The thing that makes PW42 more surreal is the fact that it was my first time teaching at War. Nevermind the fact I hadn’t taught many classes before; very little could have prepared me for the nervous rush of teaching at such a large venue. I taught three classes: Whose Partner am I Anways?, Italian Dance for ECD Feet – Contrapasso en Due, and Mimed Bransles. They were more than enough (from a stress perspective) yet not enough because I would have liked to round out my four allotted classes as well as provide a little relief for the other teachers who had multiple classes. Best to start small, though.
Whose Partner was the first of three and had the most students, although I will shamefully say I invited half of my camp to attend to make sure at least someone was there. The dances were relatively simple, spirited, and fun. The version of Cuckolds taught was one that Ginevra and I had worked on through the long and cold Cleveland winter. Explaining the last verse (with pousettes) was made especially classy when you let the ladies know they can hit their partners over the head with a rolling pin as they chase them. Think about it… One of my house sisters recorded a video of Cuckolds for us – tilt your head to watch it.
Contrapasso was a well-attended class, although it seemed that the students were either already familiar with the dance (yet not ringers) or the steps translated exceptionally well to ECD (English Country Dance) terms. The dance was taught in pieces, starting with the chorus (figure 8’s or chevrons), then adding each of the verses, then a chorus, then repeated the process for each of the eight verses. We ended up with time to spare, so switched partners and danced it a few more times before class was adjourned.
Mimed Bransles was a lightly attended class, partially because it was up against Mistress Felice’s Gracca Amorosa flash mob and partially because the subject matter had been covered several times by then. It was a great opportunity to work with a small group of dancers and to practice listening for music queues to identify the dance. Which oddly enough…
… came in very handy during the Grand Ball! There were a small group of us willing to participate in the bransle challenge which consisted of randomly played bransles, dance til you drop, so on and so forth. Months of reviewing bransles really paid off! Towards the end, Ginevra and I were calling them as we went along. One of the funnier moments was during Bransle Aridan and the infamous bunny kicking giggle-fest, but you kind of had to be there.
Here are the class notes (etc.) for Pennsic 42:
- 7/27 - Whose Partner am I Anyway?
- 7/28 - Italian Dance for ECD Feet – Contrapasso en Due
- 7/30 - Mimed Bransles (Appendix)