A Sheer Party Dress with Issues

[Miss_Elisabeth]

Elizabeth, that's great. I've never really damaged myself dancing, but everyone knows that I'm most likely to turn out my ankles and trip, loose my grip on the floor while dancing in heels and collide with people, etc.

Defectors? Red dress? Nah. Bumper polka. The craziest game on the face of the earth. We never 'really' play it, but it happens. The 'band' playing too fast, two many people polkaing, and it just happens. Boom! Smash! I'm lucky I can lead and dance only with those than can! 

My poor (future) husband. He's going to have to be some man. My fabric, books, projects, crazy ideas, dancing impulses....for goodness sakes, he's going to be have to be put through a 6 month course just do be able to dance with me at my wedding! (I love to do a million different types of pols, and it ain't and easy dance to learn)

[Carolann Schmitt]

It's so nice to know someone else is as graceless as I am.     About 30 years ago we went to one of the very first "Civil War" balls in the mid-Atlantic region. I use the quotes because the only thing CW about it was the clothing and a few dances. Dance preceptors, dance etiquette, etc. were unheard of.

I was dancing the Virginia Reel. A gentleman (and I use the term loosely) in the group behind us was dancing while wearing his saber. Somehow said saber got caught on my skirt, pulled my off balance, and I tore the ligaments in one ankle. Had to be carried clear across the ballroom while sitting in my chair. Couldn't fit in the wheelchair in the ER in my crinoline. X-ray technician could barely take the films because he kept laughing. Fellow EMTs at the Fire Department thought it was hilarious. Did I mention I was a klutz?

Reflector decals on the back hem....hmmmm....the mid-19th century version of those warning triangles on the back of Amish buggies? 

Carolann

[Miss_Elisabeth]

Ouch, Carolann! At our dance group we did that to a lady's (our former teacher, in fact) knee. Poor Robin! She really hasn't danced since, her knee being stiff.

My favorite klutzy moment of my own is probably generalized in one dance - a certain Danish one where one of the forms is a basket - two couples, with the guys on either side. We form a basket - guys linking arms behind our backs and we link hands behind their necks, while do a buzz step around the small circle. Then the guys lift us up and pick up the pace, flying us almost vertically out. It's hard slow down, with all of the centrifugal force, and we often take of our shoes...which results in two things. One, very painful landings when thin stockinged feet hit the floor and drag (muscle and skin pain) and when I lose my footing and fall down. I've also played the guy when flying girls and consequently run their feet into some chairs.

Not to mention falling down during swing dancing on a lawn in a civil war dress. Done that too. Also slipped and landed on my bottom during the Salty Dog Rag.

Oh dear. I remember an embarrassing one now. We were demonstrating the above dance for a younger class, and I wasn't wearing my secure heels. So in the middle of a chain I kicked them off....and they flew across the room......narrowly missing a ladies head. Eiiiiieeeeee!!!!

[Nona Nelson]

Thanks all for the good laughs and the comments on my dress!!
I am not totallly a klutz when I am dancing, unless we happen to be dancing outside on wet grass. lol, how wise are we? lol.

[Chessa_Swing]

Oh Nona!  I just now saw your dress!  Its very pretty!  I love, love, lvoe the trim!

As to the dancing, I've only danced a few times.  The first time I danced in public, I was teamed up with a very strong and tall young man (I about 5'3 and he about 6'5).  He didn't really know his own strengh and it was quite painful when "we" would turn. He always managed to pick me up by my wrists and twirl about.   

[RizziOskoui]

Nona ~ darling dress! I adore the colors, and it looks lovely to polka in 

hmmm, this might be a solution for over enthusiastic men on the dance floor - as if men can ever be over enthusiastic on a dancefloor! Instead of wearing my boots dancing, indoors or out, I have a pair of non-gloss dark blue Air Force issue flats. They carry them at most of the military stores, and you might still be able to get them on base if you have an "in". They were discontinued last summer according to McGuire AFB in Jersey, but you might be able to find a pair if you look. They're incredibly comfortable, and provide just enough traction on indoor surfaces so you can practically stand in place during all those lovely spins and still look like you're moving in a circle. I've used them on outdoor lots as well, you just have to be a bit more mindful of the surface beneath you. And the best part, aside from being positively darling with a pair of jeans, you only need to have the heels taken a look at after a couple seasons of serious daily use. My very first pair lasted almost three years before needing to be reheeled! 

While the Robert Land dancing shoes are droolworthy, I'm holding out for a nice pair of Danskin or Capezio ballet flats for indoor. It's easier to slip an insole into, and sans cushioning and wrapped appendages, my knees complain quite insistantly after a couple dances in a row.

[Anna G.]

Trying dancing at Candlelight tour with dozens of people watching you and turning around, only to see that everyone in front of you has a partner, then turning back around and seeing your partner all alone and quickly trying to recover. That's my dancing experience.

[Elizabeth]

Rizzi, before deciding against period shoes, do try some of the newer insoles with a good repro shoe.  There are several styles of gel sole out now, and I can even get them to fit my little pointy dress shoes for modern use--I have a narrow foot, so it's nice to find things that don't have to be trimmed down on the sides or toe!

