New month = new adventures! This one happened back in August (I did a lot of things that month, so you’ll be hearing about them for awhile) not too long after Newport Vintage Dance Week, the subject of the last… ahem… ten posts on this blog. Anyway, this was another fun filled dancing adventure with the same young people that attended Newport… but in a different period: Regency.
In August, the Commonwealth Vintage Dancers performed in and occupied the Commandant’s House at the Charlestown Navy Yard in Boston as part of the celebration of the 200th anniversary of the USS Constitution‘s defeat of the HMS Guerriere in the War of 1812. The Navy Yard was also host to multiple groups of War of 1812 military reenactors from both the American and British sides who did various exhibitions during the weekend in addition to just hanging around their camps looking stylish in their military uniforms.
I wound up with about 400 of my own pictures from the weekend, a number which I have slimmed down in order to share with you only the best of the bunch; however, it’s still more pictures than is reasonable for one post. Thus, I will be doing four posts about the weekend! I had to sort the pictures somehow, so I’ve created four different focuses for each of the posts. This first post I entitled “Happenings” because it is pictures of CVD members and reenactors doing things of various sorts (as opposed to the content of my next two posts: “The USS Constitution” and “Lounging in the Commandant’s House”). The final post will be about the all new hand sewn 1812 dress I whipped out in the week before the performance! I’ll have to come up with a fun title for that one…
You know us TNG-ers. We like pictures of us running around. In this picture, we’re running up the walk to the Commandant’s House, our hang out for the 1812 weekend.Some CVD performers starting the weekend off with pictures!A little bit of Wilson’s Waltz on Saturday.And some Scotch Reel.It was pretty fabulous that on Saturday we had live music to dance to!Between performances on Saturday we played Regency card games including Palace and… (oh no, my mind is blanking! Someone help me remember the name of that C game! It wasn’t Convergence… or Chance… Eep!)Getting to know a few of the British soldiers while we were preparing for lunch in the dining room.Lunch was a Regency food potluck affair. It looked pretty appetizing and picturesque.I enjoyed looking out of the windows and exclaiming “Look! Dudes are doing drills!”In the afternoon we played Blind Man’s Bluff, which is super fun and works really well on a wooden floor.It’s quite possible that running around and playing this game was more tiring than dancing.The way the game works is that the blindfolded person has to try and catch someone else and then correctly guess who it is. The trouble is that all the un-blindfolded people can either be really quiet or make lots of noise to confuse the blindfolded person.More CVD: this time inside the house in one of the rooms we danced in.British are red. Americans are blue.I think almost everyone had made new clothes for this performance, since Regency isn’t a period CVD usually performs.There was also an unoccupied guard hut in front of the Commandant’s House that begged for pictures.How many people do you think will fit inside?On Saturday evening there was a ball for the reenactors. Sadly, not many of them attended, and even fewer stuck it out until the end of the night. However, the small number of people made for a cosy atmosphere.On Sunday afternoon we had a picnic out on the lawn of the Commandant’s House.And we ran around on the lawn.We also went down to the dock to see the Constitution. The reenactors were also there. Here are the Americans.And here are the British. Isn’t the Boston skyline in the background an interesting contrast to the bayonets?The British soldiers were posing for pictures for the tourists. We took the opportunity to join them, with many cheers from the crowd.British soldiers at ease.There was also this little mini-cannon. Not sure what it was for.This hat beat them all! I love these fur hats! It’s like the guards at Buckingham Palace.The British soldiers certainly made more appearances on my camera. Here they are heading off to create new adventures.
4 thoughts on “1812 Guerriere Weekend Part I: Happenings”
COMMERCE! That was the period card game we played. Incidentally, I am currently working on learning the rules to Whist. We shall be so prepared for next time!
The Quintessential Clothes Pen 
COMMERCE! That was the period card game we played. Incidentally, I am currently working on learning the rules to Whist. We shall be so prepared for next time!
Thanks! I obviously was having serious trouble with remembering that… I can’t wait to play more historic card games!
Quinn, are you SURE you aren’t living the life I was supposed to have? You and your group always look like tyou are having so much fun.
I can’t be sure… but hopefully this kind of adventurous life is still waiting for you!