Boolesque!

I was sad to miss this last year.

Music City Burlesque - 6th Annual "BOO-lesque"! from Cake Or Death Productions on Vimeo.

Here's a little more sexiness.

Trenchmore

There was, of course, a ball at the Royal University of Meridies. I didn't take video, but Fiona's husband did.



Some of the dancers said I was understating things when I said that Trenchmore is a moderately aerobic dance. The music is a live band, by the way; it's nice to see that becoming a more regular feature.

Overdue Gulf Wars XIX Post

Sunday
After staying overnight in Jackson with Shimofuri on Saturday, we caravanned down to the site on Sunday to help set up camp. We arrived in the early afternoon, and I immediately joined in the raising of the kitchen/dining tent. Here I received my first injury of the war. The roof frame is made of fitted pipe sections, and I asked someone to push on the other end of one of the pipes as I was getting it fitted. The push came a bit sooner than I expected and my hand got pinched, so I went through the war with a bandage on the web of my right hand next to the thumb. Fortunately I was up to fencing by Wednesday.

Monday
Monday I found a very nice merchant who provided me with some tape to properly secure the bandage on my hand. That served me most of the day, and I obtained a small roll of tape from the chirurgeons to keep me going through the rest of the war. On top of that, Her Excellency Katherine got me some bactine, more bandages, and more tape. I was being positively doted on, but that suits me very well.

In the early afternoon, I went to the dance hall (Bede Hall) to help teach a dance class. This was simple 15th Century Italian dances: Amoroso, Petits Riens, and Anello. Since the planned teacher was unable to attend the war, Lady Sibyl was teaching, and I happily assisted. It's always nice to have some ringers when you're teaching a dance class.

Following the dance class, I ventured down to the Fort for the Verona Street Brawl. I wasn't up to fighting yet – just trying to hold a rapier hurt my hand – so I volunteered as a marshal. I don't think that brawls were quite as amusing as they were two years ago, when I last attended the war. The attempts to frame the other family were rather hamfisted, and the Governors were shamefully oblivious to the bloodbaths in the streets.

That evening I hosted the Beginners’ Ball. I planned it with lots of common, easy dances. Basically, if you didn't already know the dance, any ringer on the floor could drag you through it with minimal coaching. The list worked out quite well, if I do say so myself, as we worked our way through the dances at a steady pace and had plenty of time for requests before we had to close down the ball.

Tuesday
Early Tuesday afternoon I taught my dance class. This year I taught two variations of the Contrapasso. The standard variation is for a couples, and the Contrapasso Nuovo variation is for a set of three couples. Contrapasso itself is not really very difficult and the students learned it with plenty of time to spare. Contrapasso Nuovo is similar, but there are definitely some tricky maneuvers, and it has l5ess repetition, making it more difficult to remember. Fortunately Lady Ginevra assisted by providing live music; you can ask a musician to play just a particular section of the music, a request that recording just can’t seem to accommodate.

Wednesday
On Wednesday morning,I was up to fighting, and the Green Dragon Inn hosted a Tavern Brawl. Nothing rocks quite like a tavern brawl in an authentic tavern. Don Mateo organized several different scenarios, some involving just staying alive, others requiring an effort to loot the place. Some of the survival scenarios were real meat grinders.

In the afternoon, I competed in the Everyman Tourney. I didn't make it past my first round robin group, but it was a near thing. Three of us tied for second place, and we had to fight another mini round robin to see which two would progress. I had some really good fights in this tourney.

Thursday
Thursday morning was the Ladies of the Rose Rapier Tournament, and I again fought on behalf of Duchess Katrina. I don’t exactly have a stunning track record at the Rose tourney, but it’s always a fun time. The tourney had 110 entrants this year, which is a new record. I drew Don Iago for my first bout, and I actually dispatched him with surprising speed. I’m thinking of adding a white ribbon to my outfit every time I win a tournament match with a Don, now.

