[SCA-Dance] KWDMS - Midnight Parties, especially Friday Night

[David Learmonth]

I don't know off hand.  However, the distance from The Inn at Saratoga, to
the Saratoga Downtowner, where many people are staying, is listed as 0.4
Miles on Google Maps, or 9 minutes walk, and it is a straight shot on the
same street, Broadway.

I think we'll just have to set up a Walk.  People can leave in groups, and
if need be, some of us can walk, or drive, people back at the end of the
evening.  I'll volunteer to help out.

Same basic rules as Pennsic, but hopefully without as large a hill to
scale.  :)

Darius



On Wed, Jun 19, 2013 at 7:03 AM, Mary Railing <mrailing2 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Does anyone know whether Saratoga Springs is the sort of place where is is
> going to be *safe* to walk back to one's hotel at 3:00 am? I don't know
> whether there will be anyone to walk back with, and the more I think about
> it, the worse the idea of walking alone sounds to me.
>
> --Urraca
>
>
> ________________________________
>  From: David Learmonth <david.a.learmonth at gmail.com>
> To: sca-dance <sca-dance at sca-dance.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, June 19, 2013 1:37 AM
> Subject: [SCA-Dance]  KWDMS - Midnight Parties, especially Friday Night
>
>
> Good evening Dancers,
>
> After the main dancing is finished on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday
> evenings, I would invite those who still have energy to join us for
> additional dancing (and games perhaps) not far away at The Inn at Saratoga,
> in their Ballroom.  If you arrive for Thursday evening, we'll be easy to
> find as we are in the building right beside the Thursday night site.
>
> http://www.theinnatsaratoga.com/
> 231 Broadway, Saratoga, New York 12866
>
> All 3 evenings we have the space for Open Dancing officially from Midnight
> until 3 am.  (if we're lucky, we'll start even sooner, depending how
> quickly we all get back).
>
> However, on Friday night, we have Additional Plans, a Book of the Courtier!
>
> Here is a link to the description, and being an email, I'll also paste the
> description below for convenience.  We hope to see you there!
> Darius
>
>
> https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lpIs1b7mlYM8UgvhjA2kdidp1tzqjxZXf-daxaIi9K8/edit?usp=sharing
>
> ****************************************
> Friday night Book of the Courtier ball
> The Book of the Courtier (Il Cortegiano), by Baldessare Castiglione
> contains a description of a rather unusual evening in the Court of Urbino.
> Buried therein is much information on what might happen during a more
> typical evening.  Among other things, it is clear that a typical evening
> involves a good bit of dancing - that this setting is one in which many of
> the dances we learn likely were originally done.
>
> On the Friday night of KWDS X, after the main ball we are going to try to
> recreate this milieu.  That is, we would try to recreate not just the
> dances, but the setting in which they were originally performed - not a
> formal ball, but a small, intimate meeting of friends, much as is really
> the case here.
>
> There is much similarity between the setting described in Il Cortegiano and
> our typical Caroso balls, but there is also more detail.
> There is a clear presence, a lord or lady who really does run things.
> Though they may delegate their authority temporarily, it is most
> definitely theirs to retain whenever their whim dictates.
> People are called upon individually to entertain the company in some
> fashion or other.  Even in the games (which sometimes temporarily devolve
> into a free-for-all), there is always a reversion to polite serial
> monologues.  Please come with the intention of both being entertained and
> of entertaining.  Watching is as important a skill as performing, and
> performance requires an audience.
> As to more practical details, whereas Caroso tells us to segregate by
> gender, and arrange ourselves in order of precedence, Castiglione tells us
> that gender was alternated as far as possible, and that precedence, with
> the exception of the presiding lady herself, was lost or ignored in such an
> intimate gathering.
>
> How would one entertain a company of close friends? Our predecessors would
> do much the same things we do now - dancing, singing, playing music,
> joking, gently teasing each other, and playing games.
>
> We aren’t the first dance geeks.  Dancing is probably the most universal
> and popular pastime of the day, referenced in nearly every account of
> private parties or gatherings.  However, in this context, it would never be
> a social free-for-all.  As we mention above, your purpose in dancing is to
> entertain the presence and the company, through grace, or storytelling, or
> sheer athleticism.
>
> For those so inclined, a musical performance (vocal and/or instrumental),
> would also be a good choice. (Note that the musicians are not paid artists,
> but members of the social group.)
>
> Participants could also recite a piece of poetry (original or otherwise) or
> a short story or anecdote, or even lead a short game to entertain the
> group. Such offerings would add variety to the evening's amusement, and
> leave more possibilities for those participants not already highly
> specialized in dance and music.
>
> In the original Book of the Courtier, the games are the focus of the book.
> In our recreation, we want to emphasize the other aspects (like dancing!).
> Nevertheless, many of the games described would still be short enough to
> be viable.  They tend towards philosophical “thought experiments,”, and are
> often laden with in-jokes.  Examples of these include such gems as “Why do
> all women hate rats and love snakes?”, and “What does the letter ‘s’ mean
> that the Duchess wears on her forehead?”, or perhaps even “Why does Gwommy
> always wear purple?”  The seem more than anything else to be a simple
> vehicle with which to astound the company with one’s wit.
>
> The courtiers of Urbino are long since dead and buried, but their keen wits
> and their playful energy live on in us, their spiritual descendants.  Spend
> a gracious evening with us, show us your mettle as Renaissance men and
> women, and help create another little renaissance of early 16th-century
> dance and music culture.
>
> So, when the Friday night ball at KWDMS ends, our celebrated hostess
> Countess Thyra Eiriksdottir invites you to while away the late evening in
> her salon at the local hostelry:
> The Inn at Saratoga (231 Broadway, Saratoga Springs)
> ****************************************
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