Drancy Fess Ball

On Friday evening, we attended the annual Drancy Fess Ball held by our English country dance group.  For those of you unfamiliar with the origins of "drancy fess," I present for your reading pleasure the spooneristic tale of "Prinderella and the Cince"!  Enjoy!

Listening to Marshall recounting the tale of "Prinderella and the Cince." 

She's amazing and can do it flawlessly!

Every year, the Drancy Fess Ball is given a theme meant to inspire our choice of dress (err, drancy fess!).  This year, however, we somehow were all so busy that we forgot to settle on a collective theme, so we all came dressed in whatever made us each feel drancy and fessed up, which produced a very fun conglomeration of outfits!  Some (like us) came in period attire, while others came dressed as their favorite dances; The Female Sailor, The Comical Fellow, Sun Assembly, and The Merry Milkmaids were the cleverest of the group for their inspired and creative ensembles!  Next year's theme is "mythical beasts," so this ought to be a challenge!

We're very, very lucky to be able to dance with a splendid English country dance band, led by the incomparable Marshall Barron, with Grace Feldman and Margaret Ann Martin.  The band typically numbers between 10 and 15 members, and they play from Marshall's own lovely arrangements of traditional and modern dance tunes.  It's such a delight and a privilege to be able to dance to live period music each week.  Our instructor, Peggy Vermilya, is impressively well-versed in ECD past and present, and her great sense of fun keeps our evenings lighthearted as we learn and dance together.

Our dance band, during the traditional closing waltz of the evening.

I'm sorry I didn't get any pictures of actual country dancing in action, but we were too busy frolicking all night!  We had a blast enjoying our last meeting of the season, and can't wait to rejoin our dancing friends again in the fall.  Thankfully, there are a couple of upcoming local ECD balls hosted by other organizations that will fill some of the gap and help to satisfy the dancing itch for a couple of months, so we don't feel too deprived until September!  Stay tuned for lots updates on those balls, coming soon!