You sit on a bench patiently
waiting for the shuttle that was supposed to whisk you away to
fame and fortune. They say when it rains it pours and that
exactly what it’s doing now, it’s pouring rain. The only
protection from the driving rain is some beat up paperback you
found on the bench. Clutching the book over your head you try to
make yourself as small as possible under it. Whose stupid idea
was it for you to become a dancer anyhow? Oh that’s right you
tell yourself, it was yours. It’s all that flyers fault from the
local dance school with its promises of fame and fortune. That’s
when the fever hit you. That’s when you decided you were always
meant to be a dancer. You certainly weren’t meant to be well
dressed though, just look at yourself; an old dingy shirt that
is now shades of grey thanks to some idiot using the local
public wash machine to dye something black, a pair of lose
fitting white pants that used to not look so bad until you let
your novice tailor friend “fix” them. Now they have some furry
diaper sewed onto them to cover up the huge rip you put in them
the last night of dance school. Let’s not forget the red pumps
you thought were pretty sexy with your black dress. Sadly the
person that stole your clothes from your locker at school is now
wearing your black dress and lucky you, you still have the
pumps. Here you sit here in the rain looking like an orphan
wearing dumpster diver hand me downs. The school did teach you
two dances Basic and Rhythmic, but then a lot of people know
those dances. The shuttle finally arrives so you board and
taking the only empty seat. The smelly bald guy you’re forced to
sit next to looks at your clothes and the soaked book in your
hands and snorts. The book! You forgot all about your makeshift
umbrella. Turning the book over you see the title “Sultrina’s
Dance Academy”. Ya right, you’re a professional dancer what do
you need with some stupid paper back telling you how to dance?
Oh well, you think it should be good for a laugh, and you could
sue one about now. Flipping open the cover you start to read ….
Hi my names Sultrina and I’ve been dancing
ever since beta. I’m writing this book because there are a lot
of little things about the dancer that aren’t well known that
make the dancer both fun and challenging to play. The topics I’m
going to cover are complex and if you want to get the most out
of them you will find dancing is harder and more challenging
then combat ever was! You will also find if you took on this
profession to simply be social and kick back you can still find
a lot of toys for your imagination here. Don’t ever feel you are
too casual of a gamer too contribute to serious entertainment.
Diana Ross wouldn’t have sounded as sweet without the Supremes.
So weather you want to take charge of the floor or be a backup
dancer I hope you find this guide both fun and informative.
This guide does not replace the documentation on dancing that
came with the game it builds on it. So if you haven’t read the
manual do that now.
The majority of techniques discussed here can be practiced by
a novice entertainer. That’s right a complete novice can do most
of what is in this guide. That means you can start enjoying your
dancer today! For that reason I will give examples of each topic
using Basic and Rhythmic when possible.
I doubt anyone will ever master the techniques I am showing
here. I know I haven’t! You can always look smoother, gain more
polish or develop a new routine. You can never master dancing I
don’t care what your tag says. As you go through the guide don’t
try to finish a lesson try to loose yourself in a lesson you
will have a lot more fun and learn more that way.
You need a good place to practice and you need to practice
often. Busy cantinas are a great place to show off, but they
don’t make for good places to practice because of the extra lag
and the overwhelming urge to chat. The IDEAL spot to practice
leaves you in solitude for and hour and then one or two
customers trickle in so you can try out what you learned on
them. It takes a bit of research to find these places but it is
worth the effort. Remote cantinas like this tend to be desperate
for entertainers and you can find yourself well cared for during
your stay. For the dancer on a budget theaters and hotels can
offer good spots to practice as well. I am very fond of dancing
on the beach too it offers a nice view of the ocean and helps me
work on my tan.
Let’s begin.
Lesson 1 (Getting the Boogie
On)
Terms:
Base Dance; The dancing your character does when it is not
flourishing.
Flourish; A special dance move the player can call on demand.
Command; One of the games slash commands. I enclose them in
braces for clarity but don’t type the braces.
