Genevieve's Journeys

Dance Moot is one of the jewels of the principality's events, and shows what I think Drachenwald can do best in events; small, intimate events with a purpose in beautiful medieval settings (see pics from past years in the Queensferry Priory Church venue). It derives its lasting appeal from the musicians Gaita (Master Otto, Mistress Cait and whoever they are playing with this year) and from the focused intent - the pleasure of dancing.

On Saturday the bulk of the event is the afternoon and evening, with dance instruction from 1pm onward, feast at 6-ish, and dancing in the evening, with less instruction, but some reminders. It's not quite a Caruso ball, where there is no instruction, and some dances are performances for others to admire or cluck over, but does keep the dancing going through the evening with fewer breaks. As it's a day event, there's a wrap up dance for everyone, then a quick breakdown so everyone depending on public transport can get back into town on the last bus.

Feast is low-key at Dance Moot - as there's no kitchen, only kettles for serving tea after church, food is prepared in crockpots or in advance and served as a buffet. This year the stewards were really pleased to have access to a storage area previously not used, which meant everyone's baggage and bumpf could be stored out of sight, making the serving area much easier to navigate. It also yielded a fridge! oh joy. So next year's menu may reflect the change in facilities.

We adorned ourselves in our new finery, and took a few photos. I'm really pleased with our new gowns (the One New Outfit for the reign), and was pleased with the kind words we received about them. What drew the most remarks was the shot silk HG Nerissa gave me - its sheen and glow really stands out against the wool fabrics. Looking closely at it, it's bright yellow threads in one direction, and black in the other, giving the gold depth and variety.

I still want to create a gown that has a horizontal neckline - this one is wide and fairly straight across my shoulders, but I still need an inch of it to go over my shoulders for support, and for something for the sleeves to attach to. This one was closer to that style as I see it in the 14th c Romance of Alexander, in the Bodleian Library, but it's still a ways to go.

We'd managed together to sew enough lacing holes on the train trip up that my green overgown was laced on - I sewed myself in to about the waist, then laced the rest - but Robert was stitched into his gown from top to bottom, with the buttons solely as decoration. The buttonholes (or braided loops, still debating options) and the rest of my lacing holes will be finished for Coronet. Honest.

The dance instruction cemented in two more dances for me (which I took away on CD, hurrah! Thamesreach will learn new dances!) called 'Orynge' and 'Grene Ginger' - I *think* they're English Gresley dances but won't swear to it. I learned a few new ones - the 'life of Colin' was one I liked. I enjoy the sort-of freeform basse dance you get to do with Otto and Cait though I think I need to read up on it to understand perfect vs imperfect, open and closed, and what all they mean. And I may take some of the pieces we've listened to for years on their CDs and fit the dance steps into them.

Our court was brief following on dinner (after first course, before second helpings and sweets) and I think we hit the right note of honouring good people without making the non-Society guests think we're too weird.  We distributed St Swithun badges to the newest guests - he is known to help travellers cope with bad weather, which seemed apt - and the badges are bound to be just as effective now as in medieval times.

As royals, we opened the evening dancing with a pavane, with galliard to follow - and we managed to keep our coronets on throughout the galliard, which was an accomplishment.

To give everyone a chance to choose a dance, Lady Estevana distributed slips of paper with names of historic couples (or trios! or groups!) among the company. There was some fun at guessing who was whom, but when called, the named people stepped forward to choose a dance.

Given 'Guenivere' I found myself in search of a couple of really good men, to join me in my nice little pad in Cornwall :-) - and thus chose a 3-person dance, playing safe with Petit Vriens so everyone could dance. Robert found himself named Zeus, and was thus able to dance a round dance with all the ladies - no men invited! - and he rose to the occasion, strutting and swanking about, bestowing godly favours. 

After the event, Cait remarked on the high calibre of dancing - that the people who attended were there to dance, rather than just show up to the local event, and had managed to learn even some complex dances (like a weaving dance for 10 that reminded me of one I'd learned with Renaissance Footnotes - the latter had taken weeks to figure out!). Numbers were a bit smaller than in some past years, and the company were committed to dancing through the day, which was very satisfying.

With our cheapo advance train tickets we couldn't make Sunday's outing to one of the local castles which was planned, but had to hustle straight back to the station. Waverley station is going through a huge refurbishment so I was glad of Cait's walking us there and to the track.