My second draw was Warder Sibyl Sevenoke, and I couldn’t have asked for a better second draw. Make no mistake: Sibyl is better than me at this game, but that makes the fight all the more fun. I am especially pleased by the fact that when she disabled my left hand with a cut to my thumb, she did not put down her own dagger; I like for my opponent to continue to treat me as a threat even after scoring a significant blow. She got my other arm a bit later, putting me out of the fight in a way that Joseph Swetnam – the historical fencing master I study – would definitely have appreciated (i.e., no one “died”).

I drew Lord Silvani for my final fight, and he’s definitely been keeping in better practice than I, too. I managed to stretch it out for a while, though, before being legged and then finally eliminated.

The schedulers moved the Rapier Field Battle up from Saturday to Thursday afternoon this year, and I turned out for it. We were fighting with Trimaris this year, and the first battle of the two-out-of-three contest was something of a cluster-fail. Meridies was positioned at the left end of the Trimarin line, facing the Hellhounds from Northshield. When the battle started, our front line ran out to make contact with the enemy while the rear ranks (consisting of some people who don’t move very fast due to knee troubles and such) closed at a slower pace. It’s not a good idea to take on the Hellhounds piecemeal; each little unit gets cut to shreds as it arrives. It would have been better to all march up at an even pace and make contact at full strength. Yes, I died pretty quick in that battle.

I’m not sure what the plan was in the second battle. After changing sides of the field, Meridies was on the right end of the Trimarin line, next to the Atlantians. When the battle started, the Atlantians quickly moved out and crossed in front of us to engage the Hellhounds while we looked for a place to reinforce. Our commander pointed out a thin spot for us to fill and I stepped into place to engage some Trimarins and Midrealmers. I soon noticed that our line was still pretty thin to the right of me; then it was also thin to the left of me; then I realized I was on my own against about six opponents. Well, I managed to keep them busy for a while and I got three of them, so I think I did my part pretty well in the second battle, but it was still an overall loss.

With the war point settled, round three was a “friendship battle” which my side won (due in no small part to the Hellhounds defecting to our side, I suspect).

Friday
Friday morning I took my camcorder down to Bede Hall, where the open A&S competition was taking place. I recorded the performing arts entries, and one of them is already posted to YouTube. Hopefully I'll get the others up shortly.

Later in the day there was a Ribbon Tourney, and I assisted as a marshal, as I was saving my energy for the Ravine Battle.

Like the Field Battle, the Ravine Battle was pretty lop-sided. I also couldn't seem to get any cooperation from my allies. On the way to the line, I'd ask the fighters on either side of me if they would take shots if I blocked blades, but when I knocked blades down, the shots didn't materialize. I eventually gave up on that and decided to just cause a bit of havoc, and I actually did get into the enemy backfield once, killing several of their fighters in the process. Moments like that make the whole tiresome business worth while.

Saturday
Rain was threatening Saturday, and I really didn't want to pack a wet tent, so I broke camp early in the day, did some final shopping, and for the first time at Gulf Wars, I actually left site early.

Magna Faire 2009

Well, I have a day off today, so I suppose it's high time I at least posted some pictures from Magna Faire. Magna Faire was essentially an all-dance event for me, as I didn't think I'd have time to get in and out of armor around performance times.



Yes, we had live music for the ball. Very good for three musicians who had never played a note together before, if you ask me.

I have video my entry with Juliana, but I'm waiting to do a little editing before I post it.

Crystal Ball

Sadly, I didn't get a whole lot of pictures from Crystal Ball because, during the dinner break between class time and ball time, I left my camera at Tsire's place. I do have a few pictures from the early part of the day, but nothing very exciting, with the possible exception of this video from Mistress Alphia's Spanish Pavan class.


She graciously consented to doing it with me for video after teaching it. Spanish Pavan is from Orchesography, Thoinot Arbeau's 1589 dance manual from France. I haven't gone back to read the original text yet, but I gather that the actual choreography isn't specific; Arbeau only describes the music and the basic steps: the actual movement around the floor is arbitrary. This choreograph is, I believe, from a team A&S entry of Alphia's.

Dancing Baby

This is not one of the scary Halloween videos. This is Kaitlin going to town at the hafla at Sherlock's Book Emporium on Saturday, October 10, 2009.



Kaitlin was the life of the party.

Yes, I'm a Slacker

I know. I haven't updated in nearly a month. In my defense, I have to set up a weblog for the Saltare Guild. I've got a few events coming up in the next couple of months, including this year's Saltare event, which will be on the weekend of February 14th. I'm finding that I have a few other Saltare related projects to do this year, as well, like get an accurate roster of members who can teach.

I've transcribed roughly half of chapter 12 of The Schoole of Defence, having gotten past Swetnam's descriptions of the basic guards for rapier and dagger and started on his descriptions of the basic attacks. Once it's all transcribed, I'll have to format it for the internet and find a place to host it.

I also have a preliminary list of dances for the Beginners' Ball at Gulf Wars. In no particular order, I've picked...

• Ballo del Fiore
• Black Nag
• Heart’s Ease
• Half Hannikin
• Sellingers’ Round
• Amoroso
• Gathering Peascods
• Official Bransle
• Hole in the Wall
• Horses Bransle
• Petite Riens
• Grimstock
• Jenny Pluck Pears
• Rufty Tufty
• Montarde Bransle
• Anello

Obviously, I've avoided the one's that will require heavy teaching at the ball. In general, an experienced dancer should be able to drag a set of beginners though most of these without too much trouble. I'll also be working on a cheat sheet for the ball, just to make things even easier.

Magna Faire

So, I’ve had a couple of days to recover from Magna Faire, and I think I’m ready to expound a bit.

Let’s get the bad out of the way first. COLD!

Rebecca and Kaitlyn came down with me for this event, their first. I suppose I could add to the “bad” list that the directions to the site were not particularly helpful. I really should ignore the directions and make this trip from memory; the directions they used to put in the flyers were much better. Anyway, we arrived at about 9pm, unpacked, put on some vaguely period garb, and made our way to the hall to meet up with William and Juliana, where Juliana and I put in some time practicing our dance for the A&S competition.

The next morning, I armored up for the Baronial fencing competition. As usually seems to be the case, I was doing quite well in the warm ups, but not so well in the actual competition. My first fight of the tournament was Jean-Michele, who I did, in fact, defeat. My second fight was Ysabel, who defeated me. Two rounds and out, it’s a familiar tale. Of course, this was designed to be a very “quick and dirty” tournament so the Baroness, Margery, and her successor, Katherine (who would be invested in court that night), wouldn’t have to stay out in the cold very long. Thus, it was a single-round, single-elimination tournament with “wounds” retained between bouts. Harsh.

I didn’t have time to stay for classes or pick-up fights in the afternoon, as I had to go clean up and change for the Performing Arts competition. Juliana and I danced Gracca Amorosa for it, which is a fun, fast Italian dance. The floor turned out to be a little more slippery than I expected when wearing my dance slippers, and I nearly wiped out on the first turn. That made me a little nervous for the rest of the dance, and I can see it in the video (which I’ll get posted at some point). I don’t know what score we got for the A&S competition, but we did win the performing arts category in the Magna Faire competition (which is judged by the other entrants in the category, not a team of dedicated judges).

Court saw the investiture of Baron Killian and Baroness Katherine and the elevation of Simon the Wayfarer to the Order of the Pelican, among other sundry awards. And Her Majesty Gwendolyn referred to herself as the “Snow Queen”. Cool.

Kojin presented a feast inspired by the countries of the Danube river, which went quite well. He even made green beans edible, which is a most impressive feat. The meal included some of his home-made mustards, and my sinuses were extremely appreciative of the clearing out.

A really marvelous revel, run by Adriana of Tor an Riogh (which I hope I spelled right) followed the feast. I wish every event had a big dance revel like this in the evening. There was quite a bit of teaching going on, but I really can live with that if it gets people to participate. Many thanks to all my lovely dance partners.

