Dance Macbre??

[groomporter]

I just tossed this idea out on the MNRF participant's only-E-list as maybe something new to adapt from other fairs and maybe make our own.

Danse Macbres ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danse_Macabre ) have
become popular at some fairs. Here's a Youtube vid of one at the
Golden Gate Fair http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZ6Ma4GgFJ4

It has crossed my mind whether something like it at the end of the day
starting as a procession from the rear of site and wandering to the front and
leading up to the beginning of the drum jam (or a revised closing gate
show) might help draw patrons out towards the front gate at the close of the
day. If it ended at the beginning of the very alive Drum Jam it might
not seem as a downer or depressing end to things.

I wonder if towards the end of the run it also might be used to help
promote the Halloween show in some way that isn't a tacky, blatant
advertisement?

Or maybe it would be a different way to start the day -the dancers
come in the front gate and after they pass someone on the gate urges
the crowd to cast off their worries and troubles and enjoy the festival.

Or maybe it would be best just incorporated into the parade?

Just brainstorming again.

If nothing else the Goth crowd would like it ;-)

Here's a little discussion of them the left coast
http://www.renaissancefaire.net/articles/danse-macabre.htm

I kind of visualize it starting with a slow dirge, and then speeding up to some really lively tune kind of the way some New Orleans funeral bands are sometimes portrayed.

[renren]

I like that idea!

[Noble Dreg]

Our fest is great as it is, because it is not what it was...follow that?

I like the idea as it is both appropriate and fresh.  Like the latest addition to MNRF, Fest Friends, we need new and exciting ideas to keep it 'fresh'.  Might work, might not, but I like the sound of it.

[Will Gamwell]

I agree with Noble Dreg on that.  Something new and different would be great.  It sounds like it would be great to try out.

[groomporter]

I did get a reply from a performer who said it had been proposed to entertainment not long ago, and the E.D. like it, but there was no response from "on high". I don't know if it was proposed as a new contracted group to perform, or as a new part of the contract for an existing group.

Obviously someone would have to organize it and get it off the ground, but I kind of viewed it as just something that could make use of existing cast. Kind of like the old Peasants' Parade we used to have at the end of the day which was just a bunch of street characters singing and playing on their way up to the front gate and sort of intended to guide/lead patrons out to the closing gate show.

[Charlotte Rowan]

Now Saint-Saens' Danse Macabre is in my head...

[Lady_Glorianna]

We do it at MDRF on the very last day of faire at the end of the day spear headed by two of our finest musicians. We start from the living history pavilion and dance-parade through several of the lanes to cincle back to our starting point. If we are not able to dress in black, we wear black cloaks, wear skeleton masks or paint our faces accordingly and we carry canvas signs and maybe a couple of skeletons or skulls.

[Sitara]

There is something somewhat similar to that...but not at the same time.  It is how Queen's pub closes each day.  Death of a Keg we call it.  We slowly parade the empty kegs around the pub whilst wailing and mourning their death.  It is much more enjoyable when the pipers join us, some days the lines of mourners gets quite large.

[Obadiah Jib]

Bristol used to do something along these lines and is was wonderful.  Chilling and perhaps not totally kid friendly but very cool!

[Dayna]

The Dance Macabre has returned to Bristol, better than before.  Come see the dead walk among you, but don't look too closely or you may become one of them!

Dayna

[Lady Rae]

I think it sounds like a really great idea....although could get emotional the last day of fest....

Of course.....some of us do anyway!

[renren]

I had an idea..
How about a group performance, by all performers of some songs, like "the parting glass" and "health to the company", along the way?

[Naween]

It's interesting and the dancing is pretty, but I tend towards "victorian" goth, so I found the costumes a bit too macabre, and would probably prefer pirates singing a song about how they found gold "thataway" (ie, towards the exit, and trying to lure peeps out the door that way). The facemasks were kinda creepy.

[groomporter]

I kind of like the explanation the Northern California Danse Macbre group
http://www.thedansemacabre.org/ gives

The basic idea is that as the spectre of Death flies over the shire, he'll look down and see all these dancing happy skeletons. Now, Death, of course, is all about gloom and despair and does not care much for laughing, happy folks. Seeing the Dancing Dead below him will give him one of two ideas... All the villagers here are already dead so there is nothing for Him to do or if He does kill more of them, they'll only enjoy it and that will not do at all!