Dancer Archive

Anyone who's bothered to give my ramblings more than a moment's notice would have realized by now that I'm primarily a musician. My dancing interests have mostly revolved around "when will I finally finish dance 4?"

I finally made it and got dance 4 and master entertainer simultaneously. A couple of my lady dancer friends were around (one of whom provided the advancement training for me) so I busted out the formal for kicks.Imagine my surprise:formal was actually pretty fun to play around with.

Maybe it's the precision artist in me. Formal has some nice moves that link together almost seamlesslyif you study the timing and get it just right. I also discovered something I found quite interesting. I'd been playing my new mandovial so I still had it equipped when I started dancing. During the dance, my toon wasn't just waving it around. He was twirling it like a baton. It was a totally unexpected effect and it made me curious how it would look with a staff or some other similar item in-hand.

The dances always make me feel like I'm either flailing (footloose) or dancing like a woman (rhythmic/basic). Despite having its own female orientation, I had a lot of fun watching my male toon dance formal. It almost made me want to take up dancing again instead of quitting for good like I'd been threatening. (My local ladies would still want to see me shimmy occasionally. *LOL*)

Anyway, just thought I'd share. No earth-shattering thoughts here. If I'm right about the twirling thing (gotta do some experimentation with other objects) I'm going to suggest to SOE that it would be interesting to have some dancer-only items to hold during dances that would have visual effects to enhance the dance movements.

(I'm not a dancer)

I've seen people dance with swords...looks really cool...

I agree, I think formal2 and lyrical both look great on the guys as well as the women.. Lyrical is definately my favorite dance. Formal2 is really nice too tho..

I never liked Footloose. And to be honest, Basic and Rhythmic 1 and 2 were a bit simple for me. Though revisiting them for an occasional choreographed dance that even the newest dancer can join in is occasionally fun.

So I really didn't like any dances until Formal. Formal I liked. I even got fairly good at aiming flourish 3/4 so I'd land on my knees at someone's feet. I had a macro setup so when I did that I could do /flower, /rose, ,/blowkiss or /arch at her. Usually /flower or /rose unless there was flirting going on.

But as a couple dance formal can be great if you position it right. I wish I'd gotten some screenshots last night when I was doing formal to waltz with one of the girls.

The trick with formal is you move side to side. Go into first person and you'll see what I mean.

You move around a lot. That means you can move around a lot. Most flourishes will deposit you where you started if left alone. However if you turn while doing it using number pad 1 and 3, you will end up somewhere different.

Try this - start at one end of the cantina and try to dance across to the other dancing formal. It's easiest with flourish 3/4. When you get up from kneeling, you will run towards your back. Use 1/3 on the number pad to turn AS YOU GET UP. If you do it while kneeling it just looks odd. Flourish 1 is another good one for moving. In this one, aim it the direction you want to go, and turn at the mid point. Flourish 2 isn't so good, but it is wise to note unlike most flourishes, 2 will deposit you in a different place than you started if left alone. Learn to recognize when you're about to fall. Also note that when left idle, you will dance in a small circle. This is good for making minor position adjustments.

Now that you've learned moving yourself about with formal, landing on your knees at someone's feet should be a snap. I find it's best to make last minute adjustments when you start the dash in their direction. If you're way off, make note, do another flourish, then turn and try again.

Something else key is knowing which direction is "front". In formal this is rarely the direction you face, as the dance involves a lot of side to side motion. If you need a reference, either open up the map (The arrow always points to front I think - never tested this) or open up the inventory and click the little sideways arrow to show your character. Unless you click on the view, you will always have a view from "front". If there is a way to examine yourself (/examine self maybe?) this would also work, better in fact.

I love formal. It's great. A shame that there are only three flourishes. 5-8 in Formal are the same as 5-8 in Footloose, which really don't fit the dance.

I may be crazy, but I like footloose too. At least, the flourishes and whatnot. I hate the footloose non-flourish dance, too stiff.