Lesson 8 (Warping)
TERMS:
Warping; Altering a base dance or flourish by use of the facing keys.
Facing keys? What the heck are they? Ok the number pad on your keyboard holds many secrets and we will discuss some of them today. First things first let�s warm up our dancing shoes by starting Basic. Now everything we will discuss today is on your NUMBER PAD. So take good hard look at it. Ooooo lots of buttons. Try playing with the + and � keys first and note they zoom your camera in and out. Now play with the 8 and 2 keys and note they change the angle of the camera. Now try the 4 and 6 keys they �should� rotate your camera around your dancer and not rotate your dancer. If your 4 and 6 keys do not rotate your camera around your dancer press the �del� key (the one ON your number pad) and try again. You will get a system message every time you press the �del� key and for our purposes right now it should say �chase camera off�
I hear a lot of bla bla this and bla bla that Sultrina, but you still haven�t said a thing about these facing keys! that�s because I had to trick you into putting your number pad into the correct state. Now try the 1 and 3 keys and notice that your dancer turns in place while dancing! Note that if you hold one of these keys down you spin quickly but if you feather (tap the key repeatedly) you can spin slower. Ok let�s have some fun with that.
Exercise 1:
Use Basic flourish 7 �Moon Walk� and the facing keys 1 and 3 to �warp� Moon Walk. Go crazy! See how many new flourishes you can make out of an old trusty like Moon Walk.
With practice you should be able to �warp� a lot of your flourishes and get new life out of them. For some a heavy hand on the key for a fast spin looks great, for others it�s the slow turn that looks polished. Practice makes perfect. One thing to learn up front is that if your dancer�s feet are planted it will always look unnatural to spin with the facing keys. For an example Basic flourish 6. It�s a great flourish but your feet or knees are planted the whole time so it�s a poor candidate for �warping�. Go ahead and try it you�ll see what I mean.
Now let me introduce you to the other side of the coin and a tiny little bug that can bite you if you don�t know the secret. Press the �del� key on your number pad and observe the system message �chase camera on�. Now press the 4 and 6 keys and notice that your dancer rotates slowly with the camera attached to their head (there may be a quick facing snap when you first hit the key). Also note that your 1 and 3 keys spin your dancer quickly with the camera attached to their head. I like to move my camera around a lot to see my dancing from different angles so I hate this mode. I only mention it because if you accidentally get into this mode and want to switch back you will find a small bug. Press your �del� key again and observe the �chase camera off� message and press the 1 and 3 keys and note that they no longer turn your dancer! As a matter of fact they do nothing at all! Curse you Sultrina! Now what? Simply press the 4 or 6 key for a quick tap and they will work fine again. That�s not a typo you must press the 4 or 6 key! Now you know the bug and the secret so you�re free to warp your hearts out.
One last thing about warping is the nasty emote warp monster. Select someone behind your dancer and do /smile and note your dancer snaps to face the target. Not all emotes force us to face our target so you will have to learn them as you go. Forced facing can cause unintentional warping of your flourish and really make you look bad if you�re not expecting it. As always timing is everything. Now that you know how to �warp�, and can practice it there are some solutions for the emote warp. You can do an untargeted emote IE �Sultrina smiles�. You can time your emote so that the snap to face will actually look natural for some extra pizzazz. Finally you can use the 1 and 3 keys to turn your dancer more slowly toward the target and then emote. Always remember that warping can induce drift, but you already know how to correct drift and now you know how to tame the warp.
What did we learn today?
1. We learned how to warp
2. We learned that some (not all) emotes force us to face our target and will force warping.
Lesson 9 (Your dance card)
What? You STILL haven�t made one?
A good dance card has all the dances on one sheet of paper. To accomplish this you must put your document in landscape mode (its like turning a sheet of paper sideways). The dances are arranged in a 4 by 3 grid with the following headings; Basic, Rhythmic, Popular, Footloose, Poplock, Formal, Lyrical, Exotic, Exotic2, Exotic3, Exotic4, and a blank box at the end. I recommend you put them left to right in that order as I mentioned before this is the logical progression of dances as opposed to the order you learned them in. You do NOT need to list the 2�s(Basic2 ect) because the flourishes are identical, but the base dance is smoother and more polished. Exotic is the exception the flourishes are not identical so each exotic has its own heading. Now under each heading you need to number 1-8. When you�re done making the sheet print it so you can hand write what you see in the spaces. Then go back later and type up your hand written notes. Do not try to make a dance card from memory. Look back over lesson 1 (Getting the Boogie On) and fill in as much of you dance card as you can. Don�t be alarmed if you find yourself changing your dance card often at first this is normal. Here is the first block as it appears on my dance card.
