Dancer Archive

This is not a post for those who have to dance for a holocron. You probibly don't really want to make a career out of dancing, and would just as soon grind it out as quickly as possible to get it over with. This post is primarily for those dancers who see their career choice as an intregal part of their character, and/or want to make a living by primarily being a dancer. Specifically, I want to dispell the myth that "life begins at Master," and that a dancer must simply grind through as many levels as possible quickly for the sake of their career. Indeed, this is only my opinion, and opinions disagree; but a lot of what I'm saying here has been based on real game experiences from the many players I run in to, both inside the dancer profession and out.

A lot of Intrepid dancers come up to me to ask my advice on the profession. They want to know how to be one of the "great ones," and I tell them, it is not, I repeat, NOT about the skill in healing BF, or the pretty effects, or the ability to do Exotic 4. Those things will do NOTHING if the dancer herself does not have the social skills to make customers feel welcome. If they want the title of Master Dancer? That's too easy, you can get it in a week, courtesy of the Coronet Cantina and a good macro. The title means nothing. The REAL masters are the ones that take the time to learn how to TRULY entertain. What do I mean by this? What do you really need to be a good dancer? Here, in my opinion, are the prerequisites:

1) Decent typing speed. Unless you have this, you'll get swallowed whole.

2) A sense of humor. Jokes and entendres are sure fire tip getters.

3) An ability to carry on multiple conversations, via /tell, spatial, and E-Mail, so they can be responded to quickly and respectfully.

4) A thourough understanding of the in-game social commands and moods. Unless you know these by rote, you do not have the tools to entertain.

If you don't have these four, you may want to choose something else as your primary occupation, because you may have a harder time of things. I'm not saying it cannot be done, but just that it will take some extra time in order to realize how very rich the game contexts are, and also how to deal with the sociability aspect of an inherently social profession. However, if you do have these qualities, it is my opinion that you can be a successful dancer from day ONE, and I mean, from the day you jete out of the transport with your desert crawlers and red shoes. Many dancers feel as if they cannot play until they have the Master's degree in hand. That is simply not true, and in fact, by zipping to Master in a week, itmay make life after Master (and there is PLENTY of life after master) much more difficult. Why do you ask? It is because the dancer profession, more than any other, depends a LOT on "character development," and by this I do not mean development in the XP sense.

What I mean is that it takes some time in order to develop the kind of synergy between the entertainer and the audience that can only come by PRACTICING your in-game emotes, dialouge, and characteristic responses. Does it sound like an exsercise in improvisational theatre? It is because a night at the cantina IS a night at the Improv, keeping in mind that the BEST improvisational performers rehearse for a great deal of time before they practice their craft in front of an audience. You need this time to rehearse too. This rehearsal time may make the difference between a /tip with three digits and a /tip with five, because the vast majority of my server's characters will be extra generous to a REALLY good performer with witty entendres, appropriate and timed emotes, and whatnot...and if you think that you'll have time to do it after you reach MASTER, then you may be playing catch up with those who took the time to perfect their personality beforehand....time that could have been spent earning lots and lots of high-credit tips and contracts.

It is because at this point, the career of a Master Dancer is essentially this: whena playeris paying out 100k to danceata player eventfor a nite, he is looking for what the difference is between Master A and Master B. And this is how both stack up:

Master A has grinded AFK for a week in the Coronet Cantina. She knows nobody, has no grasp of the social emotes, is not "battle hardened" for /tell hells, is not used to carrying on multiple conversations, doesn't even know the full range of her dancer abilities, and has not developed a "personality."

Then there is Master B, me or someone like me, who took seven weeks to get to Master, meeting literally hundreds of players from every PA, faction, and world in the galaxy, who can type like a banshee and is used to carrying on five conversations at once, who knows the in-game social commands like the back of my hand, and has practiced using them to their greatest effect, who has rehearsed routines, bought costumes that flatter me, and has a real "personality" which is fun to be around. Tell me? Who will getthe player'scontract? I can tell you right now, if you are Master A, and I'm in an audition with you, you'll be dancing on the second stage dear....if you are lucky.

What about business as usual? Can Master A and Master B buff you at the same rate? Sure. Who will make the 8 minutes you have to wait go by quicker and funner? Not Master A, THAT'S for sure! Believe me, players who have been around will know it too, and will much prefer the services of a dancer that is experienced in showmanship than one that is not.

So what is the moral to this story? Take the time to learn your profession, and when I mean learn, I mean more than stringing together a few macro commands. I mean LEARN your trade, learn how to be "entertaining," and get to know your tools and your customers. The XP structure takes time, because it takes time to learn this business. Believe me, I've seen it happen. Rushing things will only leave you unprepared. A good entertainer with Basic 2 and a ton of developed personality will out bank an AFK or rushed ATK Master ANYDAY. How do I know? I outbanked masters DAILY when I was a novice. It is because cantina patrons are only looking at the speed of BF and wound healing if the act before them is poor and uninteresting. What's more, when that entertainer gets her master's degree, she will be better prepared to not only use the new dances and effects, but also has perfected her charming personality as well....that is.....unless you canperfect one of your own.

