Dancer Archive
Thread: A Guide to Professional Entertainment Troupes
Having been a member of both a very well run entertainment troupe (*waves to Tandaava*) and a poorly run one, I have a few things to add...
Be prepared and be organized. Get a commitment from your members to show up. They don't all have to be there for every gig of course, don't panic if someone says they can't make it. But get committments to know how many will be there. Expect one or two not to show anyway. (If a significant number don't show, you might want to look at what you're doing wrong) I think this is the biggest difference between my good and bad experience. In both cases, I was the choreographer, and I don't just mean I had dancing knowledge IV. I directed the dancers where to stand, what dance to do, and lead bandflourishes. In one case, I knew exactly who would be there dancing. In the other case, the person organizing the event had just said "I want everyone to be there" instead of finding out who could actually go.
Have costumes ready. Don't just tell everyone to dress a certain style. That just doesn't cut it. Everyone has their own ideas. You should have a tailor on retainer and get them your orders a few days in advance.
Finally, communicate. Before the gigs, during the gigs, and after the gigs, communicate. Before you should be coordinating on the routines. Find out what sort of act they are expecting. Do they want to keep it family fun or are they after a more mature feel? Are you just there to give a show, or are you there to get the audience into the act? What kind of costumes should everyone be in? Who will be there? Make sure you have enough band and dancers. Any special acts? During you should be keeping everyone coordinated for costume changes, lighting effects, dances starting and stopping, music starting and stopping. Ignore spatial if you have to. This can of course be helped with practice. One trick I've found as a dancer is when the musician is on their last flourish or two before ending the song, I'll start a long flourish with a good ending and tell the dancers to stop dancing. They all finish the flourish then stop together. It looks impressive but is real easy to do if everyone is paying attention. After the gig you should get together and discuss what worked well and what didn't. If anything went wrong how can you do it better next time.
I've belonged to a regular touring band for a few weeks now, and before that I was juggling several private cantina engagements on a weekly basis. Once you reach Master Dancer,one obvious course for your future career is to take your act on the road and work on your fame. Some approaches to this work better than others, and I don't pretend to be the expert here but I'd like to jot down some thoughts and hopefully get your own experiences as input. This will benefit both those of us who are currently in such groups and those of us who plan to form groups in the future.
First, the two cardinal rules for any organized group ought to be (1) Be Consistent and (2) Be honest and fair. Your group will not earn a good reputation if you're constantly late for gigs or completely skip out on committments. Your first goal should be to build and preserve a good reputation as businesspeople.
Consistency also applies to your group's weekly rehearsals - the only time you should not hold rehearsals is if your gig schedule is already keeping you too busy (good on you!). Otherwise, rehearsals are the time to set up song sequences (keep notes!), pick a dance that goes with each song, and work new members into your act.
As for being fair and honest, this can be more of an issue than you'd think. I've heard horror stories of band leaders who conspired with a musician or two to withhold gig payment from their dancers ("because the musicians do all the work" ?!). The moment this kind of behaviorbecomes public knowledge, your chances of building a good band just went down the tubes.
The next most critical aspect of running a group is promotion. Having a catchy name for your group helps. Posting about upcoming gigs on your server board here (Vault net, too) helps as well. You could pay someone to go through local towns and /shout a short advertisement for the gig. I really wish there were better ways to advertise a band's schedule in the game, but maybe that can be added some day. For now I've found that the host of the party does quite a bit of the promotion themselves, and will invariably mention your group as one of his big draws.
The leadership of your band is important -- you want someone who is charismatic and knows how to talk people into agreeing on a course of action without coming across as pushy. There are times when the leader is just going to have to make the decision for everyone else, and hopefully they've taken the band's feelings into consideration when they do so. As you can tell, the choice of a leader is probably the #1 pivotal consideration in any successful band.
The "leader" title does not necessarily extend to also being the emcee -- the talents of the two don't always have to jive. Your emcee should be glib, funny, (good typist!), articulate as well as well versed in the lexicon of SWG entertainment. His/her tone with the audience should be conversational to help them feel like participants more than spectators, and he/she should announce each number. In my current band, the emcee likes to make references to "a song from a galaxy far, far away, which for some strange reason we call 'jazz'", etc. The Emcee also takes time during the performance to put a spotlight on each performer, announcing them to the crowd for special applause -- not everyone at once, but scattered through the gig. This is great when the musicians have a solo part. For dancers, the right moment can be anytime.
You will find, over time, that it's necessary to recruit new band members. I don't think you need to insist on Masters only, as there are some very talented and imaginative performers who aren't Master just as there are more than a few Masters who didn't really learn their profession. Being a Master performer, however,will make the job of establishing the routines easier because all the group members have all of the songs and dances at their disposal. My own experience is that the best recruits come by word of mouth, but you may find it necessary to tour a few cantinas (private ones especially) looking for new talent. Look at personality first, title second.