[/smile] means type /smile
So you just got your dancing shoes and are eager to try them
out?
Use the command [/startdance] to bring up a list of dance
styles. At this point you have Basic and Rhythmic, click basic
and then OK and you will start dancing. Now watch your character
dance for a few minutes. You will notice that each base dance is
really a few seconds of dancing animation that loops. See if you
can find the pattern and anticipate when it is about to loop.
This is very important as timing is the building block of
everything we will do here at the academy and it may seem like a
small thing now but what you just learned is more then a lot of
people know about their dancers at master level.
Under the Abilities & Commands menu click the other tab add the
flourish 1-8 commands to your quick bar slots F1-F8. Now press
the F1 key and watch your character boogie! Do flourish 1 a few
times and watch all the movements you do. Watch the hands, feet
and overall body language of a flourish. Now start a dance card.
It’s simple really just write down what you see. Yes write in
the book! There is no wrong answer; I won’t even be collecting
your papers. A dance card lets you find a flourish you like at a
glance. When your done with Basic use the command [/stopdance]
to stop dancing and then the command [/startdance rhythmic] to
start dancing Rhythmic without having to pick it from the list.
This time use the command [/flourish 1] to do your flourish. Now
alternate doing each flourish with the command [/flourish 1-8]
and the function keys and see which you like better.
Ok this may seem like an easy first lesson, but we learned a lot
today.
1. Our hot bar is set up to let us flourish at the touch of a
button
2. We learned the /startdance,/startdance , /flourish
1-8 and /stopdance commands
3. We know what each of our base dances looks like and can
anticipate when they are about to loop.
4. We learned what the 16 flourishes look like and can find our
favorites on the dance card
Lesson 2 (Got Ryhym?)
Terms:
Part; A recognizable sub routine in a flourish or base dance
Today we are going to take a good look at Rhythmic.
Repeat after me “clueless/skip rope/chicken flap/slow hands/left
45”.
Now start dancing rhythmic and watch the base dance closely,
“clueless/ skip rope/chicken flap/slow hands/left 45”.
When the dance starts we look ‘clueless”, then a bit like we are
“skipping rope”, then a short version of skipping rope I am
calling “chicken flap”, then the “slow hands” and last we turn
45 degrees to the left “left 45”. We just broke Rhythmic down
into its parts so we can talk about them. Watch the base dance
some more until you can recognize each of these parts.
Ok now let’s have some fun with it.
Exorcise 1:
Wait for “Chicken Flap” to start then do flourish 5. If all went
well you came out of your flourish into the “Left 45” position.
If this did not happen play with your timing a bit until you
have it down.
Why did this happen? Always remember no matter what you do the
base dance is always running. That’s right your flourish doesn’t
interrupt your base dance it rides on top of it. Think the base
and the flourish as two pieces of film. The base dance film
never stops we just cue to another piece of film (the flourish 5
film in this case) when we cue back to the “base dance film” it
has still been running all this time and we happen to be at the
“left 45” part of the film.
Ok so why should we care? Well in the above example we used it
to toss a little flare to the end of our flourish the “left 45”
move gives it a little ta-da sort of ending. At the same time we
are learning to look at our dancer in a different way so we
understand why they behave differently at times. Once we
understand our dancer we have more control over our dancer.
Exorcise 2:
Wait for “left 45” to start then flourish 3. When Flourish 3
ends wait for left 45 to start again and flourish 3 again.
Repeat three more times. Hey! Wait a sec what happened to
clueless?
We didn’t like that part so we got rid of it. We are now using
what we know to eliminate a part of the dance we didn’t want. Ok
now try it with other flourishes.
NOTE: I don’t want you freaking out over how many seconds a part
is or how many seconds the flourish runs. I want you to
concentrate instead on what things look like and go by feel.
Visual cues are not only more reliable but they will make your
dancing more fluid. In dancing timing is everything not time.
Ok what did we learn today?
