Halloween DanceAll costumes are caricatures. The basis of Art is not the Fancy Ball. Tuesday, October 31, 2000 The begining of this batch of entries starts here.
Somehow I'd missed the news that the Savoy Swing Club was sponsoring a Halloween dance tonight. Once I'd caught on, I sent a bulletin to the Swing-seattle-chat email list, and talked it up generally. I thought about wearing the hat and mask that I'd worn on Saturday, all covered with autumnal leaves, flowers, and fruit, but the hat would be very awkward to dance in. Once I considered my closet, I went with my square-neck black velour top, my burn-out silk chiffon circle skirt, and my black tophat decorated with gold. Of course, I got to the dance too early. It was announced as starting at seven thirty, and I think I arrived a few minutes before. I was the first one there, except for Mark who was organizing things. I helped him out by sitting at the front desk and taking people's money, when they did start coming through the door. Thus, I got in free! Mark was dressed as Dr. Quackenbush, a Groucho character, with operating room scrubs, and eyebrows and mustache painted on. I howled with laughter when I saw Holly's costume. She'd described her plans to me before, but actually seeing it had so much more impact. She was wearing a hospital gown, and had bought a huge fake butt that tied around her waist and peeked out the split in the back. The effect was very funny, especially when she was dancing. I called to her, "Do kickaways!" which broke her up -- kickaways is a step where you momentarily turn away from your partner and do a little kickstep, and the fake butt had quite an impact!
Things were very quiet for at least the first hour, but finally the place filled up. I danced a good deal, and watched the people also. Anne Livingston was a winter goddess with white and silver wig, and her friend Anders was a white rabbit (or at least he wore a white rabbit mask). There was only one person I couldn't recognize. He had a costume from Mars attacks, with a high-collared black robe, and a pullover mask that completely obscured his face. I asked Anders if he knew who it was, and he offered a clue. "I can tell by the shoes." And, when this didn't really help me, "Think about how I would recognize the shoes," he added. This gave it to me -- it must be Devin! He's a close buddy of Anders, and they've been sharing a house, I think. I tried to get a dance with this mystery man, but he was booked during most of the evening. There were supposed to be several contests, but the only one that got enough folks signed up was the Jack and Jill. I was one of the contestants. This style of contest has leads and follows assigned to each other randomly, and you are judged by how you connect with your partner. I think I did ok with my partner, but we didn't win. I thought we would be switching partners during the contest (other J&J contests I've been in have been run that way), but that didn't happen. I was slightly disappointed, but I had fun anyway.
Around ten thirty, I left, and gave Holly and her gigantic butt a ride home on the way. A good Halloween!
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