Routines - It's hard to spell out a pat formula that works every time. Creativity is the biggest requirement, and routines should be molded to the abilities of the performers. Picture in your mind the Las Vegas or cable TV shows you've seen and steal ideas. Musicians can gradually add more instruments to a song as they build to a crescendo (or take away as it winds down), and have the whole group stop for solos at different times. There's something about an ommni drum solo during a Rock session that excites the crowds 
For Dancers, it may be a good idea to let each dancer have a brief solo during the night while the other dancers step back and clap to the music (you'll do that anyway if you're /listening to the music).
Dancers should make use of their entire repertoire. If you stick to Exotic and Popular2, your performance will get stale. Poplock2 and Basic2 even have their uses. Try to limit formal/lyrical to those gigs whereyou have a big stage - for most houses/cantinas it just doesn't work. Large PA halls (especially Corellian or generic) have been the best in my experience.
Banter between the band members is always a plus as long as it's lighthearted and doesn't dominate the attention of the audience.
Visual appeal is important - try for some symmetry if you can. My band has a tall black-furred wookiee and 2 female dancers. We don't always do this, but it looks great when the wookiee is in the middle and the 2 dancers are flanking him. We also try to dress alike as much as possible. If you have a Master tailor connection, order matching outfits, pick a color scheme or two. Write a costume-change macro that all the dancers share (including smoke bomb to camouflage the change) so you can switch costumes in synch. It looks very impressive!
My current group always ends the gig by inviting the audience up to the stage during the last five minutes. We play something easy like SW1 and invite them into our group, and it never fails to be a hit with the audience.
Prices - Completely up to you. I think a good target is to get each of your members at least 5k credits for the evening. If you have 6 people in your group, that's a 30k appearance fee. Believe it or not, that's not an outrageous fee. I've seen some hosts pay over 100k without blinking an eye. While the group should never solicit for tips during the gig (you're already getting paid!), it's not unusual for audience members to voluntarily tip the band in appreciation.
Ok, I'm now officially out of steam. I know some of you have been in organized groups -- I'd love to hear your ideas, philosophy, and results. During all those weeks of dancing as a novice, my one big dream was to one day be a dancer in a regular group and tour the galaxy. And it has turned out to be every bit as rewarding as I expected.
I would just like to thank the two of you on my own way, and (hopefully the rest of this board), for taking the time to aid us in becoming a bigger "family", I myself are considering starting a Troupe on Gorath, and these pointers sure are good, already have a few ideas about some people who I would like to get to my Troupe, but still, I need some more people before considering it.
Tiaga, Great Post! Thanks for the additions, they're all good.
Just curious - have you ever noticed the difference in crowd behavior between a PvP guild and, say, a wedding or a grand opening for a master craftsman's shop? I swear, if I get one more flash-bang tossed at me while I'm dancing ... The last gig we did near Anchorhead, there apparently were some Imperials waiting nearby for the party to end. My dancer is strictly neutral so it wasn't a bother to me, but I think some of my band ran out and joined in the fight!
Synched flourishes: Until SOE gives us a /dancegroupstart or stopor something, it's tough to start a dance at the same time. We try to do all of our coordination timing in groupchat. I'm going to suggest we write macros that will coordinate costume changes. But it seems that lag can sometimes be much worse in crowded buildings that have a lot of items than it is even in public cantinas. Most big tailor shops are a lag nightmare.
Scorpion, good luck on your group. If you ever have questions - or want to share your experiences - this is the place. I'll be looking forward to hearing how you're doing with your group.
Tiaga wrote:
Well our first big gig was a PVP guild.. Imperial actually. They made sure there were no disturbances, in the form of a bunch of AT-STs patrolling the guild hall with assorted stormtroopers and darktroopers.
Interesting - one of my first official gigs as a Master Dancer was at a player city that was just getting started out by Wayfar. Of course, the area was thick with agro dewbacks and big cats -- the host PA formed a "security" detail to clear the mobs, and I joined up with them before the party started to try out my new melee skills. Honestly, I had as much fun helping them kill the big stuff (and getting repeatedly incapped in my hot pants) as I did dancing later on I think that was when I first realized that TKA was going to be my second profession.
One of the other cantinas I danced at, on a weekly basis, always had big rancor pets patrolling the compound because of all the mauler gangs and grand shaupunts who tended to spawn there. It always made me feel a little bit more secure knowing they were around
All of which brings me to the point I was thinking of - a good host will provide security escort for dancers and bands if their cantina is located in a dangerous area. If the band has faction on either side, then there is another entirely new category of security concern.
Is there a possibility a sticky thread or something like that can be set up on the forum here, that gives band leaders a chance to list their organised Entertainment groups?
I'm really interested in Player run troupes, bands and entertainment venues, and would love to get involved.
Thanks
Thanks so much for the great tips Sinda!
Our group <slave> on Starsider has finally gotten to where we are touring and adding a few of your suggestions will help. We're getting great responses wherever we go...so if anyone is considering this route...say instead of getting fed up with the AFKers and dumping your master dancer, the rewards are great
-Sen
<slave>