ball
A ball is a round object (usually spherical, but can sometimes be ovoid) with several uses. It is used in ball games, where the play of the game follows the state of the ball as it is hit, kicked or thrown by players. Balls can also be used f ...
held by Ye Gaskell Occasional Dance Society in
Oakland, California
Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...
, United States, popular among historical re-creationists and
vintage dance
Vintage dance is the authentic recreation of historical dance styles.
Vintage dancing styles include jazz, swing, blues, disco, and breakdancing.
Societies
Several vintage dance societies hold balls and events to promote and teach vintage danc ...
enthusiasts.
The ball came to be over 25 years ago, as an offshoot of a dance portion of the Great Dickens Christmas Fair held in
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
.
The event was held at
Oakland
Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the Bay A ...
's Scottish Rite Center on the shore of
Lake Merritt
Lake Merritt is a large tidal lagoon in the center of Oakland, California, just east of Downtown Oakland, Downtown. It is surrounded by parkland and city neighborhoods. It is historically significant as the United States' first official wildlife ...
every two months through the end of 2014. Due to the increased costs of the hall, the event has become less frequent; only one ball was held in 2015, in October. Music for the event is provided by "Brassworks", a popular local band. The evening includes a basic vintage waltz lesson for early attendees and some small potluck refreshments. Dances are taught during a brief course before the ball begins, and include vintage
waltz
The waltz ( ), meaning "to roll or revolve") is a ballroom and folk dance, normally in triple ( time), performed primarily in closed position.
History
There are many references to a sliding or gliding dance that would evolve into the wa ...
,
schottische
The schottische is a partnered country dance that apparently originated in Bohemia. It was popular in Victorian era ballrooms as a part of the Bohemian folk-dance craze and left its traces in folk music of countries such as Argentina ("chotis"Span ...
,
polka
Polka is a dance and genre of dance music originating in nineteenth-century Bohemia, now part of the Czech Republic. Though associated with Czech culture, polka is popular throughout Europe and the Americas.
History
Etymology
The term ...
,
mazurka
The mazurka (Polish: ''mazur'' Polish ball dance, one of the five Polish national dances and ''mazurek'' Polish folk dance') is a Polish musical form based on stylised folk dances in triple meter, usually at a lively tempo, with character de ...
, and several
English country dance
A country dance is any of a very large number of social dances of a type that originated in the British Isles; it is the repeated execution of a predefined sequence of figures, carefully designed to fit a fixed length of music, performed by a g ...
s. Occasionally, groups will form on the sidelines to dance alternate arrangements to the English Country songs; previous examples include Irish four-hand reels, the
Scottish country dance
Scottish country dance (SCD) is the distinctively Scottish form of country dance, itself a form of social dance involving groups of couples of dancers tracing progressive patterns. A dance consists of a sequence of figures. These dances are ...
Contra dance
Contra dance (also contradance, contra-dance and other variant spellings) is a form of folk dancing made up of long lines of couples.
It has mixed origins from English country dance, Scottish country dance, and French dance styles in the 17th c ...
s. Full Victorian dress is not required; the dress code is formal wear of the nineteenth or twentieth centuries. A minimum of semi-formal attire is requested by the ball staff. Although seldom exercised, the staff reserves the right to refuse entrance to those who are inappropriately attired. There are occasional performances by local dance troupes during the intermission, however there is no official dance group affiliated with the ball.
The Gaskell Ball is a favorite among dancers from the
Stanford
Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is considere ...
,
UC Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of Californi ...
and
UC Santa Cruz
The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of California system. Located on Monterey Bay, on the edge of ...
social dance circles, and is widely credited for popularizing John Hertz's '' Congress of Vienna Waltz'' and
Richard Powers
Richard Powers (born June 18, 1957) is an American novelist whose works explore the effects of modern science and technology. His novel ''The Echo Maker'' won the 2006 National Book Award for Fiction.Bohemian National Polka'' choreographies.
Decreasing attendance and other venues providing similar experiences, the Gaskell Ball committee decided to stop holding the Balls in 2016.
History
The Gaskell Ball is named for the British writer
Elizabeth Gaskell
Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell (''née'' Stevenson; 29 September 1810 – 12 November 1865), often referred to as Mrs Gaskell, was an English novelist, biographer and short story writer. Her novels offer a detailed portrait of the lives of many st ...
. The Gaskell Ball originated in 1979, when the troupe playing the Gaskell family at the Charles Dickens Fair decided to hold a ball in her honor. The first ball was held at
Mills College
Mills College at Northeastern University is a private college in Oakland, California and part of Northeastern University's global university system. Mills College was founded as the Young Ladies Seminary in 1852 in Benicia, California; it was ...
, a women's college in Oakland. In proceeding years it was held at the Veterans' Auditorium in Oakland. In the 1990s the ball outgrew the hall and was moved to accommodate the increased attendance.