August 4, 2012

The Historical Ball!!

"Can it be? A post about the historical ball?" *everybody swoons*

Sorry I haven't posted any pictures yet. I've been insanely busy, but I won't waste your time by explaining all of my reasons and just get straight to...

The Historical Ball. : )

At twenty-five pictures, this post is really long and wins the prize for the post with the most pictures. Ever. I've had to sort through three hundred and thirty-four pictures from the ball - some that I took, but most of them were taken by my younger brother. (Thanks so much, by the way!!) These are the best, the least blurry (I'll just go ahead and say sorry about that...), and the most cropped.

Enjoy.

For those of you I didn't send the email to, here's my dress! Ain't it purty?! Special thanks to Arwen, who did the eyelets and the trim and the belt and... well, anything that wasn't a straight seam and I knew I couldn't do. : )

My outfit and hair before the ball. (And it only took curlers through the night and most of the day of the ball, an insane amount of "product" in my hair, fifteen bobby pins, and a scrungie!!)

Adorable-est little brother.... (Hey, the invite said 1400's through the 50's. So he went as The Fonz. Why not?)

Sweetest younger brother (with my sword).

Arwen in her Celtic dress! Isn't it gorgeous?!

The first dance was the Grand March, basically just a dance where you walk around and get all out of breath. And the ice-breaker. : )

Arwen and I being yanked around during the Grand March. (Take notice of my hair, please. Arwen did an ah.mazing job with it!)

The two that organized the ball. (Aren't his boots awesome?! I'm like, "Can I take those home with me?!")

Arwen and someone else from the 50's. (Who is also my new violin student - wheeee!)

This is me basically the entire night. Just a blur. I danced nearly every dance - bowed out on the swing dancing (except the last one)... mainly because no one asked me, but mostly because I didn't think I could go as fast as the music! (I've been learning after church and I have the basic step down and a few of the other moves - plus two little aerial moves!! - but still.... I need more practice!) Anyway. This one is during the Virginia Reel. Everyone knows that one, so we did it quite a few times.

See what I mean? Just a blur! (And check out my hair! HA!)

This is Mairi's Wedding, going to the awesome and amazing High Kings song (to be found on YouTube here). I couldn't believe there was an actual dance to go along with the song, but apparently.... : ) It was really easy, too, so we did it a few times, mixing up the easier steps with some Irish "setting" and spins. Loved it!

My adorable-est little brother with his best friend, who stopped by for a minute with his family.

This was right before the really hard dance. It looked easy at first, but I got all of the steps mixed up and was really confused by the end. I want to try and learn it again, though!

A good friend with some adorable little girls. (The one on the right gives me a hug every single Sunday at church.) : )

During the confusing dance. Arwen's like, "What do I do?!" Heehee....

In between dances, they'd play music for everyone to swing dance to. This little girl and her brother were amazing!

See what I mean? A spread eagle! I got the picture right before she did a real split. They were a lot of fun to watch!

Then the father-daughter dance. : )

And I just realized that no one took pictures of the broom dance! : P Well, I'll just tell you guys about it. A friend asked me to dance and we were talking while they got the music set up. When he found out what dance it was, he gave me an evil grin and I said, "Oh, no." He told me that the dance is kind of like musical chairs, except instead of chairs, you use girls. "When the music stops," he told me, "the guys have to find a new partner. There's one more guy than there are girls, so if the last guy doesn't find a girl, he has to dance with the broom." (Heehee....) The music started - a slow waltz - and we continued our conversation. A minute or two later, the music cut off and my partner literally shot off! I had been told to stand still, but I didn't need to even think about having to find a new partner because a split second later, someone stepped in front of me and said, "Would you like to dance?" I could only laugh and nod my head. We did that for about ten minutes, with there being an odd guy dancing with the broom each time. (My younger brother even got the broom once!) I learned halfway through that if you don't have a partner after a few seconds, you raise your hand. When I did this, three guys literally charged towards me! It was so funny!

After a few dances, they did this really hard Scottish-dance. I didn't even attempt to dance and just sat down and took pictures. It looked like a lot of fun, though, and at the end, I walked up to my friend and said, "You are going to teach us that dance! Please, please, oh, please! It looks like so much fun!" : )

See? Hard, but fun. : D


Interesting story behind Arwen and this dance partner, but I'll make it short by saying that he asked me to dance at first, so I did, but then, halfway through, I asked him to dance with Arwen because she'd "been the guy" for most of the night. He agreed with a smile, but I had to apologize later for putting him in an awkward situation. (Cuz you can't really say no, you know? Heehee... oops.)



And here's all of us! Sorry it's a little dark, but it's the only picture of all four of us. : )

Hope you enjoyed looking at all of the pictures! I had such a blast and I hope a little of that shone through all of the pictures I've shared!

~Eowyn~

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

LOVELY dresses!! SO much fun!! Brings back memories of my first dance back when we did our Jane Austen project. Thank you for this post!!
~Elinor

Anne-girl said...

I'm now really jealous! Wow that looks like such fun. I've always adored dancing but I can never get anyone to do it with me. Even my sisters don't really want to dance that often. oh well your dresses are great. And I adore the hairdo. Glad you all had fun!

Anonymous said...

Elinor - Oh, thank you so much! They were a lot of fun to make... but more fun to wear and dance in!

Ah, yes... you're referring to The Dance Where There Were More Guys Than Girls, correct? (Heehee... I tell people about that all the time!)

You are so welcome! Thanks for commenting!

~Eowyn~

Miss Dashwood said...

LOVE your and Arwen's dresses! Love love love! Your sister's too-- did she make hers? And where did Arwen get the pattern for the Celtic dress? That looks HARD!

There's a dance to Mairi's Wedding????? MUST. LEARN. ASAP. I absolutely LOVE Mairi's Wedding-- it's my favorite High Kings song, and that's saying a lot because most of the High Kings songs are my favorites. Heehee.

So did your friends teach you to do the really hard Scottish dance?

Awww, your little brother is so adorable... and the father-daughter dance looks sweet!

Hahaha, that broom dance sounds hilarious. Odd that they had one more guy than girls though-- I would think there would be more girls than guys at an event like that!

Loved the pictures!

Anonymous said...

Haha... I'm just now posting these. Whoops. : P

Anne-Girl - Heehee... It was SO much fun! Awww... Too bad! Arwen will dance with me, but she always has to be the guy. : ) Thanks!

Amy - Thank you so much! Yes, Arwen made hers, too. The Celtic dress - mine? It was actually pretty easy to make! My dress pattern is a McCall's Costumes pattern, number M5499 and Arwen's was another McCall's Costumes pattern, number M4696.

YES!! I can email the steps to you. It's really easy! : ) Yup - I love all of The High Kings' songs!! : ) Especially The Parting Glass and Mairi's Wedding. : )

Not yet... but I saw some people do it at the other ball we went to! : )

Isn't he?! Love him to death. : ) I know! The funniest thing was that guys and girls did it who weren't related at all! Ha!

Yup! I think there was almost an even amount - and one girl just took a break. There was one dance that Arwen called (she did all Regency dances) that there were actually more guys dancing... and the extra girls were sitting out and didn't want to dance. Weirdness! : )

Thank you so much!

Eowyn