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peteyfrogboyThis weekend we went to Red Tower, and it was wet. It didn't rain actively during the day on Saturday, but in the afternoon and evening it started up again. The event had a Roman theme this year, for which I was grateful, as it meant I got to wear a nice linen tunica instead of my usual sofa.
I spent the day wrangling the kids, with varying levels of success.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
adelavanbrugge got to do a good bit of socializing during the day, so hopefully I performed my duties in an acceptable fashion. They seemed to have plenty of fun playing with the other kids and wreaking havoc, and didn't get exceptionally muddy. I also kept them during court, which meant I missed Adela being inducted into the Order of the Red Raven, the baronial service order.
After court she and the kids went home, and I started in on my half of the event. Feast was tasty, if not exceptional, and the company was lovely. After feast, I set up the pavilion for the revel, which was my primary focus for the event (surprise surprise).
Last weekend I was trying to figure out how to justify staying in my nice comfy Roman clothes while running a ball full of 15th and 16th century dances. It struck me that I could run the ball as a masque, hosted by the gods of ancient Rome. It was certainly a popular theme for the time, and would be easy enough to pull off.
The main thing I needed was masks and people to wear them. The masks I built from papier mache, cardboard, and plastic flowers, painted with metallic spray paint and a bit of sponged-on children's craft paint:
To keep them from being too uncomfortable, I also glued in a few bits of fulled wool left over from my ill fated red hose:
Venus was played by Mistress Jadi, Jupiter by her apprentice Yul, Diana my by clever new student Serafina, and Apollo by me. If you can't tell which mask was whom, I didn't do a very good job of making them. :)
The script for the masque was minimal, relying on the improvisational abilities of my cohorts. I ran a few dances as I waited for everyone to arrive, and then paused briefly so that everyone could put their faces on. Yul entered the hall as a despondent Jupiter, calling for Apollo to entertain him. Dutifully I responded, fresh from a week's vacation (it's been overcast and/or raining for quite a while). I called forth Diana and Venus to help me, and Venus enticed a mortal (Yves) to join us to dance Contrapasso in Due.
This was not enough to raise poor Jupiter's spirits, so we called forth the other mortals to help us. We danced Ballo del Fiore and Amoroso to finish the set. The masks came off then (and never went back on, as we were at that point "disguised as mortals"), and there was an interlude of Persian dance. The second set began with a conersation between Apollo and Diana about the fauns and nymphs I had seen while vacationing in Britannia, which I had to illustrate with the help of mortals dancing New Boe Peep. From there the evening carried on into fairly random dancing, with a good number of dancers out on the floor for each one. At one point several of us danced Whirligig, which we mutilated enjoyably.
All in all, I was quite pleased with how the revel went, and met several new (and new-to-me) people whom I hope I will have the chance to dance with again in the future.
I spent the day wrangling the kids, with varying levels of success.
adelavanbrugge got to do a good bit of socializing during the day, so hopefully I performed my duties in an acceptable fashion. They seemed to have plenty of fun playing with the other kids and wreaking havoc, and didn't get exceptionally muddy. I also kept them during court, which meant I missed Adela being inducted into the Order of the Red Raven, the baronial service order.After court she and the kids went home, and I started in on my half of the event. Feast was tasty, if not exceptional, and the company was lovely. After feast, I set up the pavilion for the revel, which was my primary focus for the event (surprise surprise).
Last weekend I was trying to figure out how to justify staying in my nice comfy Roman clothes while running a ball full of 15th and 16th century dances. It struck me that I could run the ball as a masque, hosted by the gods of ancient Rome. It was certainly a popular theme for the time, and would be easy enough to pull off.
The main thing I needed was masks and people to wear them. The masks I built from papier mache, cardboard, and plastic flowers, painted with metallic spray paint and a bit of sponged-on children's craft paint:
To keep them from being too uncomfortable, I also glued in a few bits of fulled wool left over from my ill fated red hose:
Venus was played by Mistress Jadi, Jupiter by her apprentice Yul, Diana my by clever new student Serafina, and Apollo by me. If you can't tell which mask was whom, I didn't do a very good job of making them. :)
The script for the masque was minimal, relying on the improvisational abilities of my cohorts. I ran a few dances as I waited for everyone to arrive, and then paused briefly so that everyone could put their faces on. Yul entered the hall as a despondent Jupiter, calling for Apollo to entertain him. Dutifully I responded, fresh from a week's vacation (it's been overcast and/or raining for quite a while). I called forth Diana and Venus to help me, and Venus enticed a mortal (Yves) to join us to dance Contrapasso in Due.
This was not enough to raise poor Jupiter's spirits, so we called forth the other mortals to help us. We danced Ballo del Fiore and Amoroso to finish the set. The masks came off then (and never went back on, as we were at that point "disguised as mortals"), and there was an interlude of Persian dance. The second set began with a conersation between Apollo and Diana about the fauns and nymphs I had seen while vacationing in Britannia, which I had to illustrate with the help of mortals dancing New Boe Peep. From there the evening carried on into fairly random dancing, with a good number of dancers out on the floor for each one. At one point several of us danced Whirligig, which we mutilated enjoyably.
All in all, I was quite pleased with how the revel went, and met several new (and new-to-me) people whom I hope I will have the chance to dance with again in the future.
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on 2009-09-20 03:32 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2009-09-20 03:36 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2009-09-20 07:52 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2009-09-20 09:23 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2009-09-20 11:55 pm (UTC)Give Adela a hug for me! I wish I could have seen it. I'll give her a hug next weekend.