MOOP!

Last entry, I mentioned that bras and swords are basically interchangeable. Did you know that? Now you know!

*admittedly*, I did not get a chance to try wearing a sword as a bra. Okay, I mean, I did briefly walk around with one of Magus and Keira's foam swords as a sort of tube top, but it was over my shirt so doesn't really count. But at any rate, if you need a sword, a bra will one hundred percent work perfectly.

...

Let me back up.

So, at ESC I got to try rapper dance for the first time. Rapper consists of five people with double handled swords doing mathematically fascinating patterns. It is basically knot theory with swords and footwork and I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Anyways, there were enough of us who carried over into Session 1 that we decided to show off some of what we learned for the Scottish ceilidh. As near as I can tell, ceilidh means "party" in various assorted forms, but we use it as a shorthand for "talent show", as there are heaps of legitimately talented and funny people at camp.

So, we are going to pretend we are talented, and show off. Small problem: rapper dance uses a very specific and unique kind of sword. And you need five of them. And, erm, the person who'd had them at ESCape had gone home. So somehow, the gears start turning and the five of us decided that we will instead perform a "Bra-apper" dance. We went, caps in hand, to some of the more gloriously well-endowed women at camp and obtained us a set of five large cupped bras. We even found an extra to dangle off the end of Debbie's fiddle.

It went over gloriously well, and there was so much lace and sparklies flying around that no one even noticed if our stepping was not quite perfect or figures were weak.

And then we come to session two. A few of us are standing around right after a Highland class where we'd done a sword dance with no swords --the teacher had not wanted to try bringing even practice ones across the Atlantic. Someone points out that they used to use sweaty socks laid out in a cross instead.

"Well," sez I, "We all know that you can replace swords with bras, right?"

Cue cackling. Four of us again went begging, and scrambled to recall/recreate all the steps properly. With a little help from the Great Big Dance Book in the Cloud, we put it together, and were ready for the session two Ceilidh, where we were able to perform a fantastic, accurate, and deliciously hilarious Argyle Bra'dswords.

(I am totally talking it up more than I should. My Highland is sloooo-ooo-ooowly getting to be something that I do not automatically hate forever. It's a performative dance that I'm not good at yet, and I'm a perfectionist. But the important parts --being funny doofuses leaping over sparkly bras-- went magnificently.)

And yes, following tradition, we managed to scare up a bra to drape over the drones of our musician's pipes. It was even tartan this time! (We wanted him to wear it, but alas, he refused).

Outside of bra-related shenanigens, I was in three other Ceilidh acts --Laura and I (and Stephen in session 1) organized performances of the dances we wrote for our candidate class tutors, since we had one tutor present per session. Those were quite well received, and I am looking forward to being able to teach Tuchas Long Enough this August.

As for the last act...heh. Um. Let's just say it was the single most side-splittingly hilariously awkward ceilidh rehearsal I have ever been (or will ever be, probably) a part of, and if you want more details, you'll have to ask Lise or BDan. It was a magnificent showing of human strength and creativity. Also, the three of us turned into a salamander (we got better).

Tl;Dr: Sorcy was weirdly over-involved with the ceilidhs this year, while somehow hopefully still not being a spotlight hog.
Teaser: LET'S TALK ABOUT DANCE FORMS OKAY THAT'S FUN FOR EVERYONE RIGHT?!

~Sor
MOOP!