Taverna Ball IX. (Republished pictures from 2015)

The Tavern Ball has been a part of my life for more than five years. I’ve been there to take photos six times now, and I’ve always tried something new—once it was a flash on the camera, another time a remote flash, then maybe a tripod/monopod. I’ve also used several cameras (not always my own) during that time, and it’s always been one big experiment. Every time I’ve come up with something new, I’ve learned something new. For example, from the very first ball I photographed, I thought it would be helpful to determine the longest exposure time to use for each dance so that the dancers wouldn’t be blurred in the photos – but I still haven’t gotten around to that, and probably won’t ever do that, but it was an interesting idea.

Of course, the ball is not about photography, but about people dancing. As always, most of the dancers were from the Taverna community server. However, the group of non-Taverners is growing as the event gains popularity. If the hall were fifty per cent bigger, there would be sixty couples instead of forty - at least I believe so.

Dancing itself is a big, complicated issue for me. I took dance lessons, and over the years, several girls tried to teach me something about dancing, but without much success—I guess I lacked the right enthusiasm and willingness to devote enough time to it. The only exception is Argentine tango, to which I devoted more time than to all other dances combined, thanks to Dance Macabre. This LARP utilised dance as a communication platform. Following the weekend of the game, I attended classes for about a year, gaining valuable insights. It’s not much, but it’s definitely more than in any other dance.

As always, the program included two dance performances, a pair pole dance performed by the national champions and the Lento dance group.