1. Base Dances are made up or Parts that can be used or
discarded with timing.
2. The Base Dance is always running
3. Watching our dancer and not the clock can make us more fluid
Lesson 3 (Changing Gears)
TERMS:
Changing Gears; Switching quickly from one dance style to
another.
Ok today were going to talk about changing gears obviously so
let’s get right to it.
Click on the bottom of your short cut bar and drag it down so
you have two sets of bars.
Now make the following macros (if you don’t know how to this
read the manual)
This macro gets you dancing basic fast.
/startdance basic;
This macro allows you to shift gears fast make one for each of
your styles.
/changedance ;
Example:
/changedance rhythmic;
This macro will always result in an error message if you are
already dancing “You canot Start Dancing while Skill Animating”.
You’re the only one who sees this error though and it lets you
use one button to either start the dance or change to it if
already dancing.
/startdance basic;
/changedance basic;
Ok that’s simple enough but I have a tip for you do NOT arrange
the dances on your hot bar in the order you learn them arrange
them like this; basic/rhythmic/popular/poplock/footloose/formal/lyrical/exotic.
This is a more logical progression of styles in my opinion and
lets you find a complimentary style much faster.
Now you can play your dancer much like a piano, fingers on the
function keys and mousing over the bottom row for gear changes.
The advantage of this method is you can plan ahead with your
mouse and easily do two things at once (flourish/gear change).
There is another way called “aliasing” it basically lets you
create your own slash commands. I do not recommend this unless
you are a very fast typist and for that reason I’m not going
into it here.
What did we learn today?
1. We learned a little bit about macros (I hope it didn’t hurt
too much)
2. We learned how to change gears
3. We learned a logical way to arrange our change gear buttons
Lesson 4 (The dancers office)
Today we’re going to learn how to set up our screen to get the
most out of our dancer.
Before we even get started this is a lot of technical mumbo
jumbo and might be a little hard to get the first time through.
It does make your life a lot easier so please bear with me.
Ok our dancers are supposed to be social animals and chat, at
the same time we are supposed to thank our tippers and our
healers, at the same time we are supposed to be dancing and
putting on a good show. wheeeew that’s a lot of work! Well today
we are going to mess around with our chat window to make it work
for us.
1. Were going to get rid of the stupid system messages on screen
if you haven’t already. Click on “options” then select “misc” no
uncheck “show system messages on screen.
2. Read pages 83 – 84 of manual, or the Chat System section of
online manual.
3. Right click the “spatial” tab and select “modify” now remove
“system messages” and click “done”
4. Right click “spatial” tab and select “add tab”
5. Right click “none” (the name of the new tab) and select
“modify” now add “system messages” and click done. It will
automatically rename “none” to “system messages”
6. Left click and drag the new “system messages” tab just to the
right of your chat window.
7. Now click “options” and select “chat color” in the window
near the bottom type the sentence “tips you” and pick a color
you like in the color palate box above. Now click “add sentence
colorization”.
8. Now click “options” and select “chat color” in the window
near the bottom type the sentence “heals you” and pick a color
you like in the color palate box above. Now click “add sentence
colorization”.
9. Now click done
Ok now all we have in our main window is chat, hey that’s good
were supposed to do that. In the smaller window too the right we
can see our EXP ticking away, hmm that’s good we like EXP. We
can also see in the same smaller window highlighted in the color
of our choice any incoming tips and healing so we can thank
people for them.
Lesson 5 (Stringing Flourishes)
TERMS:
Stringing; The art of putting two or more flourishes together so
they look like a single flourish.
Exit cue; The part of a flourish that tells us it is about to
end.
Idle; Letting the base dance run while you give your fingers a
break.
Properly stringed flourishes make the base dance disappear
allowing us to write our own with flourishes. This is an
extremely difficult skill to master and it is perfectly normal
to see a frame or two of the base dance. The goal though is to
completely erase the base dance.
Ok dancers, places! Today’s lesson is going to take a hard look
at Basic so get warmed up and watch the base dance a bit. When
your ready do flourish 3 a few times and watch it close. Ok on
my dance card I call this one “hop turn/hip action” but we are
going to look at this flourish a LOT closer then that today. For
today it is called “hop turn/hip action/butt action/side
kick/uh-huh”. Watch the flourish again and see if you can
identify these parts. Ok good now we have to look even closer at
the last part of the flourish to find the visual cue we will
need to string. Watch the flourish again and pay special
attention to “uh-huh”. Watch the hands especially; first the
right hand is up and then you lower it slowly raising the left
hand then the left hand drops an up comes the right hand again
and finally the flourish ends. So we will break “uh-huh” down to
its parts “right hand/left hand slow/right hand”. This may seem
like a lot of work but it is a very fast process once you get
used to it and now we have our exit cue “right hand/left hand
slow/right hand”.
Exercise 1:
Using the exit cue “right hand/left hand slow/right hand” try to
string NOT chain Basic flourish 3 together with itself. Watch
for the cue then flourish again making the flourishes flow
smoothly one into the next. It takes practice so take all the
time you need until you think you have it down.
Ok now lets look at the exit cue for Basic flourish 1 (I’m not
breaking the whole flourish down again this time). Do flourish 1
a few times and watch the end of the flourish. I am calling this
“spank 2 3” you should see you dancer making a spanking motion
with your right hand then the hand moves a second time and a
third.
Exercise 2:
Use the exit cue “spank 2 3” to string flourish 1 into flourish
3 then using that flourishes exit cue “right hand/left hand
slow/right hand” string it back into flourish 1. Keep stringing
these flourishes back and forth until you have a nice smooth
string that is endless.
Ok the last flourish we are going to look at today is Basic
flourish 2. I love this flourish it has lots of action and a
nice ta-da ending. That’s exactly what we are going to use it
for is to put a ta-da on the end of the routine we put together
in exorcise 2. Before we do that though watch this flourish a
few times and see if you can identify its exit cue. I give the
answer in the next section, but no peeking try to find it
yourself.
Exercise 3:
Repeat exorcise 2 again but this time at random intervals toss
in flourish 2 as a ta-da ending and then let your character idle
a bit. Start back up again only mix up the order now stringing
different combos of flourish 1 and 3 (like 1,1,3,1,3,3,1,3). Mix
it up and have fun and don’t forget to toss flourish 2 in once
and a while and then idle.
The most important thing to remember about an exit cue is it’s
for YOU to know when a flourish is about to end. I like to use
three movements because to me it says “attention/flourish about
to end/all done”. Any cue that works for you is a good one. I
came up with “r arm strait up/arms up and out/arms to the side”
for flourish 2. Try stringing that flourish now and see if your
answer works for you.
What did we learn today?
1. We learned to find the exit cue for any given flourish.
2. We learned how to string flourishes together smoothly
Lesson 6 (Mixing)
TERMS:
Mixing; The art of mixing flourishes from two or more dance
styles.
If you thought stringing was fun boy do I have a surprise for
you!
Today we are going to learn to mix dance styles so we can expand
our horizons. We will be using Basic and Rhythmic today so take
a look at both base dances again. Now take a look at flourish 4
in basic. I call this one “knee pump/big arms” can you see it?
Now look at flourish 4 in Rhythmic also. I call this one
“spin/hop”. Ok here hold on tight because here we go! Start
flourish 4 in basic and wait for your dancer to start “big arms”
then click your Rhythmic change dance macro and notice you start
doing the Rhythmic flourish 4 right away and if you watch
closely you will notice you didn’t even have to pay the action
cost for it!
Exercise 1:
Find your exit cue for Basic flourish 4. Then start Basic
flourish 4 and on the exit cue mix Rhythmic flourish 4 with it.
Exercise 2:
Find your exit cue for Rhythmic flourish 4. Then start Rhythmic
flourish 4 and on the exit cue mix Basic flourish 4 with it.
