Dancing back in time

Organisers Gary and Karen Shaw are bringing The Time Travellers’ Ball to Featherston. PHOTO/SUPPLIED

By Chelsea Boyle

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If you dream of dancing with Mr Darcy, a regency style ball coming to Featherston could be just the ticket for you.

The Time Travellers’ Ball will be held in Anzac Hall on June 24 for history aficionados who are keen to immerse themselves in a pre-1916 world.

Organiser Karen Shaw said she wanted to bring people together and give them a chance to dress up in costume.

“There are a surprising amount of women who have that special dress in mind and think ‘Oh I wish I could wear what they wore back then’.

“The opportunity is never there.”

She said it was a chance to show that alternative version of you, the one that doesn’t get the chance “to walk down the street and go to the shops every day”.

Mrs Shaw originally wanted to create a steampunk event but the idea snowballed to embrace more groups with an interest in history.

She wanted to hold an event the whole community could contribute to after seeing the way everybody enjoyed working together to launch Booktown.

“We got together every other week and did that, and everybody had a great time.

“Then Booktown was finished for the year and we thought ‘We should do this more often’.”

Anzac Hall would be adorned “quite elaborately” for the event with pre-1916 style decorations, she said.

“We are not really going past 1916 [with the theme], we want people to really put some effort in.

“We are going to have the Wellington Lute Society performing some historical music for us, along with a couple of dancers who will be able to teach people some of the regency dancing, the kind of thing you would see on Pride and Prejudice.

“We will also have a couple of other local musicians and folk music.”

Tickets for the event are $30 and are available on The Time Travellers’ Ball website.

“The ticket prices are just to cover the event itself,” Mrs Shaw said.

“If we have a little bit left over, then the idea is to save it for next year’s event… We really want to keep the ticket prices down, if we do another of these, which we will if it’s successful.”

Creative Communities NZ, the Village Baker Featherston, Clockwork Steampunk Emporium, and The Tin Hut have all supported the event.