Gaskell Occasional Ball, Saturday, April 21, 2007

[gurdymonkey]

I arrived at Oakland's opulent Scottish Rite Temple promptly at 3:45 to take the pre-ball dance workshop in t-shirt, cotton yoga pants and my cheapass K-mart ballet flats.

We began breaking up into men only, women only to learn the basics of partnering. Once somebody actually EXPLAINED it to me, Gaius, it makes complete sense. It's exactly like rein contact on a horse - it has to be there constantly or it doesn't work. Hillary scolded me for thinking too hard when she demonstrated it with me . However, in 2 1/2 hours, we blew through waltz, schottiche, polka, mazurka, gallop and the Congress of Vienna. That's a LOT of information to be processed in a very short time. I was able to half schottiche, half walk, but I could not figure out a way to adapt the mazurka into something a little more low impact. The gallop was madness, but fortunately I was partnered with Tom, who teaches the beginner class for Friday Night waltz, and it was a lot of fun.

We broke at 6:15, which gave me enough time to run home through the raindrops, nuke and eat some Lean Cuisine, shower, dress and do my hair. It was raining pretty hard by the time I got back and found a parking spot, but I had time to have Merrin do up the back of my dress (I can't do those hooks by myself) and touch up my hair before the ball started.


Left to right, Kerry, Merrin and myself. Yes, the dress looks great, but six years later, I'm a better seamstress and there are things I would do differently. I think I still have the pattern in the bottom of my sewing box..... (EDIT. Yep. It's Simplicity Retro Costume Collection #9221, which I don't think they make any more.)

The dress code for Gaskell's
is semi-formal for pretty much any period. Gaskells gets a good number of SCA'ers and the Dickens Fair crowd, so there was a lot of REALLY good Victorian costume in evidence. Vivian looked darling in an emerald satin day dress (OK, Vivi would look darling in pretty much anything), but personally I can't see myself in Victorian. I just don't like it enough. You can see The Lederhosen Guy lurking in the gloom behind Kerry. Lots of men in tails, a sprinkling of kilts, lots of modern formal and semi formal wear. I don't recall that anyone else was in Regency, but I got a lot of compliments on mine.

Somewhere in the middle of the second waltz, I realized I was actually talking back to Jeremy and not feeling dizzy. It's not natural yet, I still have to think about where I'm putting my feet, but I seem to have made an advance of sorts. It probably also helps that there were so many dancers out on the floor that we had to keep our steps small and do a little balance step from time to time to avoid collisions. I got partners for most of the waltzes, opted out of the others (no point in trying to polka until I'm a little more solid on it). Of course, I did dance the first set of "Sir Roger de Coverley," being in Regency and all. And I got to do the Congress of Vienna waltz both times.

Comments

[vsct-caius.livejournal.com]

Once somebody actually EXPLAINED it to me, Gaius, it makes complete sense. It's exactly like rein contact on a horse - it has to be there constantly or it doesn't work.

But, Lisa, it's OBVIOUS. Of course, I don't have the horsey background you do to give it the same context, but still...

And the dress does look nice, as do you.

[shalmestere.livejournal.com]

Context is everything--after years of faking it, I finally learned how to use chopsticks when a friend said, "Hold them like you'd hold a viol bow." And it worked :-)

(When I thanked him for framing it in a way that made sense, he smiled and said "I'm used to telling beginning viol players to hold the bow the way they'd hold chopsticks...." :-D)

[czina.livejournal.com]

You look WONDERFUL! I'm so glad you had a good time :) Regency is a favorite of mine (heh - a mother who had the entire Heyer collection didn't hurt!) - and it's a good look on you :) I need to find someone to fit a dress like that on me - I'm not so good at fitted outfits - rectangles and triangles are much easier.

Heh - and sometimes all it takes is a new teacher's way of explaining things to make all the difference in the world.

[gurdymonkey.livejournal.com]

Believe it or not, it was a commercial pattern from Simplicity or McCall or somebody. Of course, I actually went and looked at Regency fashion plates, raised the hem - it skims the ankle - and used a hook & eye closure instead of a zipper. The skirt is just two big rectangles. This particular dress just involves a buttload of pleating. The sleeves are pleated into the armscye and a sleeve band. The bodice is pleated into a waistband and neckband, and the skirt is pleated into a waistband.

The problem with the Gaius Method of Waltz was there was no 'splainin,' Lucy. We went out on the floor, I had no idea what he wanted, he had no idea why I had no steering. We ended up going in straight lines forward and back.

2nd reply

[gurdymonkey.livejournal.com]

Czina,

The pattern I used is no longer in production, but you might be able to find it for sale on eBay or through a vintage pattern dealer. It's #9221 from the Simplicity Retro Costume Collection. I also reviewed the information at this website so I knew which pattern features to change (swap zipper for hooks & eyes, raise the hem for dancing, etc.) and what sort of fabrics and trims might actually be period appropriate.

I was lamenting my gloves most of the night - they're stretch nylon with a syntheticky sheen. Bwahah! I just won a pair of vintage white kid gloves on eBay for $7.50!

[acanthusleaf.livejournal.com]

Oh, I miss going to Gaskells!

You look fabulous in that dress, and it sounds like you had a great time. I'm deeply jealous.

I once made (with extensive help from Keegan) a mid-19thC dress that looked like a wedding cake on the pattern envelope, so I made it out of red instead of pastel, and it ended up looking rather saloon-hall. Not what I had intended. I don't even want to think about how many sizes too small that dress is, but I still own it. :- )