Midsummer Masque Dance Card

Ladies, It is with pleasure Lady Caroline, myself and Leandrea Wallis announce our Midsummer Ball. This year’s ball shall be a masque to make the event even more memorable. As you may know my house guests the Count and Countess Von Alland are visiting from Vienna. The count was at school with Charles and they have maintained their friendship all these years since.

At a masque there are a variety of ways you may dress yourself. You may like to emulate an historic figure, for example a famous Greek or Roman. There is also the option of creating a costume to portray something more abstract such as wearing a dark blue gown with silver sequins to resemble the night sky and stars. These are inspired ideas for your costume but you may also dress yourself in your loveliest gown and simply carry a mask that has been ornately decorated. All very appropriate ideas so use your imagination when preparing yourself for this most auspicious event.

The Countess Von Alland, a very charming woman, has conveyed to me what the balls she has attended are like. Grand affairs all, I can assure you. An item she mentioned took my fancy; a small component of a lady's attire that was of particular interest to me and most certainly shall be to you as well. This is the dance card, used to record the names of the dances, the music played for each and the names of a lady’s partners for each of these dances. The dance cards are a pleasing little addition to a ball gown, being fashioned of beautifully crafted paper to form the book, Ivory or even precious metals adorned with jewels.

Ideally, these little creations would have a ribbon attached to them and a lady slipped it over her wrist so she may easily refer to it. The shapes of the dance cards varied depending upon a lady's fancy, some even being made into fans. Because many of the dances were lengthy affairs, at least 20 minutes from start to completion, there would only be between 6 – 8 performed at an event such as our masque so a minimum of pages is required.

For this swap we will have one partner and we will be creating our dance card for the masque. It should not be any larger than a playing card and should be in booklet form with space inside to write the names of your partners. The outside of the dance card should be decorated to your heart’s desire, wherever your fancy takes you, let it be your guide as you work. When you have completed this task, write a message to your partner sharing an image of your dance card and perhaps chatting about the anticipation you have for this loveliest of events.

I send you all my good wishes and look forward to chatting with you all at the Midsummer Masque,

Lady Elizabeth