As some of this one’s wonderful brothers are now studying Dance, boy’s small brain has drifted again to the topic, and revisited some of the instructional scrolls.
A boy humbly submits that they are mostly malarkey.
Many seem to have been written for an earlier ((IRC)) age on Gor, largely ignoring the existence of actual ((animated avatar)) motion, focusing instead on the easy synaesthesia of imaginary music and the most prolix of prose.
Now, perhaps a kajira can get away with “moving” verbally without reference to her actual motion, if dancing for a Mistress “of a certain age,” but a kajirus dancing for a Modern Master had better keep his eye on how he moves. Besides recognizing the new, “moving” Gor ((of SecondLife)), this focus also leverages a sex difference: in boy’s experience ((and from findings of psychologists)), males are particularly stimulated by *visual* sensations, compared with audible or tactile, whereas females favor the visual sensation much less. So, a Master will experience a dance differently than will a Mistress; a clever slave will then dance differently, appealing most strongly to the sensory channels to which the dance audience is most receptive.
Which brings boy to his first Guideline for Dance:
Dance For the Audience
Lest the reader be daunted by the Unbearable Abstractness of boy’s Guidelines, please be assured that there are Practical “Dance Steps,” too, at the bottom of this post. But those will just seem arbitrary unless motivated by the Guidelines’ rationale.
Boy pondered a long time on the first “Rule” espoused in one dance-instructional scroll: “Dance is not masturbation.” This rule might guide the dancer away from being too explicit in genital references–indeed a good “area” (ahem) about which to be circumspect when dancing for a mixed audience. And this reading of the rule resonates with boy’s Guideline to “Dance for Your Audience,” too: a slave’s heat would do well to “address” that pole quite differently when dancing for his Master than for a general public of Free Persons.
But there’s a deeper meaning here, too: For example, if a kajirus ever gets the honor of dancing for his Master alone, that valuable opportunity should always be celebrated with a dance that explicitly worships that Master and honors His uniquely noble qualities. That is, that dance should be for that Master. Every dance should be “for” its audience.
To be effective, then, a dancer must know his audience–as with any form of expression. A kajirus who has been privileged to serve one Master over time will have learned what will please that Master, very specifically, and will use that knowledge to create a dance that optimizes His pleasure. A kajirus who has less experience with his Master will do well to acutely attend to his Master’s reactions, to quickly “tune” his dancing to most pleasing effect. (Luckily for that less-experienced kajirus, his very newness is pleasing to a Master–which means that Master will overlook all manner of clumsiness in word and deed; the new kajirus should not be tempted to take too much advantage of this, however, because the boy has no way of knowing how “clumsy” he appears, until he knows that Master’s preferences–by which time the novelty will have worn off. Neat how that works, eh?)
Note: The alert reader may have observed that this applies to any service a slave might provide his Master.
Of course, sometimes the Audience isn’t going to be just your Master, nor even a group of Masters known to you: sometimes, you’ll be dancing for a Public Audience, possibly of mixed gender and/or orientation. In those cases, you’ll be more appealing if your dance is less explicit: keep your genitals–and references thereto–for your Master’s private pleasure… unless it pleases Him for you to “expose” them publicly. In any case, the dancer should try to view himself from the eyes of the Audience: if you’re gay, and your Audience is full of Straight Masters, they’ll be a lot more pleased by abstract honoring of your Master than by hearing the details of how you’ll please Him in the furr.
Dance In the Occasion
The audience is just part of the context for a dance. There’s generally some reason why you’re dancing, or failing that, something in your mind or in the zeitgeist worth commemorating with a dance. This is where the categories of dance come from: needs dances, story dances, brand dances, etc., are derived from events occasioning dance in the chronicles–but these classifications are rather more subjective than ordained genres. If you slot your dance to one category, you may unnecessarily restrict the rich expressiveness of your dance; boy recommends dancing in the occasion as you feel it, and leaving the categorizing to your audience.
Ideally, the dance expresses the dancer’s emotions at the very moment of the performance. That is, the ideal dance is one composed as it is performed. The Practical Dance Steps, below, are intended to make a slave comfortable with performing such spontaneous dancing, after practicing a few times with “prepared” dances.
