To say that Pennsic was a blur is to put it mildly. I’m not sure if
the blur was primarily before or primarily after, but as per usual I
overloaded my schedule with things I wanted to accomplish and managed
about a quarter of them. (Up from years past, though. Two thumbs to me!)
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:
