[SCA-Dance] SCA-Dance Re: Ulm Ball 1503

Mon Apr 20 12:20:24 EDT 2015

Rachel/Judith
judithsca at aol.com

-----Original Message-----
From: Rachel/Judith <judithsca at aol.com>
To: sca-dance <sca-dance at sca-dance.org>
Sent: Tue, Apr 21, 2015 12:29 am
Subject: SCA-Dance Re: Ulm Ball 1503

     Salvete!
    Thank you, Daniel and Urraca, for commenting on the Ulm Ball at KWDS this year. I am always looking to optimize my products! :)
     Regarding the comment about including non-15th c. dance in the Ulm Ball - I queried the KWDS attendees several months ago about whether they were interested in balls that were limited to a specific time range - i.e. a Caroso ball to only 16th c. material and the Ulm Ball to pre-1503 material. The only people who responded liked the idea, so I went with it - the idea was to create a specific atmosphere by limiting the time period. If one were to do their own version of the ball, they could of course choose to include on the selection list whatever dances they liked, based on whatever parameters.
       The Ulm ball format certainly works better with a better matched group of dancers, in terms of dance level and experience. I thought KWDS would attract dancers with experience broad/deep enough to ensure that couples shared knowledge of many of the dances on the list, but I apparently erred in my judgement. I     even sent out emails and posted messages with the selection list, and posted that the ball would feature only 15th c. dance, but those messages and posts seem to have mostly gone astray. 
     In reference to the comment on order of precedence: I think this is a matter of taste and a matter of the culture of the kingdom in which one resides, whether people are more or less aware of order of precedence now than they were then. In some kingdoms, people seem to keep a mental OP in their heads at all times, while in others, rank is disregarded utterly outside of an official court setting. In terms of liking rank as a way of choosing dances, I personally find that doing a ball by order of precedence adds to the atmosphere, dignity and authenticity of the occasion, and I know I am not alone in that. The Ulm Ball is a format that has been particularly enjoyed in Drachenwald. But then again, this is a matter of personal taste and not everyone will be happy with every item on offer. Ultimately, one will please no one by trying to please everyone, my only goal was to expose people to things they had not experienced before and hope that some of them enjoyed it.
       In terms of efficiency of seating people by rank, my majordomo actually went through the entire list of attendees in advance and looked up their highest ranking awards in their respective kingdom, but she ended up not using the list because she thought the method of calling people out would be more efficient. She was also falling into her role as majordomo and attempting to lend gravitas to the actual process of seating people. In retrospect, I should have taken a more active role in moving the proceedings along and instructed her to simply go by her list, calling people by name to take their place, but as you may recall, there was that unfortunate fire alarm earlier that day, and I was somewhat distracted. Much of the perceived wait to start, though, was a delay due to the fire alarm. The actual seating process only took about ten minutes once it got started.
      Regarding the thought about pairing people up in advance: this only works if you have a fixed attendee list, and if all attendees then actually attend and show up on time. That would have no doubt worked in 1503, when no would have dared show up late to such a ball, or miss it for anything short of serious illness or injury, but the SCA does not tend to exhibit the same mores. All it takes is one person not appearing, and then you have to rematch people on the spot - or skip over the person without their pre-arranged partner, which would be punishing that individual for their partner's transgression of tardiness. 

 Things I would do differently next time:
 -Have my majordomo stick to the pre-researched list for seating people by order of precedence, calling them each by name - maybe even putting name tags on the seats in advance?
 -Ensure that I have a herald if my majordomo's voice is not loud enough to carry across the hall
 -Remind people that they have been handed a booklet of cheatsheets and to use them as needed (I did not really see anyone using the dance booklets during the event, which may not have included every dance on the ball list, but did include many of them)

 Thank you both again for your feedback!
 Judith

-----Original Message-----      
 From: sca-dance-request <sca-dance-request at sca-dance.org>      
 To: sca-dance <sca-dance at sca-dance.org>      
 Sent: Sun, Apr 19, 2015 1:00 am      
 Subject: Sca-dance Digest, Vol 112, Issue 2      

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message:
1
Date: Fri, 17 Apr 2015 16:57:15 -0500 (CDT)
From: Tim McDaniel

SNIP

A
comment I heard from someone in the peer section is that they would
have been
willing to try a few Gresleys with someone who knew of them,
but their paired
one didn't know them; their paired one knew Italians,
but they didn't.  And by
then, the most popular dances had been done
-- yes, you could choose a repeat,
but ...  I lucked out with Petit
Rose: I was able to cram a bit for it, and
people around dragged me
thru it. (No, of course it's not hard -- I simply had
done it only a
couple of times and only at the most recent Terp.)

I'm
wondering about ways it might be improved.  I've not been to a
Caroso ball, so
I don't know what if anything is done there that might
apply here.
- a limited
set of dances (like say 10), and maybe of couples to
   choose from them?
-
include ECD?
- a ball class?  On the list was, for example, Armynn, but we
hadn't
   been able to get to learning that.
- pairing well in advance, so we
could locate each other and work out
   a dance?  Only after did I think of
Casuelle Nouvelle, which I
   haven't done in years but might have been able to
prep for.
   (Nobody did a basse dance.)
- the next high-ranking person might
not be stuck with just one
   possible partner?
- Calling / quick teaching
reminder?  SNIP

Danielis de Lindo
-- 
Tim McDaniel,
tmcd at panix.com

------------------------------

Message: 2
Date: Sat,
18 Apr 2015 10:30:51 +0200
From: Mary Railing <mrailing2 at yahoo.com>

SNIP

 The only thing I did not like about the Ulm
ball was the need to sort people by precedent. However authentic it may be, it
was time consuming and awkward. However, this is another thing that would have
worked better in period when people were always aware of rank, and which would
work better in an SCA setting in which more people know each other than at a
Known World event.

--Urraca