Freestyle Choreography 120804
Dancing in SL is fun and even more fun when the dances fit the music and the dances are sexy and fun. Choreography is a way to stitch together dances to make a Dance Sequence that really is hot. There are two ways to do choreography. One is to do choreography by switching dances during a song (Freestyle Choreography). The other is to make Dance Sequences (Sequenced Choreography) and click at the beginning of the song. This notecard tells you how to do Freestyle Choreography.
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WHAT YOU NEED
To choreograph dances you need four things:
1. A Barre, Huddles EZ Animator Deluxe or Fleursoft HUD - The Basic Huddles version will not do.
2. A selection of dances to choose from for the sequence. These dances need to be in your HUD.
3. Dances arranged in order by speed and style in a notecard (we will discuss this)
4. Time to learn your dances
The different HUDs handle the set up for choreography a little bit differently, but the concepts I describe today apply to all of them. For this class I will use the Huddles.
=====
AN OVERVIEW OF HOW TO DO FREESTYLE CHOREOGRAPHY
Choreography is stitching together several dances to create a pleasing dance sequence. A well choreographed dance makes the dancers look and feel like they are actually dancing to the song matching the rhythm and the feel of the song.
The Huddles EZ Animator allows this by using Notecards. Freestyle choreography is a process of selecting dances in an order and timing so that they look smooth when transitioning from one to the next and the whole matches.
Today, we will cover all of the steps necessary for you to be able to choreograph. For the class today we will use a lot of dances. I will mention them as we go along.
You do not need those dances today. Instead, I will add each of you to my HUD so you can see each step of the process. Please accept my invitation to dance. Also hop on a pose ball on the dance line to make it easier to see.
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ORGANIZING YOUR DANCES WITH A NOTECARD
For Freestyle choreography you need to organize your dances on a notecard. Notecards are the way that the Huddles EZ Animator Deluxe lets you select dances in the order you want to see them in your HUD. Each line on a notecard represents one dance or dance sequence.
Let me give you each a notecard named 'DANCE QUEENS - Freestyle Choreography Sample Notecard' that will show you what I am talking about (find the notecard in the Free Stuff box). Open the Notecard and look at each line. Huddles lets you see 10 dances or dance sequences at a time.
When you open this notecard in your Hud, you see the first ten lines in order.
Sultry Down Body
stripper
strippers2b
strippers2c
swoon
danish
dip me in chocolate
crimson breeze
dance 14
rythm6
So with the Huddles we have a way to organize dances and now the task is to decide how to organize them. There are three types of dances that I use.
Most of my dances are the first type of dance used for dancing to songs that I hear. Generally, I have arranged the notecard in the order from slow dances to medium speed to fast. Since you can see ten dances at one time, I have arranged the notecard in groups of ten. On each page are nine dances that are similar. That means I have learned that one dance works well with another dance.
Dances that work well together may be from one Dance Maker's series, such as the Lenn series from Akeyo, or may be of the same Category and Style of dance such as Latin - Macarena.
I'll show four dances that work well together for fast songs:
hola
loopy
double cream and
kiss my buttons
We will use these in a few minutes freestyle. Remember to organize by speed and matching.
The second type of dance is found on on each page in the top position, which is line 1, 11, 21, etc on the notecard where I have placed the same dance. This is Sultry Down Body. It is a NON-LOOPED dance of 2.0 seconds in length. I use this dance to transiton from one dance to another dance, if the two dances do not transiton well.
Let me show Sultry Down Body to you. As a DANCE QUEEN or KING you avoid jumpy or jerky motions. This transition dance helps you do that. Unfortunately, I have found it only inside the sexy dance HUD from Abranimations. So if you want this one, you have to get that HUD and take the dance from inside it. I have made a substitute for Sultry Down Body called DQ001 (in the Free Stuff box), which is also 2.0 seconds.
On page one at the bottom of the notecard (line 10) is the third type of dance, which is rythm6. This is a dance I use between songs so I look sexy while waiting. Other choices for waiting dances are AKEYO_groove2-BE_02, AKEYO_groove3-BE_01, dance 14, wiggle dancing 1 - Abranimations, wiggle dancing 2 - Abranimations, listening 1 - Abranimations, listening 2 - Abranimations, listening 3 - Abranimations. I also send out waiting sequences occasionally to Dance Queen members in the Daily Notice.
This notecard has 33 lines. All of the lines have only one dance except line 16, which has caramel|25|Sultry Down Body|2|Spirited Twirl - Abranimations. This is a dance sequence that I use in Freestyle choreography. Dance Sequences are essential to Sequenced Chroeography so I will leave that subject for another class.
Organizing your notecard is essential for good Freelance choreography.
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HOW TO SWITCH DANCES
Every good dance begins at the same place on the floor facing forward. Occasionally, you will find dances that don't start at the normal place or start facing a different direction. Here are two examples. First is red chilli sheen which jumps back when starting. Second is weloveyou-girl which starts facing right. These are much harder to use Freestyle. Also, dances that are looped but end at a different place are difficult to use freestyle. An example is 5mokolo.
The place to switch dances is at the place on the floor where dances begin or end. Sometimes in the middle of a loop the dance places you at the starting point. This can be a switching point also. Let me show you two dances switched at the wrong place, then at the right place ... hola and loopy. First wrong ... watch the jump. Now at the starting/ending point ... no jump.
As you learn your dances you see that sometimes the arms may match between dances. These make great switching points. Here is an example using dip me in chocolate and crimson breeze. See how the arm is outstretched the same way at the start/end point and the dances are similar in speed. This is a great transition point.
Sometimes dances have the same tempo and stop/end right but just don't feel right in the transition. This is where I use sultry down body. It is a 2.0 second not-looped dance. It provides that transition. Let me show you what I mean. Here is the transition from loopy to jumpin without a transition dance. See how it doesnt look so good. Now here it is with Sultry Down Body as the transition dance.
I also use Sultry Down Body at the end of a song to transition from the dances for the song to the waiting dance. Let me show you with kiss my buttons and rythm6. At the end of the song I simply hit the double arrow left to go to the first page of the notecard and click on the bottom dance for waiting (rythm6).
=====
FREESTYLE CHOREOGRAPHY
Now we have everything ready ... our HUD with the dances we know and the dances arranged in our notecard. So lets dance.
For this freestyle choreography I will use 6 dances: Sultry Down Body, hola, loopy, double cream, kiss my buttons, and rythm6. This is for a fast song.
Watch the transitions at the start and end of each dance. The great thing about Freestyle Choreography is that you can improvise. During a song you can move around in your HUD, so if you have your dances arranged right in the HUD you can use dances from different locations.
Let's see it now ...
The disadvantages of Freestyle Choreography compared to Sequenced Chroreography are several:
• You do a lot of clicking and you have to pay attention all the time
• As you get a lot of dances, you have to click a lot of pages to get to the medium speed dances ... this means delays at the beginning of a song
• Sometimes your timing is bad and the dance looks bad
• Dance lag can completely change where you and others see a dance making finding a good transition point really difficult
=====
So now you are ready to start Freestyle Choreograhy with your HUD.
This ends the class. Any more questions?
Dancing in SL is fun and even more fun when the dances fit the music and the dances are sexy and fun. Choreography is a way to stitch together dances to make a Dance Sequence that really is hot. There are two ways to do choreography. One is to do choreography by switching dances during a song (Freestyle Choreography). The other is to make Dance Sequences (Sequenced Choreography) and click at the beginning of the song. This notecard tells you how to do Freestyle Choreography.
=====
WHAT YOU NEED
To choreograph dances you need four things:
1. A Barre, Huddles EZ Animator Deluxe or Fleursoft HUD - The Basic Huddles version will not do.
2. A selection of dances to choose from for the sequence. These dances need to be in your HUD.
3. Dances arranged in order by speed and style in a notecard (we will discuss this)
4. Time to learn your dances
The different HUDs handle the set up for choreography a little bit differently, but the concepts I describe today apply to all of them. For this class I will use the Huddles.
=====
AN OVERVIEW OF HOW TO DO FREESTYLE CHOREOGRAPHY
Choreography is stitching together several dances to create a pleasing dance sequence. A well choreographed dance makes the dancers look and feel like they are actually dancing to the song matching the rhythm and the feel of the song.
The Huddles EZ Animator allows this by using Notecards. Freestyle choreography is a process of selecting dances in an order and timing so that they look smooth when transitioning from one to the next and the whole matches.
Today, we will cover all of the steps necessary for you to be able to choreograph. For the class today we will use a lot of dances. I will mention them as we go along.
You do not need those dances today. Instead, I will add each of you to my HUD so you can see each step of the process. Please accept my invitation to dance. Also hop on a pose ball on the dance line to make it easier to see.
=====
ORGANIZING YOUR DANCES WITH A NOTECARD
For Freestyle choreography you need to organize your dances on a notecard. Notecards are the way that the Huddles EZ Animator Deluxe lets you select dances in the order you want to see them in your HUD. Each line on a notecard represents one dance or dance sequence.
Let me give you each a notecard named 'DANCE QUEENS - Freestyle Choreography Sample Notecard' that will show you what I am talking about (find the notecard in the Free Stuff box). Open the Notecard and look at each line. Huddles lets you see 10 dances or dance sequences at a time.
When you open this notecard in your Hud, you see the first ten lines in order.
Sultry Down Body
stripper
strippers2b
strippers2c
swoon
danish
dip me in chocolate
crimson breeze
dance 14
rythm6
So with the Huddles we have a way to organize dances and now the task is to decide how to organize them. There are three types of dances that I use.
Most of my dances are the first type of dance used for dancing to songs that I hear. Generally, I have arranged the notecard in the order from slow dances to medium speed to fast. Since you can see ten dances at one time, I have arranged the notecard in groups of ten. On each page are nine dances that are similar. That means I have learned that one dance works well with another dance.
Dances that work well together may be from one Dance Maker's series, such as the Lenn series from Akeyo, or may be of the same Category and Style of dance such as Latin - Macarena.
I'll show four dances that work well together for fast songs:
hola
loopy
double cream and
kiss my buttons
We will use these in a few minutes freestyle. Remember to organize by speed and matching.
The second type of dance is found on on each page in the top position, which is line 1, 11, 21, etc on the notecard where I have placed the same dance. This is Sultry Down Body. It is a NON-LOOPED dance of 2.0 seconds in length. I use this dance to transiton from one dance to another dance, if the two dances do not transiton well.
Let me show Sultry Down Body to you. As a DANCE QUEEN or KING you avoid jumpy or jerky motions. This transition dance helps you do that. Unfortunately, I have found it only inside the sexy dance HUD from Abranimations. So if you want this one, you have to get that HUD and take the dance from inside it. I have made a substitute for Sultry Down Body called DQ001 (in the Free Stuff box), which is also 2.0 seconds.
On page one at the bottom of the notecard (line 10) is the third type of dance, which is rythm6. This is a dance I use between songs so I look sexy while waiting. Other choices for waiting dances are AKEYO_groove2-BE_02, AKEYO_groove3-BE_01, dance 14, wiggle dancing 1 - Abranimations, wiggle dancing 2 - Abranimations, listening 1 - Abranimations, listening 2 - Abranimations, listening 3 - Abranimations. I also send out waiting sequences occasionally to Dance Queen members in the Daily Notice.
This notecard has 33 lines. All of the lines have only one dance except line 16, which has caramel|25|Sultry Down Body|2|Spirited Twirl - Abranimations. This is a dance sequence that I use in Freestyle choreography. Dance Sequences are essential to Sequenced Chroeography so I will leave that subject for another class.
Organizing your notecard is essential for good Freelance choreography.
=====
HOW TO SWITCH DANCES
Every good dance begins at the same place on the floor facing forward. Occasionally, you will find dances that don't start at the normal place or start facing a different direction. Here are two examples. First is red chilli sheen which jumps back when starting. Second is weloveyou-girl which starts facing right. These are much harder to use Freestyle. Also, dances that are looped but end at a different place are difficult to use freestyle. An example is 5mokolo.
The place to switch dances is at the place on the floor where dances begin or end. Sometimes in the middle of a loop the dance places you at the starting point. This can be a switching point also. Let me show you two dances switched at the wrong place, then at the right place ... hola and loopy. First wrong ... watch the jump. Now at the starting/ending point ... no jump.
As you learn your dances you see that sometimes the arms may match between dances. These make great switching points. Here is an example using dip me in chocolate and crimson breeze. See how the arm is outstretched the same way at the start/end point and the dances are similar in speed. This is a great transition point.
Sometimes dances have the same tempo and stop/end right but just don't feel right in the transition. This is where I use sultry down body. It is a 2.0 second not-looped dance. It provides that transition. Let me show you what I mean. Here is the transition from loopy to jumpin without a transition dance. See how it doesnt look so good. Now here it is with Sultry Down Body as the transition dance.
I also use Sultry Down Body at the end of a song to transition from the dances for the song to the waiting dance. Let me show you with kiss my buttons and rythm6. At the end of the song I simply hit the double arrow left to go to the first page of the notecard and click on the bottom dance for waiting (rythm6).
=====
FREESTYLE CHOREOGRAPHY
Now we have everything ready ... our HUD with the dances we know and the dances arranged in our notecard. So lets dance.
For this freestyle choreography I will use 6 dances: Sultry Down Body, hola, loopy, double cream, kiss my buttons, and rythm6. This is for a fast song.
Watch the transitions at the start and end of each dance. The great thing about Freestyle Choreography is that you can improvise. During a song you can move around in your HUD, so if you have your dances arranged right in the HUD you can use dances from different locations.
Let's see it now ...
The disadvantages of Freestyle Choreography compared to Sequenced Chroreography are several:
• You do a lot of clicking and you have to pay attention all the time
• As you get a lot of dances, you have to click a lot of pages to get to the medium speed dances ... this means delays at the beginning of a song
• Sometimes your timing is bad and the dance looks bad
• Dance lag can completely change where you and others see a dance making finding a good transition point really difficult
=====
So now you are ready to start Freestyle Choreograhy with your HUD.
This ends the class. Any more questions?