Bath (Part 2): Crashing Jane Austen Dance

Mood:  lazy
Now Playing: This train keeps rolling along (Nitty Gritty Dirt Band)

So, this is the second part of the blog post from OkCupid … Part 1 I just posted. I posted this yesterday as well but at 10:10 pm.

Getting to the Assembly Rooms

So, continuing from the last post … after going to the abbey, we decided we should go see what the assembly rooms looked like (particularly as they were mentioned in some of Jane Austen’s novels and there were a lot signs pointing towards it).

All day we had seen people traipsing around Bath in 18th century clothing – well mostly ladies than men … so, as we were approaching the assembly rooms, I saw these two women who were in fancy dress and asked them why they were dressed like that and they told me that because tonight there was a Jane Austen Ball (I already knew that since Mariam had told me earlier and that all the tickets had been sold out – tickets costing £80!) … it seemed awfully early for them to be dressed that way (it was only about 2)…

Anyway, so we happily walked along to the assembly rooms and realised the two ladies I asked were ahead of us and as we approach we realised there were lot more of the fancy dress people … and then we read the sign that the assembly rooms were closed today … of course we were disappointed … but the doors were open, so we ventured inside … just at the doorway to see if we could see anything (the place was thronging with people). Mariam turned to me and said

“Let’s go in further, I can’t see anything here” …

So, we edged our way pass some people – I feeling a bit apprehensive, since we’re not supposed to be in there – but Mariam not in the least bothered, turned to me as we’re walking in,

“Just pretend, you’re looking for someone”.

Sneaking into the Assembly Rooms

Well, once that idea got stuck in my head, I did pretty well, going through the crowds and leading Mariam on. I don’t know where we heard this but as it turned out all those people were there for the dance rehearsal for that night since they had to learn 18th century dancing. As we came to the end of hall (from the foyer) … there were three doors that were opened, so, we went and look into the two doors which were dining room places, but the last door, I pushed myself pass people and there in front of us was the assembly hall – which was barred by a rope. The assembly hall was large … rectangular shaped, with about 4 large chandeliers hanging along the length, I could imagine it being the 18th century ballroom.

Anyway, we edge back from that door, to the centre of the three doors where everyone was (we weren’t really out of place … since there were a few people in jeans as well), Mariam turned to me and said,

“I want to see them dance”, I looked at her with incredibility and said very quietly but through my clenched teeth and sort of hissed a reply, so no one will hear me:

“Uh … we don’t have any tickets … we’re not supposed to be here”

Sneaking into the Ballroom

So, whilst we are arguing (well more like discussing) quietly about that, and she insisting she wants to see them dance, someone opens the cord for the ballroom, and everyone starts moving forward to pour into the ballroom, so we move along with the people … me still being the apprehensive sissy that I am. As we entered, there were some chairs pushed back to the walls of the assembly hall, and the people who first entered were sitting in almost all the chairs as we passed by but we headed to the north of the hall, there were two chairs vacant, but between two fancy dressed persons, so, whilst both of us looked as if we were considering it, I think in the end we decided to ignore it and move up to the north wall (the narrow end of the rectangle). So, we took up positions there hoping to get a good view of the dancing.

I decided to lean against the wall … and nearly fell through as it turned out to be a door! (It did look like a continuation of the wall) … I did take a peek through the door – but didn’t look like anything fantastic … just some 18th century looking table with chairs.

Doing 18th century dancing

So, after a few minutes of looking on, some lady gets on the stage and tells everyone to join in a big circle. So, I saw everybody moving into the circle, so I turned to Mariam and motioned her towards the big circle and said, “Let’s go”.

Now, she was looking at me with incredibility, “You’re going to dance?”

I replied, “Well, we might as well … we’re already here, let’s go”.

So, we did … We joined in the big circle, and she was supposed to be my “partner” – my male partner … and being a Jane Austen party … males were in scarce quantities … and hence there were many female-female couples – so, we didn’t look out of place at all .

I was a bit worried about the two ladies we spoke to earlier, but Mariam said it was fine, they were at the other end. Anyway, the first dance it was a circle dance, where the males, kept moving around and the females stood in one place.

After doing that one dance, Mariam, didn’t want to be the ‘male’ any more, so, the job fell to me. We then learnt one dance where we made two parallel lines, and we were grouped in fours (2 couples), where we had to do dances the four of us in circles, and then one couple moved up the line.

The next dance we learnt is where we had to have four couples forming a square, and we sort of grabbed each other arms and turn several times in circles.

The last dance we learnt, which was the easiest and the best one by far, is where we formed a line with three couples, and it was basically us walking up the line and shifting positions, so the end couple eventually became the first – that was fun. (Actually, at this point – the two ladies who we met earlier – came up to learn with a set of people in the line next to us – so, we had to sort of hide our faces and don’t look at them directly just in case they recognised us – bit of cloak and dagger stunts).

Being cheeky and getting free tea

Anyway, at the end of the learning of this, the lady who was teaching us (there were about at least 100 people) … told half the people to go out for tea … we figured we were there long enough and we should go out. But upon exiting, we looked at the other two doors and there laid out on tables were plates of scones with jam and cream and they were serving tea … so, since we were already there and did do the dancing … thought we deserved the tea and went in had some water not tea … sat at a table and had some scones … thankfully, the people who sat at our table were foreigners – and they proceeded to speak in a foreign language (Russian?) – and so, there were no awkward conversations about what we were wearing that night etc.

After having our tea – it was about 4 – and we thought it was time we should go … so, we ducked out and pretended as if we were going for a cigarette … not sure if anybody really cared – but I like my pretense to look real .

So, that’s how I crashed a Jane Austen’s rehearsal dance … and got free scones as well .