That said, prepared dances are pretty much required for some occasions, notably contrived performance events. These events are unlikely to please anyone involved, but are demanded by ((online)) custom. If you’ll be ordered to perform at such an event, you’ll need to prepare well in advance. Perhaps ironically, then, the more “important” and formal the occasion, the less its immediacy can be reflected in the dances performed for that occasion.
((This one’s reading of the chronicles leads him to favor “improvisational dance” over “rehearsed performance dance” as authentic to Gor. But if online participants really crave ballet recitals, boy wouldn’t want to ruffle their silk tutus.))
Dance From Yourself
Pretty much every instructional scroll advises never to copy another slave’s dance, but the reader is left with the impression that such an act is morally offensive, a co-opting of someone else’s intellectual property–as if a slave could even have property. But that’s surely the least important reason not to copy; rather, a copied dance just can’t be all that pleasing.
Following from the previous guidelines, it’s unlikely that your Audience and Occasion are identical to those for which any copied dance was performed.
(An exception to this is the strange practice of “Dance Competitions,” for which the audience is predictably homogeneous: a gaggle of self-proclaimed Dance Reviewers, and the occasion is, well, a Dance Competition. The vapid sterility of such an event is surely the least conducive to actual dancing that this one can imagine. Boy wonders how many promising dancers have been ruined by Dance Competitions–especially those unlucky enough to have won their competition, reinforced in the misguided notion that whatever they’ve just done is an effective dance.) (Oh. No, this one has never competed–boy’s involvement has been limited to that of an exceptionally disinterested observer–so this little diatribe isn’t sour grapes.)
But the real reason a copied dance won’t be pleasing is that it won’t be from you: only you can make the most of your best attributes, your personal style, whatever it was that is getting you in front of this audience in the first place. Successful dance is self expression, not bland entertainment.
Part of being “from you” is being gender appropriate. Well, obviously, a kajirus is more likely to please by focusing on his bulging biceps than on his pendulous breasts(!), but there’s also a matter of linguistic style: a kajira may be able to get away with stringing “pretty” modifiers in a fine frilly filigree of prose, but a kajirus will sound better with fewer and more precise words. The male still uses evocative description–he just has to do it more economically, for the result to be masculine. And yes, it’s a continuum: the more laconic, the more “macho” the kajirus will appear.
Practical Dance Steps
1. Find your dance animation. Something slow and smooth works best. The venue where you’ll be dancing may already have animations, or you may have something in your ko-lar. In fact, the standard bellydance, in most collars, is not a bad place to start: after you’ve done a dance or two to it, you’ll have a good idea what dance animations work well. (For very special events or advanced performers, several animations might be sequenced to good effect–but it will still be easier to follow these steps for each animation you’re considering, and see which animations really work, and in what sequence.)
2. Watch yourself dancing that animation, and begin to relate its motions to something you’re feeling or thinking about. Answer the question: what do these motions make me think about? What might I be expressing with those motions, to the audience for whom I’ll be dancing? You’re not looking for The Right Answer, you’re looking for The Right-Now Answer: for any good dance animation, you’ll feel something different every time you start using it for a dance, because it’s a different time. Remember, you’re going to Dance In the Occasion, so let the occasion guide your feelings.
3. Now, really watch yourself dancing that animation, and write down what you’re doing. Look in detail at each part of the body as it moves, and describe how it’s expressing what you feel. It’s fine if you find yourself feeling something different than what you thought at first: you’re getting more deeply in-touch with your own feelings. Remember, you’re going to Dance From Yourself, so the deeper you go, the better the dance.
4. Edit. Make sure that what you wrote actually communicates: Does the audience feel what you were describing, or do you need to word things differently to have the intended effect? Make sure it has your voice and style: Can the audience recognize you as the dancer?
5. Find music (rarely). Except in dance competitions or very special occasions, you’ll usually be dancing to whatever is playing on the parcel land radio at whatever moment you perform your dance. If you get to set the stream, trance and world music are often good for dancing; pop and techno are usually just distracting noise. If you have the luxury of calling the tune, keep it simple and non-distracting.
