Talking About Classifying Dances 120408
Psyche Lunacy and I had an interesting conversation today about classifying dances. A couple of months ago the two of us classified all of the SL couples dances we could find into the DANCE QUEEN Categories and Styles. We have a common understanding of the categories and styles, and this conversation took us beyond that. With Psyche's permission I am putting an edited version of the conversation here. I would love to hear from you with your thoughts about how you classify the "feel" of a dance.
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[07:03:22] Nottoo Wise: one of the things u said when we were classifying dances several times in fact was that a dance is a happy dance
[07:03:43] Psyche Lunasea: ;)
[07:03:54] Nottoo Wise: that showed me that u have a classification of dances on the how it makes u feel
[07:03:59] Psyche Lunasea: i like happy dances
[07:04:06] Nottoo Wise: this is something i do also tho i tend to work more on individual dances
[07:04:20] Psyche Lunasea: i also like sexy dances;)
[07:04:21] Nottoo Wise: and think in terms of sexiness
[07:04:24] Nottoo Wise: hahahaha
[07:04:40] Nottoo Wise: but the idea of feel of a dance is important
[07:05:07] Psyche Lunasea: i'm a person of emotion;)
[07:05:12] Nottoo Wise: we have classified them into speed and type/category/style
[07:05:39] Nottoo Wise: i tried to write down how i define the feel and havent come up with a good description but i think for advanced dancers this is important
[07:05:56] Psyche Lunasea: yes it's so difficult
[07:06:16] Nottoo Wise: it helps u know whether a dance fits the music and if two different dances will fit together
[07:06:19] Psyche Lunasea: so i put higher marks for dances with good emotion
[07:06:40] Nottoo Wise: have u ever tried to write down how u do this
[07:07:08] Psyche Lunasea: just writing down notes for each dance not classifying
[07:07:27] Psyche Lunasea: this is a happy dance or something
[07:07:43] Nottoo Wise: i think this is one thing that makes good dancers into great dancers
[07:08:15] Psyche Lunasea: yeah
[07:08:37] Psyche Lunasea: it's difficult to memorize all dances as there are too many anims so i write them down
[07:09:17] Nottoo Wise: r there key words u use to describe the dances
[07:09:34] Psyche Lunasea: sometimes
[07:09:55] Psyche Lunasea: they are not organized, though
[07:10:22] Nottoo Wise: take a look at ur descriptions and see if there r words that u might use
[07:10:33] Nottoo Wise: since i focus on sexiness i have used a division of dances into three basic classes of speed then i subdivide them into soft moderate and hard
[07:11:17] Nottoo Wise: so i have a slow soft
[07:11:28] Nottoo Wise: slow moderate
[07:10:47] Psyche Lunasea: energetic
[07:10:49] Psyche Lunasea: cute, sensual
[07:11:37] Nottoo Wise: soft is sensual
[07:11:47] Psyche Lunasea: swirls
[07:11:51] Nottoo Wise: it helps me a lot
[07:11:58] Nottoo Wise: my HUD is set up that way
[07:12:00] Psyche Lunasea: manly
[07:12:04] Psyche Lunasea: or muscular
[07:12:09] Nottoo Wise: manly is hard
[07:12:16] Psyche Lunasea: erotic
[07:12:24] Nottoo Wise: yes
[07:12:42] Nottoo Wise: its an arbitrary classification but very helpful
[07:12:53] Psyche Lunasea: the column i put comments is "description"
[07:12:59] Nottoo Wise: and i find i like the soft dances the best
[07:13:09] Psyche Lunasea: i see
[07:13:24] Nottoo Wise: yes it can be in the description
[07:13:41] Nottoo Wise: what i would love is a common understanding of the feel of a dance
[07:13:44] Psyche Lunasea: so some descriptions are "stiff" or not smooth
[07:13:49] Nottoo Wise: then that would help in classifying them
[07:14:08] Psyche Lunasea: sometimes they are kinda evaluation
[07:14:26] Nottoo Wise: what do u mean evaluation
[07:14:37] Psyche Lunasea: or sometimes "with quick steps"
[07:14:38] Psyche Lunasea: i mean if a dance is not good for including my dance i will note it
[07:15:38] Nottoo Wise: one of the things i have found
[07:15:49] Nottoo Wise: is that my sequences tend to be a certain style
[07:16:00] Psyche Lunasea: yes i see
[07:16:02] Nottoo Wise: i tend to make dance sequences that are artistic
[07:16:07] Psyche Lunasea: most dancers are.
[07:16:18] Nottoo Wise: if i try to make one that is for example hiphop i am not good at all or house music i am terrible
[07:16:34] Psyche Lunasea: most dancers have certain styles
[07:16:54] Nottoo Wise: yes when i look at diawas dances in the last choreography show for example she is super at the hiphop dances
[07:17:15] Nottoo Wise: i could not do what she does
[07:17:17] Psyche Lunasea: yeah
[07:17:32] Psyche Lunasea: i also was impressed by Illianda in the former show
[07:17:44] Nottoo Wise: this has been a good conversation about classifying dances
[07:17:59] Nottoo Wise: yes illi has her own style
[07:18:23] Nottoo Wise: would u agree for me to put an edited version of the discussion about dance classification on the blog?
[07:18:34] Psyche Lunasea: of course
[07:18:39] Nottoo Wise: :-))
[07:18:50] Psyche Lunasea: i don't anything that i have to make secret lol
[07:18:54] Nottoo Wise: i would love to get other people to comment on how they classify the feel of a dance
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So, you advanced dancers out there ... how do you describe your dances by how they make you feel? Let me know and maybe we can come up with a common understanding of a way to do this so that we can capture this in our database.
xxx
Nottoo