[SCA-Dance] One Hour of Dance - Class details

[David Learmonth]

Hello!

Some people at Terp requested that I post some notes about my "class" this
past weekend, so here are a few quick notes, and my list of dances, as well
as my list that I worked with from our event a month before, Step Spritely.

Oh, and if anyone has any comments / questions, especially if you attended,
feel free to let me know / tell the group.  Thanks!

- general format was to have no pauses between dances
- a few seconds gap existed between mp3 player tracks, in which time I would
call out the next dance, and the general formation for couples (i.e. 3
couples in a line, 2 couples facing, etc)
- people were free to sit out dances as they pleased, though we ended up
with 12 people for most of the class, which tended to motivate people to
stay dancing, since it is a very handy dance number
- despite not knowing a dance, or having exactly the right number of people,
dancers were encouraged to try it anyway, faking it, or improving something
for the numbers they had
- we recommend that participants have intermediate level experience to
participate  (if you have enough "ringers", then you can certainly pull more
people through, as long as they are dancers who won't get discouraged)
   - also, it is good if they know something of the various styles
beforehand.  I think my main concern is that newer dancers will tend to have
to put in a lot more effort to keep up / correct their steps, and this may
exhaust them quicker.

- Besides having some ringers in the group, and generally a high level of
experience, I tried to call a decent amount of the dances throughout the
hour

- Experience so far dictates that people definitely start to get tired at
about 40 minutes into the continuous dancing, even with staggered faster and
slower dances.
(at Step Spritely, I actually paused for a 5 minute break at that point.  At
Terp I did not, and people seemed generally fine, although a few said
afterwards that I killed them)  :)

- oh, and at Steps it was mentioned that the format didn't give as much
chance to change partners, so at Terp we revised it to specifically have the
lords switch partners Every dance by one position around the set / circle.
People seemed alright with this.


I really like the idea of this class in general, as I think that it
invigorates some of us, and is a neat challenge.

- one potential addition that has been mentioned is that I should edit my
music to have an extra repeat, and then to NOT call out the dances before
hand, but instead to just let people treat it more like a bransle suite,
giving them that first repeat (or a few bars) to get into appropriate groups

- alternatively / additionally, I could set it up such that we have a set of
all dances that could be done in a circle / faked in a circle, then we
wouldn't have the formation issue


So, here are the dances from each class.  I actually think that this format
/ selection could be adjusted slightly, depending on your audience.  Terp
probably could have handled something even harder, though that isn't
completely the point of the class (it is to have fun, and not necessarily do
the hardest dances possible).  Meanwhile, and I can let you know how this
goes, we have an event this weekend that is more classes targetting average
SCAdians (non-dancers), so for that, Guillaume wants to try this class, but
I'm definitely recommending something a bit easier.  (and probably inserting
a break would be a good idea)

Oh, and statistics-wise, for Terp, we made it through 26 of the 27 dances.
(I knew I shouldn't have bothered tacking the last one on, but it was just
in case we had the time).  Meanwhile, for Step Spritely, we actually just
went Alphabetically through dances, and made it through 19 (Ly Bens was the
last dance), but we started late, and took a break, and some of the dance
recordings were longer.

(oh, and the names are from the mp3 names)
Terp:
01 - Gathering Peasecods(Best)
02 - Pease Bransle(Fast-4Repeats)
03 - Queens Alman(4 Repeats)
04 - Contrapasso In Due(Well Edited)
05 - Anello(Good-2 Repeats)
06 - Cuckolds All In A Row(Singing Intro)
07 - Gelosia(Slow)
08 - Black Nag(Fast)
09 - Belfiore
10 - Lorayne Alman
11 - Goddesses(11 Verse)
12 - Bizzaria D'Amore
13 - Saltarello La Regina(Normal)
14 - Scottish Bransle
15 - Hermit's bransle
16 - Jenny Pluck Pears(Fast Verses-Slow Chorus)
17 - Rosti Boli(Best)
18 - Upon A Summer's Day(Best)
19 - Washerwoman's Bransle(Best)
20 - La Castellana(Fast)
21 - Vita Di Cholino(Best)
22 - Scotch Cap(Best-3 Verse)
23 - Ly Bens Distonys(Alright-Single Chorus)
24 - Black Alman(4 Repeats-Slow)
25 - Petit Vriens(Alright-3 Repeats)
26 - Aridan Bransle(Speeds Up)
27 - Whirlygig A[BBA3]3


Step Spritely:
All In A Garden Green
Amoroso(12 Doubles-Normal-4 Repeats)
Anello(Good-2 Repeats)
Aridan Bransle(Speeds Up)
Belfiore
Bizzaria D'Amore
Black Alman(4 Repeats-Slow)
Black Nag(Fast)
Contrapasso In Due(Well Edited)
Cuckolds All In A Row(Singing Intro)
Gathering Peasecods(Best)
Gelosia(Slow)
Goddesses(11 Verse)
hermit
Hyde Park(Fast-2 Repeats)
Jenny Pluck Pears(Fast Verses-Slow Chorus)
La Castellana(Fast)
Lorayne Alman
Ly Bens Distonys(Alright-Single Chorus)
New Bo Peep
Pease Bransle(Fast-4Repeats)
Petit Vriens(Alright-3 Repeats)
Picking Of Sticks(Best)
Queens Alman(4 Repeats)
Quen Quer Que(Vocal-Best-4 Repeats)
Rosti Boli(Best)
Saltarello La Regina(Normal)
Scotch Cap(Best-3 Verse)
Scottish Bransle
Upon A Summer's Day(Best)
Vita Di Cholino(Best)
Washerwoman's Bransle(Best)
Whirlygig A[BBA3]3



There you go!  I hope it helps / is of interest.  I think it worked fairly
well.  Though I was definitely a bit tired in Etienne's class afterwards.
(very warmed up, but definitely a bit exhausted by the time I finished
several of the fancy Italian steps).  Oh, and my lady I think felt that she
may have pushed it a bit much that afternoon, following up this class with I
believe it was either the Morris dance or the Irish dance, and then Bouffons
after that.  :)  And the floor we were on was ok, but not that forgiving.

Darius