More pictures over at my Flickr page.

Crystal Ball XXV

Another fine trip to Crystal Ball this year. I didn’t pull the all-nighter this time, crashing after the fourth set instead (around 2-3 am) so I’d have some consciousness with which to drive home.

It’s actually getting hard to go to a dance event and find classes on a lot of dances that I don’t already know. Crystal Ball also tends to offer classes on a lot of dances and dance styles that aren’t really in the SCA period at all (such as Scottish country dances). Consequently, a lot of the classes I attended ended up being more review than actual learning.

Lady Azenari taught an English Country Dance class that included Nonesuch, Heralds in Love, and Picking of Sticks. I went to this one mostly for a review of Nonesuch. Alas, the Nonesuch and Heralds require sets of eight, and I was the ninth person in the class, so I spent quite a bit of time observing.

Lady Thea (Mistress? I don’t know her proper title) taught a Bassa Dance class that included Joyos, Basso Lauro, and Franchoise Novelle. This was a class from which I was really hoping to learn something, but I didn’t make much headway. I’ve taken bassa dance classes before, and I’ve always found them hard to follow, and I was frustrated again. Seignur Yves is planning to teach bassa dance again at Saltare; I’ve taken his class before, too, and he somehow manages to get it to make sense.

Over lunch there was a game of “Dance Jeopardy”, that Mistress Tsire cooked up. Something ain’t quite right in her head. Anyway, I managed to be on the winning team, thanks in some small part to my ability to completely dominate the Caroso category in Double Jeopardy. I'm glad they weren't picky about the whole "What is...?" convention, though.

Lady Azenari taught another ECD class in the afternoon, including Scotch Cap, Hyde Park, and My Lady Cullen. This one was mostly review, but a good review, as I’ve had few opportunities to dance these. My Lady Cullen is a progression dance that is quite fun and isn’t as wildly out-of-period as Hole in the Wall, even if it is a good bit more complex.

Mistress Tsire and Arina teamed up to teach a 15th-century Italian class including Amoroso, Leoncello Vecchio, and Gratioso. Amoroso is not at all new to me, but I’d never danced Leoncello before, and I hadn’t danced Gratioso since last Crystal Ball, so this was a good class for me to actually learn something, and Tsire always makes her classes fun.

And finally, Master Sion taught a 16th-century Italian class including Gracca Amoroso, Contapasso in Due, and Villanella. Okay, I was lazy. I’ve researched every one of those myself, so I was just a ringer in that class. It never hurts to practice, though, a sentiment that was apparently shared by almost everyone in the class. Even those who didn’t know those particular dances were thoroughly familiar with 16th-C Italian steps.

I don’t suppose a detailed listing of dances I did at the ball is really warranted here. Suffice to say, I danced a lot and came back with achy legs.

RUM Has Passed

I think RUM turned out to be an excellent event. Lady Xantha really outdid herself with the buffet (I need recipes for several of the dishes), and the classes looked to be well attended despite the expense of travel these days. I managed to teach all three of the dances I planned for my class: Contrapasso, Villanella, and Ballo del Fiore. I also stayed around as a designated "ringer" for the other dance classes, and those turned out to be great fun as well. Dance after the feast was improvised, but still fun. Now that I'm nearing the end of my programming classes, I will hopefully be able to get back to shire meetings so we have dance on the schedule at future events.

Along the same lines, we now have a venue for dance classes, which should be starting up next month. This pleases me greatly, and many thanks go out to Juliana for arranging the place.

Some Overdue Pictures

These are from Kingdom A&S and War College.