Best of Luck!

I agree with you 100%. my fiance had a dancer on Wanderhome in the Coronet cantina. She mastered in little over a week or 2 (i was still playing my character as well), but in that week from start to finish, she made at the least 300k credits, a small naboo house, a large corelian house, 2 pets, clothing, you name it she got it. I would watch her some nights and she would be talking about Rl with opne guy, helping him with a problem, flirting with a second and then the third would be emote after emote, all the while the 3 guys thought they were the only ones talking to her. She was very skilled, but wanted to taste the outside so started a path towards commando, hated rifle and carbine loved unarmed then went for TKA, soon the 5 main people she met in the cantina those long nights played less and less and her charcter was no longer fun. She went back to the cantina, but knowone was the same, people moved on and it was never the same. I rmember her telling me she had 3 guys everynight would come form tatooine or naboo or the "uber" planets to watch her dance, talk for a good 10-30 minutes then log in the cantina.

now i am dancing on ahazi and nothing is the same, no one talks, very bori9ng, and when i do try to initiate a convo they dont say anything back or when they do its very short. (maybe its cuz i have a male toon and she had a female toon) who knows...neways i do agree with you that dancer can be really fun with the right mind set and what not. everyone have fun, for you holotainers, take a minute to breathe the air in there. make it enjoyable for the few days you r there, then leave. For career ones, have as much fun as you want and dont give up. for everyone else getting healed int he cantinas, spark up a convo with someone, the time flies by so much faster and you will entertain the entertainers as well. a good tip once in a while is also nice. you dont have to tip the afk ones (i dont), but always tip who u talk to. later

i agree, and for those of you who want to work on building up some of the skills that were listed, start off in a slower cantina, and talk to a few customers at a time. and then there are the lucky few that can multi task conversations, heck if i dont watch it i can confuse a single person, but going down two or three different conversation paths at once. that and be friendly.

So true.

Typing and a control of the socials is essential for dancers and entertainers in general. Also the crafters need this to be sucessfull. I heard one Droid Engineer say he got anywhere from 10 to 30 tells every time he logged on. I've never experienced that kind of /tell hell but from about august on I fielded 4 or 5 at log on and when I entered the cantina I got another 4 or 5 more. Not all of them extended conversations but still a non-trivialtyping task for someone trying to put forward a "character"

Heck, I logged off from September till last week and still when I returned I had 4 tells upon loading. I'm really glad I did even the slight amount of "networking" that I did so anyone at all remembered me after that long.

Your advice is excellent and should be followed by everyone.

Thanks for the positive post, I apreaciate a read like this first thing in the morning. I am hoping that someone could you clear up the definition of entendres, I'm just not sure what that means.

Thanks for the great post. I agree 100%. The real mark of a good entertainer is earning the tips. Besides, even rhythmic 2 and formal dance look nice when done to the appropriate music with well timed flourishes.

An entandre (or however it is spelled) is saying something that has double meaning and is usually rather flirtatious in nature. A really bad, cliche example... My what a big gun you have...

Regards,

Gava

A very nice post, PoetD.

/applaud

C

This is a really great post! I wanted to share one of my own recent experiences, kind of illustrates the point.

I was dancing in Anchorhead the other night, and most of the group was afk at the start, the band was playing three different songs,and it was just really dead overall. Literally, people were walking out of the cantina in droves.

So..........

I pulled out my mandoviol and stopped and changed the band over to SW1. (Because I know everyone knows this, and anyone can join in later.)

I found someone who was grinding medical xp and started dancing my favorite dance and really working it.

One of the people whom I know casually is a combat medic, and he was on...........I sent him a tell and he volunteered to go work up some mind disease for me.

I started asking for volunteers to sit in the cantina for a round of mind disease (I can be very persuasive *smile*) and before you know it we had a mind disease party going in the cantina. Everyone was having a really good time, and people were lining up **asking** to be diseased. Those who weren't being diseased were entertained at the idea, and had fun watching the others be sick. *chuckle*

So yeah..........cantinas can be a lot of fun if you're willing to put in a little extra effort.

Sister Sirrii, you and I have been separated by servers and cruel fate, yet we preach the same truth. I have to say however, I generally do not hold conversations with multiple clients. I concentrate on one lucky soul to have my entire attention whilst I do my magic. I tend to be very VERY flirtatious and many confuse my suggestive commentary and jokes to be something other than work-related, so I make it a point to keep client chat in public. That helps me keep the slobberers at bay. I reserve /tells and emails to friends as much as possible.

The other piece of advice I offer is to talk to the people coming into the cantina to be healed, not your bandmates! I hear people complain about not getting tipped and then watch them spend all their time talking to the guys in the band. Sure have fun with your colleagues, but don't ignore the audience! Oh and a cursory greeting to everyone who comes in the door does not constitute conversation.

Happy dancing to all,
Shinia Whendi
Radiant

I actually got into some trouble on exactly this point. Indeed, I have seen an unusually large ammount of /gc lately amongst the performers, and some of the dancing girls even started hating me because I'd talk to our cantina patrons more than those I was performing with.