Dancer Archive

Before I get into this, I want to make it clear that there really are two scenarios for dancing: One is the endless practice time we have put in, in cantinas. While this is the place where it's fun to work on flourish sequences, special effects and coordination, it also doesn't matter too much how we look. Pick-up groups in ANY profession are never going to be as well-coordinated as an organized group.

The other scenario is the paid, organized gig. Here, we are hired by someone to provide our skills for the sake of the atmosphere, not for healing or just goofing around. If we are professional about it, we will care how we look as a group and want to utilize every tool our skill level can offer. For me, it's a matter of pride as well as conscience since I want my employer to feel like he/she got their money's worth.

Now for my startling revelation. I was at a rehearsal recently for a private club. In the group were 4 masters and 3 novice dancers. We were discussing the outfits and dance sequences we would use, and I started actually feeling as though (for once!) I was going to be part of a group that cared how they looked. Someone asked which dances we would use, and it was suggested that "Group A" do popular2 at the door while "GroupB" do exotic, and another group do a different dance. I wondered aloud if this shouldn't depend on the music the band was playing at the moment, and to my utter amazement, most of the other dancers admitted THEY NEVER LISTEN TO THE BAND! One said they turned on Aerosmith on their headphones and turned down the game music!

I boggled. I can certainly understand not wanting to listen to SW1umpteen times in a cantina, and I turned THAT noise down, myself. But that was then. A band of Master Musicians who know what they're doing is, to me, a joy to behold. I never turn the sound down in those cases, if for no other reason than just to be sure I'm on the same page as the band and I'm not doing popular2 to their Ballad. How can you possibly know which dance to pick if you don't even know which music is playing? Isn't that the whole point of dancing?

I wondered - of those of you who hire out for gigs, do you, too, turn the sound down? Or do you actually try to coordinate your choice of dance with what the band is playing?

I turn it on, I like the music

I'm with Sienna on this one. SW1 is single-handedly responsible for me taking up dancing in the first place. Otherwise I listen.And I love it when a musician discusses in group chat what they're planning on doing next.

I listen too. Unless it's a pickup group with an unflourished slitherhorn.. Then I /stoplisten until the band changes.

Most people don't care. Just look at everyone who does exotic to anything. It's kind of sad but *shrug* I just won't do gigs with people who don't care.

I always listen myself unless it is someone playing like this:

7777777777 888888888 111111111 222222222 etc. Drives me up the wallI tell you. Rather listen to a flourished starwars slitherhorn than that!

As for sw1.. played right the song rocks. My band has a version we call 'Happy Days' that is just cool

I always listen. Yes, even to SW1 on a Slitherhorn. If the person isn't flourishing I ask him to, and if he won't that's the only time I will turn the music down. Most of the time the rest of the band won't put up with unflourished SW1 though so it is rarely an issue.

To make it even sadder, I know musicians who turn the music off because they don't like it. Makes me wonder why they are musicians. And this is for rock and SW2 and folk... not SW1...

I can't imagine doing it without listen. Aren't we supposed to be dancing to the music? And if so how can you do that without listening?

/sarcasm on

Oh wait, I forgot. If we listen to the music the appropriate dance might just happen to be the one that doesn't get us max XP and then if we danced to it we might have to dance a dance that gets less than the maximum possible # of XP per flourish! Oh no!! We can't have that...

/smirk
/sarcasm off

In all seriousness I think the "grind" and "max out your XP" mentality has led to this and it is what has hurt entertainers more than anything else. You want to max out your XP? Then you may have to do formal to rock, even though it doesn't fit at all, because doing something that does fit rock (like Basic2) would get you less XP. Since you're not dancing to the music, you turn it down because the point isn't to dance to the music but instead is to grind for max xp.

Incidentally this is the exact same mentality that leads to LAMErs as well... Those people are also trying to max out their XP, so they stay logged in when they go to bed, macroing and flourshing (no doubt on their highest dance!) so they get a bazillion XP as fast as possible, because we can't possibly have it that we sit around at Box 3 of the knoweldge tree for more than 24 hours, can we?

The grind-out max-out mentality, more than anything else, is what has hurt this game. If people would stop running full tilt to the finish line and just slow down and smell the roses, then maybe they'd actually enjoy the game, enjoy their character, enjoy their profession and, yes... enjoy listening to the music.

C

I always listen to the music. Hey, I even started playing music myself because I became bored dancing without music at remote places :-)

I listen to it as long as they aren't playing SW1.

I've run into a problem recently, for some reason it isn't letting me listen to musicians I am groupped with. I figured it was just that I had medic skills so the radial menu had no more room for the option, but when I type /listen I still can't hear them. It works find when I use listen and I'm not groupped though. Anyone else have this issue lately?

Sienna,

the /listen command is buggy at best. Sometimes it works sometimes it doesnt. Sometimes it works for a little while then you get the message your too far away to listen even though your standing right on top of the person your listening too.

As far as the radial menu is concerned. You can get around this by 2 ways.

First way. Move away from the entertainer far enough that you are out of healing range. Then it won't give you the option to heal them it will give the listen command instead.

Second way is make sure you have NO stims in any open inventory space. This is the main reason you run out of radial options. Because you can activate your stims via a radial command but not actual healing without them. So either way works.

Distance, or no stims in open inventory. Put them in a bag.

Syl

I don't listen to the music no more unless to find out what song is playing so I can jump in, other then that playing volume and sound effects down(background chattering and unwelcome pets making noises)

Regarding to Sienna's problem, I've came across someone that had the same problem...she left the grouped and joined again, listen to one of the musician and that seem to work. Not sure how often, but you can give it a shot.

In all seriousness I think the "grind" and "max out your XP" mentality has led to this and it is what has hurt entertainers more than anything else. You want to max out your XP? Then you may have to do formal to rock, even though it doesn't fit at all, because doing something that does fit rock (like Basic2) would get you less XP. Since you're not dancing to the music, you turn it down because the point isn't to dance to the music but instead is to grind for max xp.

---

Chessack, excellent point. This isn't to criticize anyone, as I think most all of us who reached Master did our share of grinding (that's why I went to Theed, where there were 20 of us in a group but no customers). But that mindset is not appropriate for all occasions.

I've even been in gig groups where novice dancers were worried about getting XP and tips! How do I explain to them that, one, they're being paid to be here (I make 10k to 25k for most dance gigs and I usually get plenty of tips without asking) and two, the point is to LOOK good, move to the music, and have fun for the night instead of thinking about XP? Do I want to come off as a bossy know-it-all by correcting them?

I made a list last night of the musicians' song selections. I counted 10 songs, and my dance troupe tried to select the most appropriate dance for each one -- some have more than 1 which work well. While Exotic can work with just about all of them, it doesn't make for an exciting show. And I tend not to bother with Basic or Rhythmic anymore. That leaves us with Exotic, Lyrical/Formal, Popular2 and Poplock2. Four dance styles for 10 songs, and Lyrical isn't much of an option on a small stage. (We need more dances!)

Four of us lined up in a tight line. We did /groupchat countdowns to begin a song, /bandflos, sequenced light effects and costume changes, all coordinated with the music-- one of the better dance groups I've participated in, and for one of the few times I've done a gig, the crowd actually watched us and applauded for most of the party - we got so many compliments!

Some of the game music is better than others. But even SW1 is tolerable with a bandfill and a narlagon.

The /listen command seems to be affected by sitting or flourishing. I usually have to do the following when the musician I was previously listening to leaves the band:

/stopdance
/stoplisten
...short wait...
/listen
/startdance