Vienna, Day 1

Oh, did I forget to mention that I was going to Vienna? That's what I get for being too busy! Anyway, Mother was invited to teach at dance historian Hannelore Unfried's fantastic dance week in Vienna, Austria, and I am here to help her. Apparently every February all the people of Vienna go on vacation for the same week, and while they are all off skiing or traveling Hannelore holds her wonderful vintage dance week in the semi-deserted city. This is Mother's fifth time attending, and my third, and Julia is with us though I cannot recall how many times she has been. Right now it is 6:50 in the morning in Vienna, so they are sleeping and I cannot ask, but it is also 12:50 AM in Boston. I don't know what time will show at the bottom of this blog post, then. Anyway, stay tuned for rather better stories about Vienna and the dance week, but as of this morning I can only tell you about traveling yesterday.
Yesterday was about a million hours long. We got packed and on an evening plane in Boston, flew over to England, then changed in Heathrow to a flight for Vienna. By the time we went to sleep early in the evening in Vienna, I'd been up all night in America. At least now I'm on an early-bird-but-not-out-of-the-realm-of-possibility schedule for here. Traveling is so complicated! Anyway, my first important observation that I hoped to share is this:

Apparently, women in England wear much cuter skirts than those in America, where all the bathroom gender indicators wear ugly triangles. I much prefer the cute bell-shaped poof of a skirt. Of course, I guess the other possibility is that British women have plump bottoms. Or that the airport is just trying to be interesting (which conclusion the square toilets and retro-futuristic shuttle all conspire to support). But I think I will maintain that it is a statement on fashion.

My second observation is that traveling is terrifying. We got to Vienna and pulled two bags off the conveyor belt (because they were our bags, you know!). Then we waited for the third. And continued waiting. Then as we watched the abandoned broken-off wheel of what was once a rolling red suitcase go by for the third time, we realized that our bag was gone! At which point I started calculating exactly how many hours of sewing that bag represented, containing six ballgowns and three day dresses, plus underwear. EEK! Eventually they tracked down the bag, waiting in Heathrow for the next flight to Vienna. It should be on its way to us soon, so all is well.

My third observation is that Krapfen are magical. Upon arrival, we decided that we could not rest until we had our Krapfen for the day, because you haven't experienced Vienna until you've eaten Krapfen. They are basically just donuts, which in a world of Viennese pastry may not seem special at all, but I assure you they are. The key is that instead of being filled with a sickly sweet red jelly that could belong to any number of berries, Krapfen are filled with the most wonderful, tangy, and delicately sweet apricot filling. Delicious! Apricots are a Vienna thing, and Krapfen filled with tasty apricots are the best! These ones came from Aida, a chain of bakeries around the city, but we'll have plenty more I promise.

After Dancing with the Dashwoods

The ball this weekend was spectacular. We had about 150 people there, which was really exciting, and most of them had at least made an effort to wear Regency clothing - some of them had really fabulous outfits. The dancing was also really exciting, and I hope everyone enjoyed dancing as much as I enjoyed watching them dance. It was just too cool! All in all, Mr. Darcy might not have approved, but I am sure Kitty and Lydia would have had a blast!
Time for the fashion show. Julia wore mother's yellow silk dress, and a pearl collar I made years ago but which has, I think, never been worn. Mother wore a beaded net overdress we had lying around over a seafoam silk underdress (which we started making at 11 PM the night before) and a turban (which I threw together experimentally that morning). I wore a new, fairly plain, cream colored dress with embroidery which we started during school break, but which Mother did most of the work for while I was at school. I accessorized with a necklace of gold filigree beads mother often wears, then twined a strand of similar gold filigree beads (earmarked for a different project) into my hair, then added a pair of really spiffy earrings from the Uffizi gift shop. And red boots - always the signature red boots. The hair was mostly inspired by a portrait that I included in my regency hair post - I'm not sure if she has little combs or if she did exactly the same thing as I did with the beads, but either way I think I got the right feeling going.

Regency Performance at Gore Place

Wednesday evening, several friends and I went to Gore Place to do a performance of Regency dancing at a lovely Christmas party (final projects have made me very slow at updating - I am sorry). I don't even know what to say, except Gore Place is really fantastic, and I absolutely love my wonderful Wellesley friends, who did a great job learning the dances and looked great in the performance. They even made their own dresses.If you have not gone to Gore Place, you should. It is a gorgeous federal house in Waltham, MA, and everyone who works there is really nice. I cannot imagine a more perfect setting for regency dancing, and I hope to have many opportunities to go back. Here we are with their beautiful Jane Austen tree.
If you find this interesting, you should stay tuned and keep February 12 free for a regency ball (Dancing with the Dashwoods)!

Event Announcement - 1920s Mostly Victorian Teadance

This weekend there is going to be a dance workshop in Cambridge. It will be the perfect opportunity to learn some things in preparation for the Black Cat Speakeasy (hope you are saving the date! October 30!). Barbara Pugliese will be teaching some lovely dances, and I will be teaching some Charleston, because nothing says 1920s like the Charleston. So make sure to come out for the dance this Sunday! More info available at the CVD website here, and you can even buy a ticket now (but you don't have to).