Gulf Wars XVII (Part 6)

Saturday

Field Battle
Saturday morning was bright and clear – a fine day for a battle. Ansteorra and her allies started on the west side of the field. Meridies held the center, with Ansteorra to our left and the Midrealm to our right. Meridies would stop the Trimarin army in the center, giving the others time to roll through the enemy flanks. In this first battle, the plan went well: we stopped the center, doing plenty of damage, and the Trimarin line folded. The second battle did not go quite so well, we didn't commit our reserve soon enough in the center, and the Trimarins were able to hit the flanks hard, rolling up our line from the ends. In the final battle, though, we committed quickly and tore the Trimarin center wide open to roll their lines out from the middle. That's how it looked from where I was standing, anyway. Unlike in some previous years, I managed to avoid getting myself killed early in any of the field battles.

Novice Tourney
After the field battle, I actually went back to camp, took off my armor and other gear, and packed it all up. I was done fencing for the week, but I did go back to the field to put in some time as a marshal. I met up with Quentin at the rapier field, where he was entering the Novice Tourney. I was part marshal and part herald for the tourney. Quentin fought pretty well, and did a better job of remembering to die dramatically (when his time came) than most of the participants. I think he was in the semi-final round, although I’m not positive. A good showing, regardless.

Fort Battles
The rapier fort battle is really just a friendship melee for the fencers at the end of the war. We split off into teams, and one side tries to take the fort while the other defends, then change sides. Sometimes we include ranged weapons, sometimes we don’t. This was my first time attending the fort battles as a marshal; I wanted to get in some experience marshalling large melees, and I was able to help out for several changes of side before they brought out the rubber-band guns, at which point I had to retire due to a shortage of safety glasses for marshals.

Le Jeu de Pomme
On my way back to camp, I passed Warder Phillipe from the Barony of Shattered Crystal. I’d seen him playing Jeu de Pomme – an ancestor of tennis – next to the Green Dragon with Warder Brigid earlier in the week. We’d already discussed meeting up for a game ourselves, and he gathered the equipment and met me by the tavern, where he taught me the game. It’s actually rather tricky. After the serve has been returned (an unreturned serve doesn’t count), play continues until the ball bounces twice without being hit. There’s a goal line, with the server defending and the other attacking; the attacker scores points any time the ball passes the goal line. When the ball first goes dead, its position is marked as “the Chase”. Thereafter, when the ball goes dead, the attacker or defender gets points depending on whether it stopped closer to the goal than the chase or farther away: also, the chase moves to the new position.

I really wasn’t very good at this. We served by knocking the ball onto the tavern roof, but after that you could play it any direction. Nonetheless, I couldn’t seem to get it out of my head that I should keep playing toward the roof of the tavern. Oh, well, I at least managed to luck into winning one game of three. After that, I introduced Phillippe to Guillaume from Tal Mere; when I left, Philippe was showing off his “tennis” gear and Guillaume was showing off his period golf gear – I’m sure they got on well together.

Gleann Abhan Ball
Rose Eriksdottir hosted the Gleann Abhan Ball on Saturday night, and she worked a little kingdom fundraiser into it by auctioning experienced dance partners, something that worked fairly well at the last Saltare. In retrospect, though, the last night of war is probably not the best night to hold that sort of fundraiser – people tend to have used up all their spending money by then.

Seven Deadly Sins Party
After the ball, I wandered over to the Seven Deadly Sins Party at Marshin Fayne for a while. I’m not entirely sure what was different, but this was the first time that I went to that party and really enjoyed it. There was a lonely bottle of muscadine wine on their serving table that I was able to claim, sharing it with Ginevra while chatting with assorted old friends and new ones from this war. I did manage to take myself off to bed before it got exceedingly late though, knowing I would have a long drive home.

Salutes and Thanks
Hellos and Thank Yous to Duchess Katrina, Ginevra, Bast, Debbie, Zoe, Quentin, Cortney, Sybil, Antonello, Theodora, Master Octavio, Maire, Rose, Faelen, Amalie, Hawk, Zofeia, and all those who helped me get through the week as well as new friends whose names I can’t remember yet.

