Dancing towards Christmas

A week of events and grading: there is no why to make the latter look enticing or even interesting (though admittedly there is much less of it now that I’m chair, one of the few benefits of that position) so I’ll focus on the former. Over the past week we went to an “audience-driven” theatrical event at the Peabody Essex Museum‘s Gardner-Pingree House, the PEM’s monthly PM evening, themed as “Wassail” for December, and the annual Hamilton Hall Holiday (Christmas) Dance. The first event, All at Once upon a Time, was very special. I must admit that I signed up for it simply so I could spend an hour in the Gardner-Pingree, arguably Salem finest Federal house and Samuel McIntire’s masterpiece. It wasn’t every expensive: I would have been willing to spend much, much more simply to stare at those mantels and moldings for an hour. But the experience, for lack of a better word, carried me away from the material world, at least for a bit. The creation of Giselle Ty, a freelance opera and theater director based in London and New York, All at Once consisted of a small cast of seven or eight interacting with an “audience” of fifteen people, engaging in various activities, sketches and performances throughout the house–indeed on every floor. We were led through the house and enticed to listen, observe, read, write, dance, drum, and throughout it all, wonder. Ty is really after wonder, an increasingly rare commodity in this know-everything-instantly information age. The house looked magical, and because none of us were allowed to have phones or cameras I will entice you to click over to see some of John Andrews’ beautiful pictures at his Flikr photostream: he has allowed me to use a couple below but you should see more. Everyone’s experience is a bit different during this happening, so here’s mine:  I listened to a tale of trees in the front parlor, wrote a few lines of poetry in the dining room, unraveled and danced with a ballerina in a second-floor bedroom, and then watched a monkey and bear dance up on the third floor, after which we all danced with all of the cast. Then downstairs through the kitchen (with a Rumford Roaster!!!) to where we began. Later in the week, the PEM’s Wassail included traditional music (including the fifteenth-century Boar‘s Head Carol) and dancing, and provided another opportunity to view the exhibition of  Native Fashion Now. The week was capped off by the Hamilton Hall Christmas (Holiday) Dance, preceded by a lovely pre-dinner party by one of the Dance’s patronesses at another one of Salem’s elegant Federal houses. I’m feeling very fortunate this morning, and still trying dust off some of the silver glitter in which I doused myself last night!

Photo by John Andrews for Peabody Essex Museum

Photo by John Andrews for Peabody Essex Museum

The Week’s Festivities: photographs of Gabrielle Ty’s All at Once Upon a Time at the Peabody Essex Museum’s Gardner-Pingree House courtesy of John Andrews of Creative Salem and Social Palates photography; Morris Dancers at PEM’s Wassail and formal attire from Native Fashion Now; fabulous skirt at a fabulous pre-Christmas Dance dinner party and the Christmas (Holiday) Dance at Hamilton Hall. I can never capture the actual dancing!