I'm slowly accumulating accessories to go with my new gown. This was a very quick, very cheap project; and the finished product looks a lot like the pictures. I was even able to get real (though poor-quality) pearls for no more than the cost of plastic beads. My pearls are a little smaller and more irregular than most of those depicted, but they're not bad.
Present: Katherina,William, Nadia, Caterine
William, Caterine, Nadia and Katherina woke up our legs with Anello and Amoroso (including the new ending for Amoroso), before launching into an evening of Spagnolette. The first two are old favourites, the last is new to us.
On Saturday the 13th of August Catherine, William and Katherina performed at the Winter Warm-up, an annual dancing event run by the Ruritanian Society and the Danish Club.
We danced Spagnoletta Nuova for three, then William and Katherina danced Pavaniglia. The performance went well, and both dancing and costumes got many appreciative comments.
I have no idea what everyone else achieved at sewing Sunday, though all seemed very industrious. I, however, set my new ruff! That is, I spent several hours with hair curlers, setting my upside-down ruff into even figure-eights. It's now wearable again, though it will look better once I've flipped it, and spent an hour or so touching up the top, and making sure the pleats are as even as possible, and nicely shaped. (For those who have not seen it, this ruff is somewhat wider than my shoulders, and made of a strip of linen about seven metres long).
Having rehearsed last week for our performance at the Auckland Museum Demo, this week we were working on our upcoming performance at the Winter Warmup - the annual dancing extravaganza of the Ruritanian Society, on the 13th of August.
Our current plan, pending a successful dress rehearsal next week, is to perform Pavaniglia and Spagnoletta Nuova. If you'd like to come and watch us, please do! (Contact Katherina for details).
We danced:
Anna ran the first hour of dancing, as usual, for herself, Caterine, William and Sergei.
[She can fill in this section - I had to miss it]
In the second hour, Anna and William rehearsed Cesarina, before we danced Pungente Dardo, Ginevra and Spagnoletta Nuova.
Finally, we relaxed with Amoroso, but with an extra twist: having re-read the two sources I've altered the ending slightly. The dance is now:
1. The couple dance 8 pive together
Sewing was quiet this week - just William, Catalina, Caterine, Katherina, and William.
(Yep, that's five people and two names, not counting regional variations. Terribly medieval.)
Katherina's discovery for the day was that, while bobbin-lace is much easier with proper tools - carved bobbins, a lace-pillow, etc - it can be done without them. A tailor's ham wrapped in a bit of shiny fake satin worked well enough as a pillow; and paddle-pop sticks make imperfect-but-useable bobbins.
We (Katherina, Anna, Caterine and William) were all a little under the weather this week, so we took it fairly easy.
We warmed up with Anello and Rostiboli Gioioso.
Then Fulgente Stella, one of Caroso's many cascarde. Fulgente Stella is unusual for two reasons:
A few branles to warm up, then, since we were five with Amalie in town, we decided to return to the only renaissance dance for five that I know of : Verceppe.
Verceppe is a moderately complicated 15th C Italian ballo. It's made harder because the music we use (on Forse che Si Forse che Non) is beautiful, but not always easy to hear the rhythms in, and this dance has a lot of rhythmic changes. We danced Verceppe quite a lot at one point, but none of us remembered it well, so it took most of the hour to refresh.
