Friday, March 24, 2000
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
In
Remembrance:
Renaissance
groups gather to inform public of the past
By
Ken White
Review-Journal
The
Rainbow Library steps back a few hundred years Saturday when the local
guild of the St. Andrew's Ancient Order of Noble Scots presents a Renaissance
village demonstration. Activities will include presentations from 1562
Scotland and by the St. Andrew's Renaissance Guild, Tudor era of 1500 by
the Isle of Standauffish Renaissance and medieval presentations by the
Kingdom of Aragon. Demonstrations, centered on the court of Mary Queen
of Scots, will be held in period rope making, sword fighting in full suits
of armor, candle making, military drills and belly dancing.
There
also will be history workshops, a Gaelic language group and period music.
Members of the local groups will be outfitted in period costumes.
The
St. Andrew's Renaissance Guild was founded in, Calif., in 1978, and has
a membership of more than people and guild houses in 17 regions in Nevada,
California Oregon. The Las Vegas guild house was founded in August of last
year. The guild holds meets at Desert Breeze Community Center and Paradise
Community Center in Henderson. Bill Sikkens, head of the local group, had
an interest in the Renaissance period and formed a group in Reno five years
ago. He came to Las Vegas last year and organized the local guild house.
The
Renaissance, a French word for "rebirth," was a period of intellectual
and economic changes in Europe from the 1400s to 1600s. It was a time when
Europe emerged from the Middle Ages -- a period that saw the bubonic plague,
also called the "Black Death" kill half the population of Europe -- into
a rebirth in the economic, artistic, social, scientific and political spheres.
"It's an addiction," Sikkens says of his participation in the historical
re-enactors guild, which presents continuing workshops in areas related
to the Renaissance era.
Classes
in Gaelic are held the second and fourth Mondays as each month at the Charleston
Heights Community School in Garside Middle School by the Gaelic Arts and
Education League.
There's
belly dancing on the first and third Tuesdays of each month in the Clark
County Library Theater by the Isle of Standauffish Renaissance Guild, Inc.
and calligraphy is taught at 1 p.m. the first Sunday of each month at Desert
Decor in Green Valley by the Cactus Quills. Demonstrations also will be
held May 13 and June 10 at the Rainbow Library.
Sponsored
by St. Andrew's Ancient Order of Noble Scots and St. Andrew's Society of
Southern Nevada, admission to the demonstration is free.
Preview
What:
Renaissance village demonstration
When:
12:30-4:30 p.m. Saturday
Where:
Rainbow Library amphitheater, 3150 N. Buffalo Drive
Admission:
Free