Mostly Victorian Tea Dance
Next Dance: October 24
2 to 5 pm
Masonic Hall, Porter Square
1950 Mass Ave, Cambridge
Sponsored by:
Eclectic Enterprises and
The Commonwealth Vintage Dancers

ADMISSION: $8, including refreshments
Full-time Student (with ID): $4
Advance Registration is not required

Event Announcement - Inspiration: Renoir! La Promenade

I am insane. I am doing two back to back dance weeks, directly followed by a performance. Not a day of rest between these three things. On the bright side, I am only doing this because they are all really exciting events. So this post is to announce that I will be at the Philadelphia Museum of Art for a Renoir inspired event organized by the lovely Shien Lee of Dances of Vice. The event is on August 6th at 5 PM, and admission is free with museum admission ($12-$16). There are going to be several performances, and I expect to have a super-amazing-exquisite new ballgown done by then (currently about 45% completed...), so if you are in the area it will be very worth seeing. Get more details from the Dances of Vice website here. See you there!

ALHFAM Dance, and a New Hair Wreath

Mother was hired to go out to Old Sturbridge Village, where ALHFAM, "the Association for Living History, Farm, and Agricultural Museums" was haveing a conference. They hired Spare Parts for some wonderful music, and we did some dancing. The background noise level was higher than at some events we do because of the bar, but the people were nice enough that this wasn't really a problem. We did several dances, and I think people had a lot of fun. As always, Spare Parts is a really great band, so it was lovely to see them again.

We had a minor embarrasment with out hoops. The event was Thursday night. Wednesday afternoon, mother was in a car accident. She wasn't hurt, and it was very obviously not her fault at all, so it is mostly inconvenient. We had to get a rental car. The issues is that we were wearing 1860s, and our hoops were in the back of her car, which was at the shop! So we wore our dresses hoop-less, and they actually worked just fine. In the final analysis, with the tiny dance floor at out disposal, this was probably for the best. Oops.
I wore a newly-made hair wreath. We bought the flowers, and I made the wreath. Then, when I was feeling very accomplished, all the little blue flowers kept falling off their stems. So I painstakingly took every single one off, and super-glued them back on. Those suckers aren't going anywhere now! I like the look of the drippy blue flowers.

Tales from the Dances of Vice Swan Lake Ball

Stories of this weekend's adventures are coming a little late, since I've been too busy to post about them for a couple of days. Friday we drove out to New York (my mother obligingly signed on for this crazy adventure). We found miraculously good parking and got dressed in the street. I didn't actually teach dancing until one in the morning, so I guess that was Saturday technically. Then we drove back, to be home in time for the next event! What a busy schedule.

It was well worth doing, however. The event was lovely, and everyone was very nice. The Galapagos art space was fantastically fun to see - imagine a stage, and the seating for the audience suspended on platforms with walkways over water. There were some excellent performances - an ugly duckling themed ballet, some wonderfully dramatic opera (with a little Lady Gaga thrown in for good measure), and a fashion show with stunning wigs. After that, I got to teach a few easy contra dances, which went really well. In fact, people were so excited to dance that when I invited them to come to the stage and learn, I got more volunteers than would even fit on the stage! It was really wonderful. As is always the case, it took a little while to get people set up, but after that the dancing went very smoothly. I am still thrilled that it went so well.

(Talking to some nice people after the dancing)

The organizer, Shien Lee was a very courteous and generous hostess. She really did a great job with this event. There were also lots of really incredible outfits to look at - I think it is really wonderful that there is so much enthusiasm for dressing up. There is a Dances of Vice flickr group with lots of pictures of people all dressed up for events, if you want to go look. The high standard for costuming inspired me to throw together an outfit for myself, aiming for dramatic and over-the-top. I hope I got close, even though some of the construction ended up being incredibly last minute (meaning that Friday before jumping in the car...). It isn't clear from the pictures quite how cool the skirt was. It is made from a crispy organza with a life of its own. If I moved the skirt, it would sort of hold whatever shape I had put it in. I was also very worried about the floating candles on the water, because I could practically see my large ungainly skirt of highly synthetic and probably flammable material bursting into flames as I walked down a walkway and brushed over a candle. Eek! But there were no unintended flames the entire night.
This is a picture of me, with my reflection in the water. Isn't that incredibly cool? It was a lovely and enjoyable event, and I really look forward to going to more events by Dances of Vice in the future.

Also, there was one last funny moment. As I was finishing getting dressed in the street, before actually going to the event, a couple of (mildly tipsy? I think) girls were wandering by, and started congratulating me. It turns out they though I had just gotten married. Personally, that is not what I would wear for a wedding, but I guess I can see where they are coming from. Maybe.(Getting out of the car. Or getting married?)