Re: [HG] Costumes

[Arle Lommel]

Thanks Scott, The Ghostwalk is a fundraiser for my academic department (Folklore and Ethnomusicology) at Indiana University. In it faculty and students lead groups of attendees around to areas of the IU campus that have ghost lore or scary urban legends associated with them and tell those stories. There is no real dance of the dead motif involved, and I am somewhat reluctant to go as Death since the leader of one of the groups each year dresses in a rather elaborate Grim Reaper costume and I don't want to distract from his role in the event. I think in my case something more generically "peasant" would work better, but in the future I might try death as the fellow who dresses up as Death is retiring and may not stick around. Best, Arle On Sep 3, 2006, at 12:04 AM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Arle,      There is a long history of groups doing the dance of the dead or "Dance Macabre". I am not sure what you mean by Ghost Walk and it may seem somewhat bland but it was typical to see people dressing up during certain times of year as skeletons or as death and to dance through the streets. Liszt wrote a song called Dance Macabre. There may be other but my cursory search found him.      It is an embracing of death that we in the modern world seem to find odd or offensive. However, done properly it can look as though it were an old style of dress. This is a custom that began, as I understand, during the plagues and has continued in some countries even today. Dios Los Mortes (sp?) is an example. There are many early woodcuts that depict the dance or the look in general of the dancers.    http://www.gregoland.com/bones/   http://altreligion.about.com/library/graphics/bl_danse.htm   http://www.lamortdanslart.com/danse/dance.htm   http://altreligion.about.com/library/graphics/bl_galleryholbein6.htm (hurdy gurdy player in the back)   Scott