Was talking with Kat Feldragonne about this recently on her blog. And with her encouragement, have decided to post this here, perhaps it might help someone. These adventures in dance can prove to be a lot of fun, challenging, and exciting.
Do you ever feel you have lost your dance mojo? Need some ideas for fresh inspiration? I have used some of these with my Challenge shows. Perhaps some of these ideas may stimulate your dance muse. Just a few ideas that I have found useful.
1. I at times find a fascinating texture that inspires a set. I build the set then find a song to compliment it, organize a costume and create the choreo. Try searching Google images: Fractal, Digital, or a particular color, even searching by a mood. Include the word "background" or "panarama" to discover some really cool textures that can inspire a dance.
2. Visit an art gallery in SL, find an artwork that stimulates your imagination... something that excites or affects you emotionally. Use this artwork as your muse to create a dance.
3. Visit the fabulous all full-perm shop Better Gnomes and Cauldrons. Pick out an object that has a powerful affect on you. Perhaps you find it horrifying, amusing, or stunningly beautiful. Build an entire dance around that object.
4. Have someone else select a song for you to create a dance to. This can be very uncomfortable. More likely than not, you will not like the song much. Yet there is something that comes out of this exercise in dance creation that is oddly fulfilling. It is a journey down someone else's road, in part, and a chance to see some things you would otherwise probably never see.
5. Forget about music and focus on costumes for a while. Go costume hunting. Visit some wonderful shops. Select a costume that is totally out of your usual style. Something outrageous, something fabulous! Then go build a dance around that costume. You'd be surprised what you will come up with.
6. Pick a favourite: place you have visited, fable or fairytale, television show or movie. And make a dance dedicated to, or inspired by, that favourite.
7. Go to a pose shop and find a static pose that you find striking. What does it remind you of? What does it make you feel, what do you see coming from it or leading up to it? Build a dance around it.
8. Get with a friend and work on a dance together. One can build the set, the other do the choreography. Decide on costumes and a song together. This can be a lot of fun!
9. Visit an animated texture shop such as Sanna or Sirius. So many to choose from! Pick one that really stirs your imagination, and use that as your muse. Create a dance around it.
10. Visit some RP or fantasy sims, observe the atmosphere or characters that you meet there. See what sort of dance can be inspired by focusing on some of these outside sources. Draw from them to incorporate their stories into a story dance.
Hope some of these ideas will prove helpful to someone.
Dance with passion,
Babypea
