Newport, Day One

[marcmagus]

Checked in, etc. Locked myself out of my room (with key in hand, just couldn't get it to unlock. Dorm mommy managed to help me back in.

Everybody is incredibly friendly. It's just like a con; hall conversations happen all the time.

Something funky is going on with either my foot or my new shoes. It feels as though they're too narrow in the toe, but these are wides. I'm pretty confident they're the right size, except that when I wear them I feel this pressure on my two smallest toes, which, at least tonight, translated into discomfort dancing and eventually pain. Not severe, just worrying. I don't know what's going on; I'm beginning to be concerned it's something weird in the shape of my foot. Just the right foot.

As a result, I only danced a few one-steps, the mixer, and the one quadrille figure tonight at the Welcome Dance. It would have been nice to have gotten more dancing in, but I was worrying about my foot. I really hope this clears up tommorow, as I have a lot of dancing to do in the next five days.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Dance barefoot.

[marcmagus]

Ow!

The idea of doing a polka or a mid-nineteenth century waltz barefoot makes me cringe, and knowing it would be on a gym floor just makes it worse. Polka on marble would also be exciting (polka on marble will already be exciting).

I think I'll pass, thanks. I'm curious . . . who suggested this?

[heptadecagram.livejournal.com]

Ouch. You brought new dance shoes to a week of dancing? You really need to break them in for a month or so (assuming 1–2 dances a week) before trying something that hard-core. Do you have any broken-in shoes with you that you can use that wouldn't clash with the suits?

[marcmagus]

Yeah, I know. But my old shoes are so broken in that I'm not really sure I should still be wearing them, and I'm concerned they're too small, particularly in summer. I should have gotten new shoes a couple of months ago, but I was lazy and didn't know I was going to do the dance week until the last minute. I'll survive.

(I brought the old shoes in case the new ones were a major problem, but so far I'm preferring the new ones; I'm increasingly thinking my foot pain has something to do with dancing or walking around on concrete last weekend, and little to do wih the shoes. It was better today, in any case.)

[heptadecagram.livejournal.com]

I know way too many people at Newport for having never been there.

[werewulf.livejournal.com]

Me too!

[captainecchi.livejournal.com]

Any contradance or ECD going on there?

[marcmagus]

No, although there's a fair amount that would be quite recognizable to people who do modern contra and ECD.

We do historical reenactment dancing spanning the range from the mid-nineteent century (Civil War era) through the early 20th century (Ragtime).

Plenty of content in the country dances and quadrilles (more prevalent in the earlier part of our period) is still relevant in contra and ECD, with a style fairly similar to what I've seen in ECD. That gets mixed in with a whole bunch of different couple dances, which ones varying by period.

...other events I've attended for the vintage programming, on the other hand, have lots of contra (and some ECD and SCD) at them. If you're interested, you should consider NEFFA next year.