Gulf Wars XVII (part 5)

Friday

Archery
Friday I decided to take a day off from fencing, as I was feeling the effort quite a bit. I wouldn’t be able to fight in the Ravine Battle anyway, as I would have kitchen duty in camp when it was supposed to be going on. Therefore, instead of gearing up to try to fence in the morning, I went to do a little bit of shopping and got myself some “legal” arrows for target archery (my practice arrows have carbon fiber shafts; the SCA requires wood shafts for competition shooting). After doing my part for the merchants by acquiring new arrows and a quiver from them, I went down to the range for a while and did some shooting for the war point. I determined that I can shoot five or six arrows in thirty seconds and put two of those into the six-inch-wide target representing a castle’s arrow slit (at a range of about ten yards).

Meridien Court
I was ambushed, I tell you. Her Grace Katrina asked me to be her escort to court on Friday evening, which is not at all unusual. The Order of the Velvet Owl was called, and that’s not unusual either. The herald calling me up to join the Order was completely unexpected. My humble thanks to Her Majesty and the Order for the honor.

Gulf Wars Ball
Duchess Katrina hosted the Gulf Wars Ball, for which we – appropriately -- had the most elaborate refreshment table (helped by the fact that she had previously provided refreshments for the Meridien Ladies of the Rose Tournament, from which we had some excess supplies to use). This ball was an amalgamation of favorites from the various other Kingdom Balls, and we moved swiftly through the list to have plenty of time for requests.

one installment left...

Gulf Wars XVII (part 4)

Thursday

Ansteorra’s Ladies of the Rose Sponsored Rapier Tournament
This tournament just never seems to go my way, at least not for very long. Duchess Katrina was good enough to sponsor me again this year, and for my first duel, I fought a good fellow named James Allen (if I recall correctly). I suppose I shouldn’t complain about my luck so much, since I won my first duel and James didn’t; I got past his guard with practically my first thrust to strike him in the face.

For my second duel, I drew Baron Mateo from Northshield (I think – he may be from the Midrealm – I’m not entirely sure). Don Mateo is one of those fencer’s who’s a good bit taller than me, has about a foot more reach, and practices. At least I don’t have to feel embarrassed about losing to such a worthy opponent; he continued in the tournament all the way to at least the quarter finals (from a starting field of something like 78 fighters).

For my third duel, I drew the “bye fighter”. As there was no designated bye fighter for the tournament, the marshals asked Her Majesty of Ansteorra to choose someone. She cheerfully assured me that she would find me a good fight, and she certainly did that: Don Aaron (not sure of the spelling) from Ansteorra. To my credit, I can say that I made him work to get the kill, and I appreciate him setting aside his dagger after taking my left arm. Don Aaron made it all the way to the final round of the tournament, so again, I was at least losing with some dignity.

Trimaris Ball
The lovely Lady Theodosia Perplexa from Trimaris hosted Thursday night’s ball. I truly appreciate her help on this, since she jumped in to assist when Lord Edwardus, who was going to host the Trimaris Ball, had to cancel just a couple of weeks before the war due to work obligations.

still more to come...

Gulf Wars XVII (part 3)

Wednesday

Dance Class
On Wednesday, I taught 16th-century Italian dances again, and with Antonello teaching his class right after mine, I got him to teach Villanella, which is a 16th-century Italian dance that was on his list for the Ansteorra Ball. I’m still getting refresher’s on that one.

Everyman Tourney
After class, I was Quentin’s authorization fight, then I took him down to the Fort for the Everyman Tourney, which is a tourney for anyone who does not have his or her kingdom’s top rapier award (Meridien Order of the Blade for us). A cadet from the Midrealm (I think) killed everyone in our initial pool, so we didn’t advance. No problem, we gathered up some people and fought melees behind the fort. We started with 2-on-2 matches, but we were up to 9-on-9 before my legs gave out and I returned to camp.

Ansteorra Ball
Antonello ran the Ansteorran ball, and all went well, I think. Someone from his group had the bright idea to buy out all the remaining stock from the bread merchant as the shop was closing, so Ansteorra had a very nice refreshment spread.

more to come...

Gulf Wars XVII (part 2)

Tuesday

Dance Class
For Tuesday’s class, I taught SCA-choreographed dances. On my list were Ivy Alman, Heralds in Love, and Duchess Rhondalynn’s Pavan. Now, I must here confess that I don’t actually know Duchess Rhondalynn’s Pavan well enough to teach it. Fortunately, Lady Ginevra Brembati came to the class to be my ringer and teach the dance for me.

6-Man Melee Tourney
Tuesday afternoon I grouped with Tormod, Corbin, Rhys, and a couple of other fencers we recruited at the field for a 6-Man Melee tournament. We came out of our initial pool with a 2-2 record; not enough to proceed further. At least one of the teams that beat us (a group of “Hellhounds” from the Kingdom of Northshield) ended up winning the entire tournament, so we can claim to at least have been beaten with class.

Rapier-Archery Battle
I believe this was the second year of running a rapier battle using combat archery. I’ve been in plenty of scenarios in which we simulated black powder handguns with rubber band guns before, but this was my first time being shot at with arrows and crossbow bolts while wearing fencing armor. We fought in the ravine, and each side only had a handful of archers, but they do affect the outcome of the fight. I was also really “on” for this battle; so much that I actually stopped a push where my line was thin and got three or four opponents without getting killed before my reinforcements arrived. I hope we do this every year.

Incidentally, a crossbow bolt feels like a fairly stiff thrust from a rapier. I got a couple of bruises from them, but nothing serious.

Meridies Ball
The Meridies Ball went pretty well. This was the last of my official host duties for the war; representatives from Trimaris, Ansteorra, and Gleann Abhan would run their dance nights, and Duchess Katrina was running the Gulf Wars Ball for me. I had only a few light refreshments: crackers and cookies basically; nothing like the elaborate spread we put out one year. Note to self: if you bring “chocolate schoolboy” cookies, bring a lot of them.

more to come...

Gulf Wars XVII

I have returned triumphant from Gulf Wars XVII! I must say that I’m not entirely sure who won the war, but our side did win the Rapier Field battle (more on that later), so I call it a win for me, at least.

Sunday

Ant Slaying
Having arrived on Saturday, and no one else being in camp Sunday morning, I was available to help His Lordship Tormod and a crew of volunteers inspect the main battle field, working from the Rapier Field down Hastings Field through the Fort. The primary concern here was live fire-ant nests, which we marked with surveying flags for a crew of poisoners following behind us. Many nasty stinging things of evil were slain that day.

Camp Setup
His Lordship Stefan arrived in camp while I was away marking anthills for destruction, and I was able to put in some time helping him and others set up their tents and other accoutrements as they arrived on site.

Monday

Dance Class
On Monday morning I taught a class in 16th-century Italian dance. The dances were Ballo del Fiore, which is both simple and rather widely known, and Contrapasso, which I am endeavoring to make at least widely known (while not particularly difficult, it doesn’t qualify as simple).

Verona Street Brawl
His Lordship Tormod dubh Gunn hosts the Verona Street Brawls on Monday every year, weather permitting. This year we had two town squares (made by an arrangement of hay bales) with wells in the middle. The premise is that the Montagues and Capulets are out for blood, but the Governor (portrayed by Lord Dante de Piro) has forbidden dueling and fighting in the streets. The objective, then, is to dispose of members of the opposing family without being caught by the Watch or the Governor, who wanders the squares at unpredictable intervals. In addition to the usual stabbing and slashing, this event involves a good amount of roleplay, with fighters on both sides trying to explain to the authorities how they ended up standing in the square surrounded by dead bodies. The colored tokens of the families carried by the fighters are often moved about and the bodies arranged by the survivors of a clash in an effort to make the other side look more guilty before the Governor arrives. We were especially honored to receive a visit from Her Majesty Lethrenn of Meridies, who came to see what the Street Brawl was all about.