While ballet shoes do function for dancing, they do not, to my eye, look much like period ballroom dancing slippers.  But wait--I just realized you were probably speaking not of the dance shoes, but the ballerina *style* flat shoe, meant for wearing everyday, and not for ballet practice?   

[Joanna Jones]

Sigh..my DH doesn't dance much; he says he's an Irish immigrant and knows nothing of any high-class activities.  So far the man with the most promise is my 4 1/2 year old son.  He loves to dance and his autistic memory picks up the patterns quickly, and the delight on his face is a wonder to behold.  Unfortunately the group I'm in does not allow anyone under 13 to come to the dances, even the informal ones.  This summer at a battle-and -ball event (not put on by my group) on a court-house lawn he wanted to dance and I had gotten tired out by this time, so he went over to a 9 year-old girl we had never met before and dragged her out onto the grass!  She humored him but was not really excited (she had her eyes on the older guys in uniform who had not asked her to dance) but he thought it was the best thing he did all week-end!  LOL

[BarbaraSmith]

TSK! Tell them they're being age-ist and give them a hard stare. See if the don't bend a bit.

How fun for you to have a son that dances! I say take him up on it and see if your husband doesn't take notice in a few years... 

Hugs,
B.

[Elizabeth]

Irish and doesn't dance?  Has he never SEEN Irish people?  All the Celtic races dance... it's some of the various ceilidh dances that made their way into the upper households of the lands, after all, and Irish step dancing was battle/agility training for men long before it was a girl's sport.  Same with Scottish Highland dance.  Both combine to form clogging and square dancing here in the states, and even helped with the mix that become modern tap dancing.  Dancing, drinking, fighting, and singing (not necessarily in that order) are built into the genetic structure of a Celt.  The modern music world would be a barren place if the Celts had left the whole process to, say, the Italians.  We'd all be flitting about plonking a lute.

That's nothing against the Italians. Lovely food.  I just happen to have a lot of the more northerly DNA.

Children may not fit at a formal dance--but at an informal, outdoor "hop"--what fun!

[Denise Butler]

Aha! That's why my fiance doesn't dance!

He is Irish... he's got the drinking and singing down, having given up the fighting in high school... but he won't dance!   
It must be the Italian side of him that puts the damper on the dancing part... but darn, he's a wonderful cook! 

[bevinmacrae]

Elizabeth! Wow, you actually know the difference between Scottish and Irish dancing! This makes me so happy! Every time someone finds out that I teach Scottish Highland Dance, I get the "oh, that's like Riverdance, right?" question and it really torks me off! I've considered making it my life's mission in NY state to teach people the difference!
~bevin

[Elizabeth]

Bevin, I'd better know.   Stewart's not my middle name for nothing. LOL  David piped for a Highland Dance school for years.  Whenever we go to Games out here, he's supportive of the dancers, and critical of the dance pipers.  "No place for showing off--stick to the d-mned tempo! You want to solo, go sign on for piobrach!"  He even used to dance himself, but cracked bones, and that was that.

[Joanna Jones]

Irish and doesn't dance?  Has he never SEEN Irish people? 

If it involves washing, dressing up, minding your manners, and making small talk, no way.  But if it involved lots of guys stomping about and occasionally throwing chairs and fists and smoking pipes, he would be all over it. Might be fun, but it is the last place I'd wear my blue silk!!  

[BarbaraSmith]

Gee Joanna, soujnds like you married a MALE of the species. I AM sorry. I suppose the return policy is rather strict and you can't manage an exchange?

Hee hee hee...
B.

[Joanna Jones]

Nah.. 'fraid his mother has a strict "no returns or exchanges"  policy  besides, after almost 10 years I'm getting him just broken in so he's comfortable    (not to mention I lost his receipt) 
Joanna

[BarbaraSmith]

See? That's the sticking point, then. You lost his receipt.

I think you should just make yourself a small embroidered what-not to wear about that says "Because I lost his receipt" and don't explain it to the menfolk and just smirk. 

Hugs,
B.

[bevinmacrae]

Elizabeth,
That's so true! A good piper makes all the difference! At the last regionals i was at, a piper messed a whole heat of dancers up. They had to do it all over again (it was the sword dance!) and one of the poor girls had bad asthema and almost fainted! One would think they would have better pipers for regionals! Anyway, I'm just astonished that we have that in common! It's really cool that not only are you an authority on mid-century, you also know where I'm coming from with the kilts, piping, dancing, scottish culture! I have to agree with Mike Meyers "I think most Scottish food was based on a dare"
~bevin

[Elizabeth]

Man, are we hijacking this topic or what?  LOL  Yes, I'd agree--particularly with haggis, though my kids love their dad's version of the stuff. Bethie did not give good reviews to a commercial haggis she had at the last games south of Salt Lake.  The food stall that served it came over to get her opinion, because they were shocked to have a little kid order it enthusiastically, and gave her a meat pie when she described it as "over-salted, and without a good texture--perhaps they should use steel-cut oats next time, instead of instant?"   

We'd probably better take Scottish stuff off-forum, though, or I'll have to smack MYSELF with the Snood of Reproachment, and that gets awkward. LOL