Dancer Archive

Hi guys! After reading a lot of debates and things about the why and the where of our profession it has occurred to me that many of our debates and argumnets center around a serious lack of understanding about what it is that we are doing while we play as dancer characters. What I am going to do then is start the ball rolling by describing exactly how I play dancer. Hopefully if enough of us answer and describe the way we play we can figure out the best way to enhance or maybe repair our profession for our collective benefit!

How I dance:

The first thing that is important to me when I start dancing is the location. I like to dance in an area where I can be seen and where I won't collide with many objects or people. I also like to pick locations that are fairly devoid of chat clutter. (Things like merchant droids barking ads or AFK entertainers spamming for services provided, heals and tips.) Recently this is the Theed cantina on Tarq. When it gets too crowded or a spammer arrives I'll usually head somewhere else to dance. Most times this will be in my home town in my house or one of the three player city cantina's or the theater we have.

The next thing that is important to me is having a friend or two around to talk to. If I don't have any of my current friends around I do my best to make new ones with the people who stop by for healing or the novice entertainers training up thier skill. Chatting is a big part of why I dance. When I am not chatting I am most likely flirting or greeting by way of emote to the people who come through the door. I really only do this when I am not already deeply involved in guild chat, group chat or private tells. One thing I have always tried to do though is keep my eyes open in spatial for questions or conversation directed my way. I know I hate when I ask a question to the room at large and don't get a response so I always make an attempt to answer even if it is, "I don't really know."

Game mechanics... I really don't often "perform" anymore. Really the only times I do are when other entertainers are there and into it or when someone compliments my attire or skill as a dancer (I am a total ham.) Buffing I will do for certain people that ask politely. As a general rule though I don't readily offer the service. I certainly will not buff people who rudely request it or join the entertainer group to "steal" a buff from me. Healing I have no real control over. I actually enjoy seeing players heal up and say things like, "Wow that was fast!" Usually these are the people who end up staying an extra few minutes to chat or even to just watch me interact with the people who are coming or going. If someone asks me nicely I will often go out of my way to help heal or buff them. If they are pushy or rude, I will typically stall or delay them for long periods of time until they get angry and look for some other entetainer.

Flirting is something I take great pleasure from. This is probably the number one reason I am a dancer. Everything I do as a dancer is centered around being a flirt and using the implied sexuality of the female form gyrating to our dances to enhance the emotes and text I use to entice and encourage this behaviour from the people that watch me. I will often flirt openly with fellow entertainers to the benefit of the audience. It is often while doing this that I generate the most actual income as entertainer. Also it is doing these flirtaous performances where I find the most joy from the abilities I have invested so many skill points into.

So, How about you? How do you dance?

Else you pretty well hit covered it girl.

About the only thing I'd expand on is your last paragraph. Since the Vast majority of our Customers are men, I and others concentrate on that to probably a larger degree.

In r/l Dance you can express yourself in way we can't here; expressions, body language, gestures, focussing your dance towards an individual in an obvious way.

We use verbal cues to compensate for that in this environment.

One of the best ways I've found is to have a teammate. Another dancer or I will flirt with a customer like you described. I'm sure you've run into the guys that just dont seem to respond directly to you flirting with them. If we encounter one of them then she and I start flirting Together with and About him.

If something provocative doesnt elicit a response we start flirting with each other, my partner and I, ABOUT the hapless customer. That Seldom fails to elicit a response. Most guys have a hard time ignoring two women talking ABOUT him.

How far you carry it depends largely to how close you and your partner are and how comfortable you feel with each other.

Since I'm a Erotic Dancer, whenever possible, I work with another Erotic Dancer which allows us to flirt along edges that a lot of people shy from.

The only problem we encounter occasionally is other Dancers who dont appreciate Erotic Dance or who will interfere with what you're doing by interjecting comments or intentionally trying to interfere with your routines.

That seems to be a growing problem these days as we see more and more Dancers who Dance afk and dont have a CLUE what Dancing IS.

You know it's funny that you are a champion of erotic dancing now FD, since I remember during the first few month of the game you were outspoken against the way I and some of my friends played (heavy on innuendo and sexual tension).

I don't know if what I do is the kind of erotic dancing you are doing but I can tell you that even in beta I was one of the people that pushed the limits of the ELUA with my flirtiness haha! I try not to do anything terribly inappropriate in spatial. I leave most of my true naughtiness in tells or in group chat. My first dancer character, Okokta, was the character that was the most obvious with her sexual innuendo and over the top flirtaiousness. The skills I developed for entincing and seducing through text and emotes with dance to support it though have become something I do without thinking anymore. I don't think I could even make a dancer that didn't act that way. I don't really know any other style of dance anymore!

It's funny... Now that I think about it, I have always used certain emotes as if they were dance commands and not just /emotes we all had available.

