[SCA-Dance] Dancing at non-dance events

[White,John]

I think that one of the keys to success is to have an event steward who actively *wants* dance
to happen.

For example, at our local Yule, the event steward really wanted dance to happen.  He scheduled
the day so that there were three hours open at the end for dancing, which was fortunate since
the all-day feast started at least 1.5 hours late.  It was, however, at the end of a long day during
which it snowed, so we only ended up dancing for about an hour, with at max, maybe 10 people?
Still, it was the first time in years that Yule had dance at all, or where we weren't dodging the
clean-up crew.

Still, it really does take the event steward to enable dance to happen.  Both this Yule and last
year's Yule had the main hall set up for feast from the very beginning of the day.  Last year's
Yule put me in a side room for dancing.  The good side of that is that the room was mine, with 
plenty of space, and no interruptions - nor did I disturb anyone else.  The bad side was that it
was a side room, not completely isolated as there were merchants outside, and a display room
on the other side of the hallway, but still a side room, rather than being out and visible and
able to draw people in who only had a slight bit of interest.  There was no dance scheduled
for after the feast.

So, both Yules had no space in the main gathering hall.  This year's Yule really had no side
rooms available for dancing, so last year's solution wouldn't/couldn't have worked this year.
Fortunately, this year there was plenty of time scheduled for late dancing.

So, you not only need people to lead and play for dancing, but you need space pre-court and
feast to hold dancing if you want to move it out of the end-of-day frame (and I think that would
be a fairly good idea in general).  Ideally, a central space.  At the least, a space that is visible
yet not disruptive to those who have some other interest.  Unfortunately, that's not always
possible.  

          \\Dafydd C
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From:  Tim McDaniel [tmcd at panix.com]

On Tue, 21 Jan 2014, Sonya <patches023 at verizon.net> wrote:
> I like the solution of interspersing dancing and fighting (or whatever the
> other main activity is).

At Candlemas, we intersperse the feast and the dancing.  Three
courses, three sets.  Dance still gives way, but it tends to be that
we can't go on to the 5th and last dance of the set because the
kitchen is ready to serve the crottled greeps now.

Danett de Linccolne
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