Basic
1. boogie turn/hip action
2. crouch wipe/boogie/spin
3. hop turn/hip action
4. knee pump/big arms
5. *knee lift/torso bot
6. *mime/knee drop
7. Moon walk L 3/R 6/L 3
8. Moon walk L 3/R 6/L 3
Ok now take a peek back at lesson 5 (Stringing) and note Flourish 3 from my actual dance card reads �hop turn/hip action� and in the lesson we learned it as �hop turn/hip action/butt action/side kick/uh-huh�. What gives Sultrina? Where is the real dance card? That�s it honest! The purpose of a dance card is to find a flourish as a glance and call it to mind. I could never use a tiny part like �uh-huh� cold turkey from the dance card so I don�t type it. I can see at a glance this flourish will give me a �hop turn� and some nice �hip action�. That�s what a dance card is, a quick reference sheet. That is why you should have all the dances on one sheet of paper. Now each flourish can also be broken down into an infinite number of parts, �hop turn/hip action/butt action/side kick/uh-huh� is but one example. This sort of detail is key to choreographing, but will help you little mid boogie. Now let�s look at a few key points on my example here. I use the / to separate parts of the flourish. I use an * to note the flourish is repeated in another style (this is because a repeated flourish can make a nice mix crash n burn if your not ready for it). I also note all movement on the floor with L 3, R 6, FWD 3, BK 3 that way at a glance I can see it is also a drift correction flourish. That�s it clean and simple and you will know your description is perfect when you can look at it after not doing that flourish for a while and actually picture the flourish in your head enough to know the difference between say flourish 1 and 3 in Basic. Do not and I really mean this do not include times on your dance card this way lies madness! By all means explore each flourish as world unto itself there is a lot of good stuff in each flourishes, but only put the skeleton on the dance card.
What did we learn today?
1. We learned the basic layout of a complete dance card
2. We learned a dance card is a quick reference not a complete reference
3. We learned a few tricks to make information stand out /,*,L 3
4. We learned why we have to make our own dance card
Lesson 10 (Developing a Routine)
Ok we learned a lot of neat dancing techniques here at the Academy, but flashy tricks alone do not make a good act so I�m going to share some things I�ve learned along the way.
Dance to the music. I hear so many people comment they turn their sound off so they don�t have to listen to the music. Shame on you! I hear musicians say the same thing DOUBLE shame on you! Listen to the music and select a dance that compliments it. You and the musicians are supposed to be a team so work together trying different songs and dances together and developing an act. If you�re not careful this sort of behavior will catch on and the boring group of people you�re dancing with might just become a lively bunch of entertainers having a great time.
Wear the right clothes for the dance AND the music. I could write a whole page just on this subject alone, but to get you going on the right path just ask yourself if what you�re wearing is appropriate to the dance and music. HINT exotic leotards are not the best choice in most cases.
Use props sparingly. A staff or a sword can look very nice for a time but get old very quickly so use them sparingly. Unless you�re doing a Wild West show I don�t recommend dancing with a gun ever.
Use your light show when it�s the right thing to do. I see so many dancers spaming away at their light show for no apparent reason. Use the light show to complement your act example the end of flourish 2 basic begs for a special effect. Rule of thumb is if you don�t know why you�re using the light show then you�re using it at the wrong time.
Bands have a terrible habit of changing music without alerting the group. Try to develop quick ways of up or down shifting your dancing to meet the new music (this is done by creative mixing). Example flourish 7 in any of the exotics is a �quick shimmy turn� by mixing that with popular flourish 7 �bellie turn� you can go from exotic to popular smoothly to meet a music change.