Maybe that's something we (dancers) should be asking for? Custom, dancer skill given emotes? Like add them into the tech tree or the knowledge tree. The knowledge tree could use some love

An example would be;

/seduce target {your character} looks at {target name} and gives {him or her} an inviting look.
/seduce self You run your hands down your body while giving the audience a seductive smile. ({you character} runs {his or her} hands down {his or her} body while giving a seductive smile.)
/seduce none You seduce the audience with your dance. ({your character} seduces the audience with {his/her} dancing.)

It might be interesting to brainstorm some emotes that we /emote most often and see if we can make them actual skill based emotes

I've never felt a needto sit around the cantina waiting for someone to buff. There have been times when I tried to work hard at it, if for no other reason than to combat the complaints that we're never there.But after so many months of watching players run past meto go to the bot, my indifference to them is substantial.If I wanted to devote myself to serving others and nurturing the whims of teenaged boys I would have reproduced. I do buff a couple of hunting groups and a few Jedi regularly and they pay me well to meet them at locations. I buff friends and the occassional obvious new player that comes to the cantina. If someone tips me 10k or more because they healed while watching methen I will offer to buff them. But that's pretty much where my direct interaction with the mechanics ends.

I've very little interest in group chat. Occassionally, there's interesting talk there but not often. I'm inundated with tells from the moment I log in until I log out and often, more than anything, I would like a little peace and quiet while I dance. I get satisfying social interaction through the private channel that my best friends & I keep. I monitor the server's official entertainer chat but rarely participate in the conversations there. The "social" aspects of chatting with other entertainersaren't what I dance for.

I dance seductively. From my clothing choices, which dances I perform, where and when I dance,to what I may say in spatial; all are carefully planned to be subtly and relentlessly seductive. I'm usually uncharacteristically quiet, limiting my spatial chat to greeting friends. I never use emotes except to hug or blow a kiss to my closest friends..never do I offer that level of familiarity to strangers. I don'ttry to macro my dances.My dances are carefully choreographed but I would never depend on the timing of a macro to compensate for lag and I like the moves to be perfectly timed. But I'm only half the equation of my dance style. I prefer dancing with a male partner and I've been incredibly fortunate to have danced with three wonderful men. Each of them have brought their own style and individuality to our dancing.

The intention behind my dance style is to make the men & women who watch me want to come back and see me dance again and again. Not because of what I do for them. Because of what they would like for me to do for them but willnever receive.

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Else-Whira wrote:
You know it's funny that you are a champion of erotic dancing now FD, since I remember during the first few month of the game you were outspoken against the way I and some of my friends played (heavy on innuendo and sexual tension).

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Oddly, I remember Flawed as being the dancer who took the most flack for erotic dancingin the first couple of monthsafter launch. Especially after posting a guide on the topic. I'm quite sure that was in July '03. (wb Flawed /hi5)

I dance for fun. In my theater I made a dancer cage and enjoy at times going into my cage and giving buffs. I also enjoy dancing while out on a hunt to help fellow group members. I like hanging out in major cantinas and meeting new people both in the entertainer groups and of course the cantina patrons. You can have some fairly interesting conversations.

When I dance I tend to put on some flourish with my clothing ensembles. I feel as entertainers we should be sporting the hottest new styles - color combos and looks.

I use macros while in the cantina - not so I can run afk but mainly so I can enjoy chatting with people and not be worried about clicking a flourish button.

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Else-Whira wrote:
You know it's funny that you are a champion of erotic dancing now FD, since I remember during the first few month of the game you were outspoken against the way I and some of my friends played (heavy on innuendo and sexual tension).

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I remember what you're referring to and I drew a strong and sharp distinction between Erotic Dancing and stripping or Underwear Dancing. To be honest I dont remember what you specifically were doing. lol So I HOPE I don't say the wrong thing and use the wrong illustration.

Some of other girls were pretty darned crude. As a woman it was embarassing to watch some of the things some of the girl (or maybe not girls) were doing. Dancing in their undies and yelling 'Hey! Like my big XXXs'

There's nothing Erotic about that. Thats just Tacky.

The kind of stuff that invokes laughter and scorn and the guys looking at us as tramps and ... other things. It reached the point where lots of guys assumed all dancers wanted to do private lap dances in the back room.

That being said, any time a woman Dances for a male audience the Dance is to some extent erotic.

The trick is to recognize that and to intentionally enhance that Eroticism CONCIOUSLY. Trickier still is to do it in such a way that you don't slip into crude and overtly Sexual.

Erotic Dancing is Sensual Not Sexual. Therein lies the difference.

As for me? It was hard after Cailet, my wife, had to leave the game due to r/l constraints thought we're still in touch, and Rria(Cristine's) death from leukemia.

Bria was no longer a home but a place of too many memories of loss. So I returned Home to Eclipse, old friends and better memories. Severina came with me.

Nowadays I keep a lower profile. Severina and I do ID work. We took jobs in a Private Adult Cantina. I spend time with by Boyfriend Tomo (sigh) and... of course...

I Dance.