October 9, 2004 San Mateo Masonic Lodge 100 N. Ellsworth (at Tilton) San Mateo, CA
It's 1820, and noted writer Washington Irving is back from England, and has just - in 1820 - published "The Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon", a collection which includes stories destined to be classics: "Rip van Winkle" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." You're invited to a ball to honor him and his work.
We'll be dancing lively country dances, cotillions, and waltzes, most from sources published in the late 1700s and early 1800s. All country dances will be taught by Alan Winston. Live music will be provided by the Divertimento Dance Orchestra. No prior experience required, and you needn't bring a partner.
What to wear? Festive modern dress is entirely acceptable, but if you'd like to do costume, Regency (tailcoats for the men; Empire waists for the women) would be the modern dress of the period. Mr. Irving's stories - some of them pretty spooky, as befits a dance near Hallowe'en - take place in the 1700s, and his History of New York (as by Father Knickerbocker) goes back to the early 1600s. So Elizabethan clothes will work, as will Georgian outfits, and for that matter, he lived on until 1859, so you can presciently wear Victorian outfits.
"The Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon" is online here
If you'd like to preview the dances, come to the BAERS 2nd-Friday dance parties September 10 and October 8, at St. Mark's Episcopal Church, 600 Colorado Avenue (off Middlefield), Palo Alto, doors open 7:45, dancing at 8:00.
Click here for dance party info.
The price at the door is $20 per person. In advance, $15. Advance
registrations can must be in hand by October 8. (You may purchase an advance
registration at the October 8 dance party.) $2 discounts are available to
members of the
Greater Bay Area Costumers' Guild and the Bay Area
Country Dance Society (or other
Country Dance and Song Society affiliate groups). The information about
where to send your registration, etc, is on the flyer, which you can view by
clicking on the links above.