Try to develop new routines that branch off of old ones. A big part of dancing is showing a customer a repeating pattern and then changing it. By branching your routines you can avoid abrupt changes that don�t look polished. Do realize that there are times to break this rule and smack them right between the eyes with something completely different.
Keep you mind occupied so you�re UP! Your mood as a dancer is key, your customers will pick up on it very quickly. If you�re bored with your dancing you will be boring. On the other hand a newbie with a perky attitude can light up a room.
Always remember you have four types of customers
Those that want to see a show. In order to please these customers you have to have a show to offer that�s what the Academy is all about. Those that want their BF healed. The good news is you do this as long as you�re dancing so they are easy to please, however the important thing here is you have to be dancing!
Those that want to use you for exp. Bless the people healing your action points they are angels of mercy! News flash a lot of them are using you for exp and if you take good care of them by burning action they will take good care of you. Be sure to ask them in tell if they want you to burn it as some are just kind souls and medicine costs money. Those that are want information. A lot of people come into the cantina because they don�t understand something an are hoping someone can answer their questions. As entertainers we hear a lot of things in the cantina so share that knowledge we also meet lots of people that might be able to answer questions about specific classes. By helping someone though a difficult problem you could 1find yourself with a very loyal customer or better yet a good friend.
What did we learn today?
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to please ALL of your customers and turn them all into �Those that want to see a show�
Lesson 11 (Dancing to Zen)
A student once commented to me Sultrina when I am doing a lesson I know when I am doing it wrong, but how do I know when I am doing it right? The answer is exactly.
A master dancer could tell you more, but there are no master dancers. There are infinite movements in a dance and each movement has infinite sub movements. If you can not see flaws in your dancing then you are not watching your dancer. If you are not watching your dancer why should anyone else? If we can believe that dancing has infinite movements and therefore it can not be mastered, then it stands to reason if each movement has infinite sub movements then we can never master a movement. Wow that sucks! Not really because it means that our dancers can actually transcend the game mechanics and become real performers. We do have to accept the fact that we can always get better and we will get better. This means we have to get into a studio and really look at our dancer. You CAN use dead time in a cantina for this, but trust me you NEED a studio. This is a quiet place, a house, a mountain top, a beach. Some place that makes you feel at peace. When I am working on an especially difficult routine I like to find a pretty beach far from people and wear my newbie dance clothes. This makes me smile and reminds me I am still a newbie.
Ok nice speech Sultrina, but what the heck are you talking about? All right lets get to dancing Basic, but today I want you to look at it and I mean really look at it. It is a simple dance and when we first started it was one of two dances we had and most of you are well beyond this dance now and glad to be rid of it. Watch it as it loops, note the simple elegance of this dance. Oh sure in pants in a shirt it looks a little dull but now imagine yourself in the fanciest clothes you have ever seen. Now imagine you have a Formal or Lyrical dance routine lined up that will wow even the most cynical crowed. Now look at the dance and see the raw simplicity of it and how a few moments of this base dance before starting your routine could really grab some attention. Suddenly it isn�t such a newbie dance anymore eh? This is and will always be one of my favorite dances and I would cry if it were removed from the game.
Now that we see the base dance for its simplicity lets do Flourish 6 �mime/knee drop� on my card. Watch the transition from the base dance to the flourish. In most cases it appears a little abrupt. Does this flourish again and watch closely. Note the position of the hands and feet in the base dance and if they �snap� to another position for the flourish. Start to see the flaws? Keep flourishing over and over trying to get the flourish to mesh perfectly with the base dance. Can see when it looks choppy and when it looks good? Is there a point every once in a while it looks perfect? Did it look perfect because you weren�t really watching or was it really perfect? If it really was perfect can you do it again?
Exorcise 1:
1. Repeat lessons 5 through 10 with using everything you have learned since the last time you did them to make each movement smoother.
2. Incorporate your studio work into your daily routine.
3. Do lesson 11 again.
4. Don�t ever let it bother you that you have yet to complete exercise 1, Lesson 11.
There you have it dancers. You can always find something more in dancing just by watching yourself. You are your best teacher because you have to appreciate your work before others can. If you enjoy watching yourself it will spread to your costumers.
What did we learn today?
1. nothing
2. everything
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