I tried a new format for the Ball at St Catherine's this year: dancing by request, requests in strict Order of Precedence. There are some records of renaissance festivities where the guests chose dances in order of rank like this, though they seem to have been even more formal.
We got through a lot:
William and Katherina practiced for a performance of Ginevra, and Caterine taught it to Ludwig. We re-learned Fiamma d'Amore. We tweaked a few details of La Figlia de Guglielmino and Presonera. We ran through Chiara Stella, at high speed, several times in a row. We all practiced out fioretti (and tried out the passage from passamezzo where you circle with fioretti and trabuchetti). And finally, we declared ourselves too tired to make it through La Volta, and retired for dessert.
All the dancers tonight were quite experienced, so we got through a lot of material, refining the details as we went:
Lots of fun, and lots of work.
We had a really good group tonight: lots of people, some new, some quite experienced. We're still working our way through the ball list for St Catherine's and CF, making sure it's all fresh.
We started with a quick run through some of the Old Measures, for everyone:
Quick revisions of:
More work on:
And we didn't quite get to Il Canario. Maybe next week.
The dance list for the ball at Canterbury Faire next. We will be practising many of these over the next few weeks (until formal dance practices finish for the year in early December).
- The Tassel-kick -
We worked our way through much of the CF ball list, and wi
ll cover the rest over the next few weeks.
Quick revisions of:
Longer practise of:
