Real-Life Dance to the Expression of it In-Game

[Strongheart]

Hello! I post this because I am in search of any experienced dancers who may be out there or simply those willing to share their own experiences in dancing IG.

Some tips and tricks or simply motivations for dancing in this game would be appreciated! You can even provide examples from how you have done so ICly in the past if you want.

[Raptor_Dan]

I'm no RL dancer, but I've done a lot of it IG. From sullen emo whirans dancing alone in the desert, to lithe tribals dancing erotically, to that drunk Merc who has had too much spice and can't sit still.

No matter who I play, though, I still get nervous dancing. It can be a hard thing to emote out. One thing is certain to help, and that's taking 'perfection' of the table. It's nigh impossible to tediously emote each individual move AND entertain yourself and others.

Some tricks I try to remember are:

Don't get caught up in precise wording. '~ bends both arms at an acute angle and then straightens them out' is so much more tedious than '~ bends his arms to the beat'.

Do use similes '~ taps his feet like a chalton caught on hot salt flats.' ('taps' isn't the word I was looking for, but hopefully the simile evoked the kind of imagery I wanted.

Do remember that it's okay to repeat the same emotes a couple times while dancing. if it's a little repetitive, it's realistic.

Don't make the emote so long and flowery it interrupts the flow of things. Sometimes '~shimmies their hips,' is just fine.

Do have fun, don't stress out about the minutia, focus on your broader picture.

That's all I've got for now, hope that helps some.

[Strongheart]

That's all I've got for now, hope that helps some.

It does! Thank you so much.

[Vex]

Dancing IRL isn't something I think about at all, it's something I do to stop thinking about other things. I love it, in many forms, and have for as long as I can remember. When translating it into the game, I feel that, less is always more, and keeping it to a soft point, is the ideal.

Less will let people imagine, and interpret, the scene, in a way that works with their own imagining of the scene. It's enough to express what you're doing, and a bit of pizzazz if you like, but the more fine details you include, the more rigid and intrusive it becomes for others to assimilate into their own ongoing, imagining of the story.

The more you clog it up with unnecessary fluff, the longer the scene draws out, and nobody wants to see two people dance, for 30 minutes...

Example: "em leads ~girl/boy across the floor, and leans into low a dip.", gives a simple depiction of what you're doing, but without putting too many points on it, that the partner, or spectators, need to include or work around, in order to respond. If your audience has to work to keep up, instead of being engaged and having fun, they're going to get annoyed with you.

If you plan to slip up, don't be blatant, but do it in a way, that lets someone else decide. "em starts to lose her grip on %girl/boy waist mid dip." leaves the door wide open, for them to decide, you slipped and they fell, or they compensated, and you two pulled it off after all. If nobody responds, in the definitive, then decide for yourself, but leave that door open whenever possible. Its the little things, not the big fancy vocabulary, that makes it fun.

It's like IRL... I've danced with many people, men and women, and the ones I want to dance with until the doors close, are those with the earnest desire to dance WITH me, for the sake of it. There are too many people who want to dance for, or at me, or near me, as if I'll become instantly wet and dive into their bed, because they can dance well on their own. Those people are, the Fale bards of RL, and there is nothing more obnoxious. Don't be this person, in or out of the game.

tldr: Don't be too wordy, and don't try to put on a show. Its a unique interaction, and can be a lot of fun, if you don't make it some big, stressful thing you need to manage. Just like RL, respond to your partner, and have fun with it. It's easy, if you let it be easy.

also: don't pre script a dance number, even if you're a stripper or something, because its soulless and lame, and nobody wants to improv respond to something, that comes in a can.

also also: be sure to WATCH your partner, so you can 100% see each others hemotes, because it would be really awkward if your partner got a boner, and you never noticed or responded at all... imagine the blow to their self-esteem... you monster...

Most of this, can apply to being a musician, too. And to mudsex, actually...

[sleepyhead]

I don't have a huge amount of experience emoting dancing. I'm sure I've done it a few times, but I can't recall any instances.

However, one thing I have done many times IG--and I think it's at least somewhat relevant--is play music. When I first started playing, I was excited to start emoting about playing an instrument, because I am a musician IRL and can be a bit of a music theory nerd. I was ready to try and apply all that knowledge to my emotes. And to my shame, I think I did just that a few times. But what I quickly discovered was that most people won't understand what I am trying to convey if I emote about tetrachords, open fifths, and two-octave glissandi. I was just trying to show off, and it wasn't impressing anybody.

More importantly, though, I realized that even if I could make myself understood, getting too into the weeds with the details isn't a good or efficient way to get across the intended feel of the music my character is playing. Sure, there's the old adage "show, don't tell," but it's easy to take that too far and fail to express the forest because you're too busy describing individual trees. When it comes to describing music, I like using atmospheric words like wistful, plaintive, lilting, jolly, ecstatic, pensive, and whimsical; tempo words like plodding, jaunty, bright, unhurried, upbeat, and blazing; and "texture" words like sparse, ethereal, airy, weighty, chordal, melodic, and harplike. If there's singing, I try to work in how the instrumental part supports the vocal line and how it interplays with it, without getting too technical.

I think a lot of what I've learned about musical emoting could easily be applied to dance. You don't have to describe every step. Now, of course, if there's a part where the individual movements are important to the performance, then go ahead and throw those in. And I've seen incredibly talented emoters pull off this kind of dance scene, but it's not necessary to be entertaining. Think about the kind of feeling you want to produce in your audience, and choose words that will tug at those strings. Describe your dance in general terms, then focus in on a few colorful details to both enhance the mood and increase immersion.

For example, if your PC is dancing a lively routine, and you want your audience to feel joyful, you could emote about your brisk steps, quick leaps, flashed smiles, or the wild fluttering of your scarf as you whirl about the firepit. Even if they're not directly related to your dance, you might use your emotes to call attention to details that evoke the right feeling, like your bright clothing, an errant breeze, the vibrantly glowing fire, and so on.

If your goal is to arouse your audience, you can think about what kind of attraction you're trying to tap into. Some forms of seduction involve flowing, serpentine motions: the slow sweep of a bare foot over soft sand, an indulgent arch of the back, a fluid turn of the wrist. Sense-heavy imagery like the glow of floating embers in the darkness could help enhance the atmosphere. You could also try to incorporate a display of power into your dance, like the percussive thundering of your heavy shoes on the wood floor. You could use aggressive adjectives, as well as words and concepts associated with fighting. This kind of feel is attractive in a different way, and you could try mixing these two expressions of sexuality for interesting effect.

If you generally try and keep your descriptions a little more vague and poetic, concentrating more on effect than on literal description, then the particular maneuvers that you DO describe in detail will pop a lot more. Suddenly, it's clear where the high points and climax of the dance are. That moment when you leap over the fire feels more effective--more like the focus of the act. Your performance no longer seems like just a series of impressive moves. It seems like art, just like dancing should.

P.S. You don't have to do it with every emote, of course, but if there are VNPC musicians involved, toss in the occasional reference to how the music underscores the dancing. If one or more of you is supposed to be improvising (even if you've written it out beforehand), you can express how you and the musician(s) are playing off each other and collaborating on the fly, etc. Just allude to it every now and then to remind the audience that music is being played, and what kind of backdrop it's setting for your dance.

[Strongheart]

Whoa. I feel a bit lame for not having more to say! Both of these responses (Vex and sleepyhead) were exactly what I needed and not only that but it appears that I get to learn just how you two go about your way of expression through roleplay as well.

I'll admit that I am almost jealous because these expressions do seem to come naturally to the two of you, these ways that you - in other words - colorize your text into uniquely different and interesting styles. Both are coming from a place that you hold close to you by the sounds of it: music.

I am a sucker for intimacy and romance, dance is yet another personification of that and other emotions. The more I am able to convey emotion in-game for the sake of my character is another way to "win" at Arm and that is by making it an enjoyable experience full of tragedy, comedy and whatever else it may be!

Thank you each again for your responses, and I encourage further ones if anyone else would like to share!

[MeTekillot]

Learn to tap your foot to the beat. Once you can do that, spell your name connect-the-dots style to the beat, with your butt. Look up adjectives for dance (schmoney, caper, jig, wobble, shuffle, shake). Read a lot of books, that helps me with my emoting.

[Inks]

If a tribal, just copy-paste em undulates sensuously over and over again. Maybe replace sensuously with exotically a couple of times. Noa you gud dacer.