[SCA-Dance] KWDS report (What I Did on my Summer Vacation...)

[tmcd at panix.com]

On Wed, 22 Jul 2009, David Learmonth <david.a.learmonth at gmail.com>
wrote:
> And not that I'm not up for a potential experiment, and really not
> trying to be rude about this

Please *don't* try, then.

> but I see your view Lowrie as a bit of the selfish one from the
> other side of things.  You didn't make it to the last few KWDSes
> (and I do know that other people made it up here from your way,
> though some came up early so I'm guessing it wasn't feasible for
> you), and so you are missing dance and want to give yourself more
> options, potentially at the expense of the quality of the event.

Please don't ascribe base and despicable motives to other people on
this list without solid evidence (and I firmly believe that Lowrie has
not shown such evidence).

I think I was the one who asked first in this thread about annual KWDS
events.  I certainly do want more options for dance, as I'm finally
starting to get a little serious about it, and I think it untrue to
call a desire for more dance "selfish".

It is not _my_ intent, at least, to degrade KWDS.  Personally, I would
like to see more argument on the subject.  What occurs to me is that
nobody would be forced to present before they're ready, and some
people would probably like the chance to present more.  So I would
expect that the number of advanced classes per two years would likely
increase, or at least not decrease.  People attending two KWDS would
have more time (2 * the number of days), so maybe they'd have more
opportunity to learn (fewer class conflicts, more time to absorb)?

I'm not sure that the average advancitude of the classes is a good
measure.  If it were, KWDS could be held every 5 years, for example,
and then only the most spectacular of classes might be taught.
The average level of the class, one measure of "quality", would be
high ... but SCA dance overall would not be advanced as much.

(Indeed, I didn't attend KWDS for two reasons: one was delaying too
long to get a cheap plane ticket, yes, but also I was worried, feeling
that I might be out of my depth and get little out of it.)

I was starting to write here about whether KWDS might serve those of
us in the intermediate and lower skill levels, but that would be a
much longer and broader note.

Dankyn Lincoln
-- 
Tim McDaniel; Reply-To: tmcd at panix.com