Music and Dance

 Habeas Corpus.

We are a  family that loves music so that will definitely be a focus for our learning.  That's how we first became acquainted with some members of our shire.My daughter and I have been , performing with a group that dances at Renaissance Faires and other local festivals.   Most of our dancing has been limited to English Country dances many  of which are so "new" as to be out-of-period for the SCA.   I think they will always be my first love. I do love a well-staged, Jane Austen ball. For the SCA,  we need to work on learning the older Italian and French dances.

    Gaelic Storm and  Geneviève 

Due to our real life shenanigans,  we know a bit of Irish dance, too.    Geneviève performs with an Irish dance group here in Iowa City.  She's had a fairly busy month.  Along with the normal St. Patrick's Day madness, they performed with Gaelic Storm,  The Chieftains and Lúnasa. She picked a French persona, because she wanted to do something different for her SCA persona than real life.  LOL   Now she is thinking that her SCA persona may have to take up a secret life running with the Celts and pirates at Faires.

As far as instruments go, we are fairly new to playing.  Last fall, I pulled the old recorder out of the attic (actually, it was still in my mother's attic, if that gives you any clue how long it has been around) and was determined to pick it up again.   I played the oboe when I was in school, so I was thinking it wouldn't take long.   I play the tin whistle, but that is certainly not period.    Let's just say that practice time is a rare commodity around here, and it is not progressing as quickly as I would like.

Morcant plays the piano and the upright bass.  Neither of which travels very well.  So he is borrowing our son's mandolin and working up some songs on that.  I am jealous of how quickly this is going for him.    Once we are able to play some selections,  Geneviève wants to work on learning the lyrics to some of the songs so that she can sing.