When the Music Stops ... Stop Dancing 120215
If you have read the article on Freestyle Choreography, you already have the concept of using a Transition Dance and a Waiting Dance (or Sequence). A Waiting Dance is simply a dance or animated pose that shows you are still moving but not dancing. It's used between songs in a club or any time you want.
If you want to stand out in a club, switching to a waiting dance or sequence between songs will make you stand out. It mirrors RL where, when the music stops, you stop dancing.
Most advanced dancers have a means of using a Transition Dance (like Sultry Down Body) at the end of the song, followed by the Waiting Dance (like rythm6). Putting these two types of dances in your HUD gives you easy access to them by clicking on the Transition Dance followed by the Waiting Dance.
Here is a picture from one of the pages on my current main HUD. On every page I have my Transition Dance (Sultry Down Body) at the top of the page. I arrange this using note cards and this is my main note card. Sultry Down Body is a 2.0 second non-looped dance that I have found is good for going from one dance to another when the dances don't match so well. I also use it at the end of songs.
At the bottom of almost every page of my main note card I also have the Waiting Dance (rythm6).
You do not have to put the Waiting Dance in your HUD. If you want to use it outside your HUD, you can. This is where animation priorities become important. My Transition Dance and Waiting Dance are both priority 4. I determined this by opening the Developer Menu (ctrl+alt+Q) and selecting Avatar, then Animation Information. This places above my head (and all the avatars near you), the animations that are active with the priority. When you start a new animation, you can see it added to the list with its priority.
So, knowing that almost all of my regular dances are priority 4 or lower, I can at any time use my Transition Dance and my Waiting Dance outside my HUD.
I can open the Waiting Dance from inventory to give the small window named Animation:rythm6 (or Animation: name of your dance). Then, when I click on Play Inworld, my Waiting Dance, rythm6, plays. You are actually still dancing the dance from your HUD, but the waiting dance has taken priority since it was the last dance activated and is equal to or higher than your HUD dance. If you are dancing a sequence from your HUD, when the next dance in the sequence begins, you will stop the Waiting Dance, and return to your sequence.
This idea of how to use animation priorities also applies to couples dancing whether you use the TIS Hybrid or INTAN. Most couples dances are one animation for the male and one for the female that just loops. You can override the couples animation with your Waiting Dance. One idea is to put you and your partner on your HUD, then when the music stops, you can click on your Waiting Dance. A few couples dances are multiple animations for the female and male. In this case, just like with sequences, when the next animation in the sequence starts you will again dance.
You can even use the external Waiting Dance when you are on someone else's HUD.
So, there you have it. When the music stops ... Stop Dancing.