I can say that I had a stroke of genius toward the end of this event. I was a Montague, and after killing off the Capulets in our square, we began to try to orchestrate the crime scene. I decided that the best way to handle it would be to simply get rid of most of the bodies, so we “dragged” them out of the square, leaving just one dead Montague and one dead Capulet. We left the Capulet’s sword, but hid the Montague’s. When the Governor arrived, I confessed to slaying the Capulet in hope to save my cousin’s life, having come upon him attacking my kinsman. This turned out to be a rather original approach to the situation, and the Governor commended me for my honor and “honesty”.

Caroso Ball
For the Open Ball on Monday night, I ran a Caroso ball. A Caroso ball is basically an all request format in which the choice of dance passes from partner to partner through the evening. That is, the partner of whoever chose the current dance gets to choose the subsequent dance. This format actually worked quite smoothly, and I think I shall use it at other balls that I have the privilege of hosting.

More to come...

Winter Collegium

I traveled south to An Dun Theine on Saturday to teach dance at their Winter Collegium. A fun event, as always, and especially nice because we had a local chamber music group play for us at lunch. They were not actually SCA people, just local musicians that someone in the SCA happened to know. I'm hoping that some of them will become SCA people in the future, though. I had a few attend my dance classes that afternoon, and I sent them home with some reference material on dance (a Saltare handbook from a previous year).

I originally planned to teach Contrapasso and Contrapasso Nuovo, but seeing that I had a room to myself for as long as I wanted it, I spent pretty much the whole afternoon teaching various dances. We did some basic English Country Dances, a few of the easier Mixed Bransles, and came back round to Contrapasso variations toward the end of the day.

Time well spent, I think, even if I am running myself ragged this month.

Pictures from Saltare

Thanks to his Excellency, Sir Griffin O'Suaird, there are pictures from Saltare. I'll share a few here, more are available online.

Saltare 2008

Saltare 2008 has come and gone, and it turned out to be a really fun event. I don’t know how many of the attendees knew how much confusion there was behind the scenes leading up to it, but everything came together at the end, and I don’t recall speaking to anyone who didn’t say they had a good time. (Double negatives balanced right? Looks that way. Whew!)

I taught two classes this year: “Contrapasso Variations” and “Wherligig in Depth”. If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you may remember my series of articles on the reconstruction of Contrapasso Nuovo, which was one of the variations that I taught. That class actually went pretty well, although a couple of details did trip me up a bit, this being only the second time I’ve tried to teach it.

“Wherligig in Depth” was an exercise in the non-intuitive nature of some dance figures. You can teach this dance any number of times to rooms full of smart people, and it still won’t “click” with some of them. The figure for the second chorus – commonly called an “S-hey” in the SCA – is usually the culprit, although it’s not unusual to end up with problems in the other parts of the dance, either. I think making a full-hour class out of this one dance is a good start; we still had sets working on parts of it well after class time ended and most people had gone to lunch. Drilling over-and-over is the only way to overcome the mental blocks some people have against this one.

I have to give great credit and thanks to Lady Andreva Rigaldi and Lord Lorenzo Petrucci, who both picked up a lot of the organization for this event. In addition to teaching and making out the class schedule, they came up with an interesting variation on a Caroso Ball format for the evening. This involved some dance-partner auctioning as a fundraiser for the hosting shire, and that little brain-child brought in close to $160. I brought a pretty good price, too, if I do say so myself.

"Hellos" to all of the gang who shared the cabin with me and to our various party and dinner guests over the weekend. The cabin was a really good idea, I think, as it allowed us to have all manner of period-ish dishes and be a little social hub when class was over and the ball not-yet-begun. Henry Horton State Park really has some nice facilities, although there are some event policies that can make them a bit hard to work with.

We do have a bid from the Incipient Shire of Stagsgate for Saltare 2009, who will also be hosting Kingdom A&S this year.

Bad me did not take pictures, but I noticed Sir Griffin lurking with a camera quite frequently, so I may be able to come up with some from him.