Ok time to talk shop here and explain the nuts and bolts of
mixing. When you change dance to another style containing a
unique flourish your dancer will execute that flourish for free.
The flourish in the style you changed from is interrupted and
the new flourish begins. That’s right you heard me it is
interrupted NOT terminated. We can mix as many styles as we like
this way. You can start flourish 1 in basic and as long as you
change dance before the currently running flourish ends you can
do flourish 1 in every style you know for free! There is a very
important catch I said it had to be a unique flourish. If you
change to a style that contains the same flourish you will
continue the flourish in the new style it will not start again.
The only exception to that rule is a few exotic flourishes and
we won’t go into that now. Mark all the flourishes that repeat
across styles on your dance card with a * so you know it has a
twin out there somewhere. See why it is so important to have a
dance card?
I hope you’re having fun because it gets even better! Now we are
going to do a double mix. Remember I said that Basic flourish 4
was “knee pump/big arms” and Rhythmic flourish 4 was “spin/hop”?
well we are going to make our OWN flourish now and its called
“knee pump/spin/big arms/hop”. First lets take a peek and start
basic flourish 4 and just when “big arms” starts change dance to
Rhythmic and watch your dancer start the spin. Now while you’re
in the spin change back to basic and notice your basic flourish
continues into the “big arms” part. WOW! Ok now watch flourish 4
in Basic a few times and watch for an exit cue on the “knee
pump” part this time. Now watch Rhythmic flourish 4 and find an
exit cue for the “spin” part.
Exercise 3:
Using the four exit cues mix Basic flourish 4 “knee pump” part
into Rhythmic flourish 4 “spin” part. Then mix back to Basic for
the “big arms” part. Back to Rhythmic for the “hop” part and
finally back to basic and idle. Once you have this all down it
should look like a Basic flourish “knee pump/spin/big arms/hop”
this flourish does not exist in the game we made it up
ourselves.
There is no limit too the amount of times we can mix or the
amount of flourishes we can toss into the mix. We do have to
remember were all the flourishes are to do it smoothly but there
are infinite possibilities here. The key to doing it smoothly is
to have a good exit cue for the part we want to use.
What did we learn today?
1. We learned how to mix.
2. We learned there is no limit to what an imaginative dancer
with good exit cues can do.
Lesson 7 (Drifting)
TERMS:
Mark; An imaginary spot on the floor we want our dancer to hit.
Drift; The tendency of a dancer to move off the spot on the
floor they started their dance from.
Ah that unsightly drift, whatever are we going to do about it?
First thing we are going to do is study it.
Find a place with a tile floor. It can be the city streets,
cantina floor or your own house it doesn’t matter. Now put your
dancer on the + formed where the tiles meet and start dancing
Rhythmic. For now the + is our mark. Position the camera so it’s
directly over your head. Start dancing Rhythmic and note that
your dancer moves off their mark often, but always returns
during the “clueless” part of the base dance. Also notice that
almost all action in the base dance occurs to the right of the
mark. For this reason drift tends to be to the right. Now
imagine how dull this dance would look if you never left your
mark at all. We wound simply stand in one place and wiggle with
our feet glued to the floor. Now for the rest of the lesson stop
using the camera overhead position as a rule, but return to it
when needed.
Exercise 1:
Ok start flourishing when your base dance takes you away from
the mark. After a few flourishes you should notice your drifting
off your mark. Remember only to observe your relation to your
mark during the “clueless” part of the base dance.
NOTE: You may notice your results are actually opposite, but you
should notice that the trend (results over 15 flourishes or
more) does match the lesson. This is because during dances like
Basic and Rhythmic it is near impossible to tell which leg your
weight is on.
Exercise 2:
Ok now starting on your + mark start flourish only during the
“clueless” part of the base dance. You should notice much less
drift then you observed during exercise 1.
NOTE: You may notice your results are actually opposite, but you
should notice that the trend (results over 15 flourishes or
more) does match the lesson. This is because during dances like
Basic and Rhythmic it is near impossible to tell which leg your
weight is on.
Why does this happen? It happens because the base dance always
returns to our mark, but a flourish always returns to it’s point
of origin. So it can be said that flourishing while off our mark
causes drift.
Now let’s make up a fictitious base dance and a fictitious
flourish so you can really see what’s happening. The base dance
is “jump to the left/step to the right” and the flourish is “one
step forward and one step back. Now picture the base dance in
your head, or use a coin on a table. Its simple left, right,
left, right. Now flourish during the right portion of the dance
forward, back. No drift here at all we are right on our mark!
Now flourish during the left part of the dance, forward, back.
Now we are one spot to the left of our original mark because we
started the flourish off our original mark.
Exorcise 3:
If you have Formal try dancing flourishing only while near your
mark. You will, with this dance see immediate and satisfying
results.
Exorcise 4:
If you have Lyrical try dancing flourishing only while near your
mark. You will, with this dance see immediate and satisfying
results.
What did we learn today?
1. Drift is natural
2. Drift trends to the right
3. Base dances always return to their starting point
4. Flourishes always return to their point of origin
5. To minimize drift flourish closest to your mark
Lesson 7a (Drift Correction)
TERMS:
Drift correction; Special moves used to put a dancer back on
their mark
Today we are going to learn how to both correct drift and use it
to move anyplace on the dance floor. Truth is, if you really
wanted to you could dance your way out the cantina door and all
the way to the bank! Ok dancers find a + and get dancing Basic
on it. Now you might think you’re already on your mark, but your
not Remember a mark is an imaginary spot on the floor
you want your dancer to hit? Well lets imagine your mark is the
next + to your left. Oooooo that’s a long way away Sultrina!
Well not anymore because we are going to get there in a short
amount of time using flourish 7, “Moonwalk, 3 steps left/6 steps
right/3 steps left” Do this flourish a few times just too see
the parts for yourself.
Exercise 1:
Just when you’re dancer takes the “3 steps to the left” mix with
Rhythmic and wait for the Rhythmic flourish to complete. Repeat
until you are very near your mark then time the mix to put you
on your mark. If you over shoot your mark remember that Moonwalk
is “3 steps left/6 steps right/3 steps left” so wait until the
“6 steps right” part and move your dancer right with it. Once
you hit your mark, /cheer you, mentally move your mark left
again and repeat until you have it down.
Exercise 2:
Use Rhythmic flourish 1, I call it “Manny the moocher, 3 steps
forward/3 steps back” mixed with Basic to move your dancer a
full + forward. Note: if you over shoot in this case you have no
backward part of the flourish so you’re out of luck (for now).
Exercise 3:
If you have Popular use flourish 2, I call it “Scissor feet, 3
steps back/3 steps forward” to move your dancer a full + back.
Use exercise 2 if you move too far.
I hope your enjoying this! There are a few things to point out
here, first of all I have given you all four directions you can
move on the floor in this lesson left, right, forward and back.
I have also given you the lowest level dances you can get these
moves from Basic, Rhythmic and Popular. If you made a dance card
(funny that keeps coming up) you should see that there are
plenty of other dance flourishes that move you in one or more of
these directions, discover as many as you can and have fun with
it! The other thing you may have noticed is that even though the
dance moves you three steps you tend to only get two steps worth
of movement. The reason for this is simple you will only get the
third step if you time the mix EXACTLY when the weight is on
your forward foot on the last step. In other words don’t worry
about it, take the two steps and be happy.
We moved the mark around a lot today to get you used to the idea
you set the mark and then you go get it. In the case of drift
correction we use these techniques to move back to our original
mark (where we started from). If we want to move around we just
move our mark. Exercise 3 is a prime example of what to do if a
customer comes over and stands on your feet because it gets us
quickly to a comfortable distance.
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.
Sultrina
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