple 4, etc.) Each time the dance progresses, the odd couples move down one place and the evens move up. So on the second iteration, couple 1 is dancing with couple 4, couple 3 is dancing with couple 6, etc. As each couple gets to the end, they wait out once then go back the other way:

1st: 1-2 3-4 5-6 7-8
2nd: 2 1-4 3-6 5-8 7
3rd: 2-4 1-6 3-8 5-7
4th: 4 2-6 1-8 3-7 5
etc.

Historically, this wasn't how they started dances. Only one couple would determine the dance and would start from the beginning, slowly moving down the set and starting each couple dancing in turn. So it would "snowball" until everyone was dancing:

1st: 1-2 345678
2nd: 2 1-3 45678
3rd: 2-3 1-4 5678
4th: 3 2-4 1-5 678
5th: 3-4 2-5 1-6 78
etc.

In a long set, this means the dance will take a very long time, since every single couple has to dance with every other couple. I wrote this up in detail on Kickery here. Modern dancers tend to get impatient because if they're near the bottom of the set, they have to wait to start dancing.

Susan... Thanks for the explanation of the snowball. As for Disco, I asked because I think of it as having faded away - or starting to - sometime around 1978, when you were 10 years old. Then again, I'm probably wrong because I wasn't socially active in those days (to put it mildly) to pay much attention to much of anything.

Neil,
I suspect the Flurry is not heavily populated by either Catholics or Europeans honoring their patron saints. But maybe it was just that we were eating at rather odd hours and thundering hordes of people had been in and out of the restaurant celebrating just before we got there.

(Since the restaurant only seats about ten people total, they would have had to thunder primarily up and down the street outside, but the weather was good and vigorous outdoor thundering does help work up an appetite for when one finally manages to squeeze into the restaurant.)

Susan... the Renaissance contra

Garbed in battle fatigues? Goodness, those RenFairs are getting dangerous.

Susan... By the way, while one's wishes and hopes per se don't affect Reality, that has never stopped me from wishing, and I hope that they'll decide to have you back next year.

Serge,
A dance with all the characteristics of a modern contra medley but dating back to 1581 in Italy. It's my answer to all the people who think dancing in longways sets was invented in England.

How about people celebrating Saint Valentine? Travellers? Beekeepers? People suffering from plague? I bet it's their fault that my friend whose birthday is Feb 14 can never book anywhere.

Modern dancers tend to get impatient because if they're near the bottom of the set, they have to wait to start dancing.

I'd get impatient, too. If I hear good music, I want to start dancing right away, not stand still and wait my turn.

Flurry sounds like a really cool event, though. Do you know if there's any belly dance related stuff there?

AJ... Off-topic, but are you planning to go to Westercon?

Serge: I don't think I have any other plans that weekend, so yeah, I'd like to go up to Tempe for it. Are you and/or your wife going to be there? (I picked up one of her books this weekend. My husband laughed at me for buying a romance novel, so I punched his arm a couple times)

Neil,
Yeah, the hordes of plague victims mess it up for everyone.

AJ,
There was a tribal performance and lesson. Needless to say, BOTH were against other things I was doing (the latter actually against my disco session. Arggh!) I met some of the dancers in the performers' room.

For historical dancing one has to balance impatience against desire for the most authentic possible experience. Since it's a set of figures, there's also some benefit to watching it a few times before having to do it oneself!

AJ... Yes, we're both planning to go although she said she doesn't want to be on panels. She is under the impression that she's no good at it. As for punching your hubby... I wouldn't want to incite domestic violence, but that was the proper response.

Verify your Comment

Previewing your Comment

This is only a preview. Your comment has not yet been posted.

Working...
Your comment could not be posted. Error type:
Your comment has been posted. Post another comment

The letters and numbers you entered did not match the image. Please try again.

As a final step before posting your comment, enter the letters and numbers you see in the image below. This prevents automated programs from posting comments.

Having trouble reading this image? View an alternate.

Working...

Post a comment

Your Information

(Name and email address are required. Email address will not be displayed with the comment.)