Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Some pics from the Ainsworth House Regency Party in August

This was a fun event! I don't personally have any photos of us dancing (too busy calling and enjoying!) but here are some views of the lovely grounds of Ainsworth.



Emily, Gabrielle, Mary, Kailey and Charlyn enjoy the scenery.



Millie!



Charlyn!



Enjoying the swing.

Dance DVD

I have compiled and edited videos from our first five months as a group, and the finished product is now available on DVD! The DVD is 14 minutes long and features scenes from our classes (including our very first class!) and two of our balls.

DVDs are available at class for $5. I can also mail them to you if you can’t make it to class.

Group Name Contest!

Our group needs a name! During the month of September, brainstorm ideas for the perfect name. You can enter each entry to me at my email address or put them in the bin at class. You may submit as many names as you can come up with – there’s no limit! The inventor of the chosen name will receive as a prize a Bare Necessities CD! (Want to hear some? Go here! http://www.cds-boston.org/ecdc/)

It would be fun to have something clever and unique, as the only things I can ever come up with are painfully obvious (ala “The McMinnville Country Dancers” or “Willamette Valley ECD”) or occasionally something very silly (“The Physical Snobs”).

The name does not need to have a location reference. It could incorporate the name of one of our dances perhaps, or a visual idea.

Some names of other groups:

Dancing Bears (Alaska)

Bay Area Country Dance Society – BACDS (California – a legendary group)

We Make History (Arizona)

The George & Martha Washington Cotillion (California)

Pikes Peak Traditional Dance (Colorado)

Quiet Corner Contra Dance! (Connecticut)

Atlanta Waltz Society (Georgia)

Big Island Contra Folk (Hawaii)

The Heather and the Rose Country Dancers (Ashland, OR)

Dance-a-Rama (Massachusetts)

Cobblestone Farm Country Dancers (Michigan)

Hill & Hollow Music – Step Lively! (New York)

Sun Assembly (This is also a name of a dance) (North Carolina)


And that’s just a few of them!


One of our distant dance relations is a thing called rapper sword dancing (no relation whatsoever to singing rappers!) This type of dancing features flexible “swords” and extremely fast and daring moves. One guy named his group the “Velocirappers”! :D Very clever!

So, use your imagination! I can’t wait to see your ideas! :) The contest ends October 4th (first lesson of October).

Upcoming Events!!!

Here’s the lowdown on upcoming ECD events:

Night at the Museum ball, October 13. See blogpost for more details: http://englishcountrydancing.blogspot.com/2007/09/night-at-museum.html

Oregon Regency Society Winter Ball, November 3, Astoria. Click here for details: http://www.oregonregencysociety.com/ball07/winterball07.htm

Twelfth Night Ball, January 5, Hillsboro. This ball is being put on by the Wright family. Stay tuned for more details!

CDSS Executive meeting, February 1-3, Ashland. Here’s your chance to dance with very high level ECDers. Every year, the officers of the Country Dance and Song Society (CDSS) meet three times, and two of those times are in different spots around the country. This year, Oregon is one of those spots! They meet to discuss ways to aid the dance community around the nation. And of course, while they’re together, they dance, and we are invited to dance with them! There will be dancing Friday and Saturday nights, workshops during the day Saturday, and a family dance from 1-3 on Sunday.

Spring Ball, April 4-6, Ashland. Put on by renowned dance leaders and choreographers, Chris Sackett and Brooke Friendly. I met both of them at Pinewoods; they’re very nice and extremely knowledgeable. And they’ve invited all of us to their ball!

Night at the Museum

Night at the Museum Ball

Saturday, October 13, 2007
5:00 – 9:00 p.m.
Church on the Hill Gym
McMinnville


Admission:
$10/person
$15/couple
$20/family

Invite your friends!

This ball was inspired by the 2006 hit, Night at the Museum, featuring Ben Stiller, Robin Williams, Mickey Rooney and Dick Van Dyke. In the film, every night, all the exhibits in the museum come to life, with hilarious consequences. Historical figures from Theodore Roosevelt, Attila the Hun, Sacagawea, Christopher Columbus and many others are in attendance.

For this ball, come as your favorite character from any period or culture of history! It does not, repeat not, have to be one of the characters featured in the film. There will be prizes for the ten best outfits! :)

Yes, you can wear your Regency outfit – lots of interesting folks in that time period! You can also come in modern wear – just pick a person from recent history to be.

If you want to be a caveman or a pharaoh, you must devise a costume that covers the top half of your body as well as the bottom. ;)

Yes, we will be dancing ECD. Many of the dances will have historical connotations, and we may do some Civil War dances to widen the time frame of our evening, though, truly, ECD has been around for almost four hundred years, a wide range of history, indeed!

Can’t think of someone to portray? Here’s a starter list:

John Paul Jones
Pocahontas
Queen Elizabeth I
Ernest Shakleton
Captain James Cook
Squanto
George Mallory
Christopher Columbus
Theodore Roosevelt
George Washington
William Tyndale
Martin Luther
King Henry VIII
Caesar
Harriet Tubman
William Clark
Meriwether Lewis
Miles Standish
Joan of Arc
William Wallace
Abraham Lincoln


Cultures

Vikings
Cavemen
Romans
Victorians
Cowboys
South Americans
Huns
Pilgrims
Civil War soldiers



And you could also come as a night guard, museum director or docent! Use your imagination!

And you can also come as a commoner from any period, rather than a celebrity.