It might also be worthwhile to look at historic martial arts (http://www.thehaca.com/, www.mashs.org and similar) for people interested in period play. I know the SCA does some of this but I don't know how invested they are in true period fighting techniques - I fence with MASHS and their devotion to the old manuals can be as fervent as some of the h-costume memberships adherence to primary costume sources. And they've got to have *something* to fence in!
Allison T. > ------------------------------ > > Message: 14 > Date: Mon, 26 Sep 2005 20:57:14 -0700 > From: Lavolta Press <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: Re: playing in period societies? Re: [h-cost] why > renaissance... > To: Historical Costume <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed > > English country dance is an even better place to meet people with > historical interests. There are many branches of the Country Dance and > Song Society in the US. Their website is: > > http://www.cdss.org/ > > Despite being a historically inauthentic revival, English country dance > is easy, fun, full of friendly people, and many places have excellent > live musicians playing. I think the SCA uses English country dance a > lot at gatherings, not because it's really authentic but because > everyone can do it. So do baroque and Regency gatherings where people > don't know authentic steps. And a fair number of people who do English > country dance also do other folk dance forms, especially contra dance, > Irish country dance, Scottish country dance (their society's URL is > http://www.rscds.org/), and Morris dance. And, a fair number of people > who are interested in one or more of these dance forms, are interested > in historic dance (especially Victorian) or can become interested in it > if they hear about an event. All these dance groups are open to having > flyers for other dances deposited on tables somewhere near the entrance, > put there for exactly that purpose. Everyone does it, there are usually > piles of them. > > Many people do several of the (related) dance forms above, so local > groups try to pick different regular nights and not to hold big special > workshops on the same day. It's not because they feel threatened > (especially since the organizers are often the same for more than one > group). Quite the reverse, it's because they know a lot of dancers want > to go to everything in the area and don't want to deprive anyone. (I > should add, though, that Morris dance is a performance dance. You can > attend open "try this dance" intro workshops, and many groups welcome > beginner members; but regular rehearsals are usually not open for > people to drop in.) > > Fran > Lavolta Press > http://www.lavoltapress.com > _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
