Marc Antony and Cleopatra

We had fun as Marc and Cleo from choosing the costumes to all the costume parties.

It all started at the Ocala Civic Theater. We had heard that they rented costumes so decided to see what was available. I wandered about looking for something pretty while Den explored further back in the huge warehouse of costumes. I just couldn't find anything that appealed when suddenly he appeared with the helmut seen here and asked Bridget, who is the costume department, "What can you build around this?" So she gathered the tunic and cape and whatever that thing is around his waist and a breast plate that covered his entire chest. Well, the breast plate was just not going to work when we danced so we substituted the smaller one seen in the picture. She also provided forearm braces and knee-high soft boots. He had the sword and belt - and yes it was a real sword!

By this time, Den had decided he was a Roman centurion and from there made the leap to Marc Antony and wanted me outfitted like Cleopatra. Bridget came up with this Egyptian costume. It's a leotard, white pants gathered at the ankles, a belt and collar of matching material, a gold head cover topped by an open weave black headdress with gold beads. I bought a couple of snake armbands to finish her off. No pun intended. LOL

So we started with a costume party on the 18th at Sensational Singles. I usually ride with my friends and Den and I meet up there but since our costumes were linked we decided to ride together. When we arrived, Gail was standing in the line for ladies in a mixer so we walked up to her and said hi. She didn't recognize me. I went pretty heavy with the make-up around the eyes so I wasn't too surprised, but it was fun. We discovered pretty quickly that Den couldn't turn me as fast as we're used to because the beads on my headdress swing out. So we modified our dancing style to accommodate that.

October 23rd we went to another costume dance at Dancin' Around. You can see some of the other costumes in the picture. This was fun because it was mostly ballroom dancing. Just about everyone came in costume including John Whipple, the owner/dance instructor of Dancin' Around. We hardly sat down at all - only when a tango was played.

Our last costume dance was in Beverly Hills at the Kellerman Auditorium on the 31st. This was also ballroom dancing and by this time we'd gotten our revised timing worked out pretty well to accommodate the headdress. We also found we had to make some adjustments for his cape when he spun about in the Swing. Luckily they played many more West Coast Swings so our movements were slower. Perhaps two-thirds of the people came in costume and there were some interesting ones. Of course, I think ours were the best.

We really had fun as Mark and Cleo. Den enjoys dressing up for Halloween a lot. It was a new experience for me but I'm so glad we did this.