27 Jan 09 Minutes from last week’s meeting(s)

Last week we had a kit discussion meeting at Karin, Tom and Lina’s house in Regent Square to discuss what our kit should be like.

We came to consensus on the following items:

• Black pants (jeans or dress trousers)
• Long-sleeved button down shirt (men’s dress shirt style)
• Black shoes (sneaker-type)
• Vest, not baldricks (more on this later)
• Rag coat worn over vest (or with vest removed) for Border dances
• Small three-dimensional rosettes with long(ish) ribbons for flashers
• Another rosette with long(er) ribbons placed high up on back of vest (centered)
• A color “theme” of Smoke and Fire was agreed upon (more on this later)

Details of vest discussion:

Some points of consensus:

• Colors: Dark grey is preferred, with a possibility of red as an alternate choice. Yellow was rejected out of hand as looking yucky on a lot of people.
• A looser fitting vest is preferred over a form-fitting vest — basically, it should look good on both men and women. Also, it was commented that a somewhat longer vest is good — keeps the dancer’s shirts from “pooking out.”
• A suggestion was made to buy the vests rather than make them. This was agreed upon as a possibility, depending on materials/sizes available/color match/price and, most importantly, perceived future availability.

Some points left to be still decided:

• Make vs. Buy: someone needs to research these alternatives, and possibly even obtain/make a prototype.

Details about colors:

As I said, we are going with a “theme” of Fire and Smoke (or was it Smoke and Fire? - doesn’t matter). Thus, our colors will be: dark grey, red, yellow, and possibly (dark) orange as an accent color. Exact colors TBD based on prototype, which Karin is working up this week.

These will also be the colors for our rag coats, with a strong emphasis on the brighter colors (yellow, orange, and red), with grey or black as accent colors.

Details needing to be decided:

• Exactly what the vest will look like.
• Rag coat - need prototype
• Ribbons for back and arms - need prototype
• Bell pads - naked or covered with ribbons? One proposal was naked, with a rosette on either side of the bell pad. A prototype of this would be helpful in making the decision, as well.
• Sock color - a proposal was made for red socks as an official kit, but no decision was reached.
• Hat or no hat? So far the consensus seems to be “hat optional, at least while we’re dancing,” due to the fact that certain members of the team find it impossible to keep hats ON.

So, that’s where we are, so far! Not bad for a start.

Minutes for after-practice meeting:

We decided to do a demo dance at the Scottish dance next week (Jan 31st), and a demo dance at the English Country dance on Feb. 14th.

Dancers available for Jan 31st:

If memory serves, the following dancers (and musician) said they could be there:

• Karin
• Doralyn
• Kay
• Tory
• Allison

Also possibly available:

• Jim L
• Joyce

For this demo, we are planning on wearing:

• Black pants
• White shirts
• Some kind of bells (whatever you have - bells will be loaned to those without their own pair)
• Some kind of arm ribbons (see above)
• Sneakers and socks of any color

Hopefully by the next demo we will have something more approaching “real kit” to wear!

We’ve decided to do Ockington for the demo.

Dancers (and musician) available for the 14th:

• Allison
• Doralyn
• Karin
• ?
• ?

I need to get commitments from people from this next week, and write them down. lol

Also, we need to find out who is available to do a demo at a contra dance on either Feb. 6th or 13th (note: also need to get permission from the contra dance people to do a demo)