Tim McDaniel, in the SCA Daniel de Lincolia, tmcd@panix.com
26 February 2023
The URL for this page is http://www.panix.com/~tmcd/dance/
"Choreography" credits the source of the step reconstruction. The group I'm in (Barony of Bryn Gwlad, Austin, Texas) did make a few tweaks to the steps; they are described in the pages.
Candlemas is an event in the Barony of Bryn Gwlad (Austin and Killeen, Texas). It is traditionally annually in the winter, and focused on arts and sciences.
We try to have dance. In particular, we usually dance during gaps in the feast, to fill the lull between feasters finishing a remove and the kitchen sending out the next one. It works pretty well.
Mistress Isabella provided a cheat-sheet booklet for each ball, and I have continued it. This booklet is in the spirit of the booklet done by the lovely Terpsichore at the Tower event (Barony of Cynnabar, Ann Arbor, Michigan, usually in the spring). That is, they are reminders of each dance for someone who has learned it (though maybe briefly during the day), but not full instructions. The Terp booklet includes lots of dances from a number of years, though, and sorted by genre and name. Our booklet lists only the dances scheduled for the current year, and I do them in set list order (unless publishing constraints intervene).
A ZIP file of the booklets from 2009 through 2023 is here.
They are .doc and .docx files. The older ones were formatted as booklets by hand. For example, the first page in the file might be back and front cover, and the second page might be page 2 and page 11 of 12. When printed duplex short side and folded down the middle, the page order would come out right. Obviously, this was a pain and a half. I eventually discovered Brochure mode in Libre Office, where I could write just individual (half-size) pages in the correct order, and I can print it with Brochure, US Letter paper, and duplex short edge, again with each collated set folded down the middle. I assume Microsoft Word has something like that. NOTE: for a brochure like this, have a multiple of 4 pages.
The *_set_list.txt files are useful. I mentioned that each booklet has just that year's dances. I start each year's booklet by copying the previous year's. If we're adding a dance that wasn't done last year, I search the *_set_list.txt files, to see if I can copy the instructions from an older file rather than have to write it anew. For example, if we want Gelosia next year, I would copy it from the most recent version, 2016.