From: Ben Kirkley <ben.kirkley@displaypost.co.uk>
quoted 1 line I'm not much of a dancer, but for those of you who are help me out a
> I'm not much of a dancer, but for those of you who are help me out a
minute.
quoted 1 line Exactly how would you dance to something like Confield?
> Exactly how would you dance to something like Confield?
Well, it's hard to say. It's certainly not danceable like a 4 to the floor
style, so I often don't know what to do with my legs, I just shift my weight
around depending on how I'm feeling. I don't mind the unpredictability of
the music, I think it allows for a very expressive and reactive sort of
dance. I used to do mime when I was a kid so I like the idea of dance that
expresses abstract feelings (which is why I hate the formalism of ballet).
quoted 1 line Do you have to know the soundscape of the tune you're dancing to?
> Do you have to know the soundscape of the tune you're dancing to?
No, though most tracks are structured enough to get a feel early on. A tune
like Clipper from Tri Repetae is very easy to dance to, for example, with a
nice chunky rhythm to keep your legs busy and flowing sounds for your arms.
OTOH a track like Cfern from Confield, with lots of angular and irregular
beat structures, would encourage me to deal in more basic units of
movement...for example a dance step can involve lifting your leg, rotating
it, stepping back onto that leg, turning on ones ankle and so on. Where the
beat is very fractured it's interesting to explore different combinations of
those basic movements as you move around the floor.
I'm usually conscious of 5 things when I dance to any music; my legs, my
shoulders, my arms, my hands/fingers, and what my head is doing. Depending
on the track different things will move around, though this is all much more
spontaneous than it sounds here of course. I'm listening to Pen Expers now,
one of my favorites. My legs are inclined to step me about following the
kick, while my shoulders and elbows are moving about in response to the
snare/noise, expressing something about the texture and intensity of the
beats with angle and sweep of movement. Those lovely string sounds seem to
be to trying to break through the chaos of the beats, so I'd tend to start
making pinching motions with my fingers that remind me of trying to draw
something out from a narrow space, and my head might be weaving about and
looking up, down, over my shoulder, depending on the vague emotional tenor
of the music. It all sounds terribly artificiail and calculated but it's
not, I'm just allowing my body to move in response to what I am feeling in
the music and express something non-verbally. This is why I much prefer
instrumental music to vocal.
quoted 2 lines It's not that I don't believe this music is danceable-to (without looking
> It's not that I don't believe this music is danceable-to (without looking
> like a complete dork), I just can't visualise it myself.
Well, I guess to another person my movements look like a cross between a
sped-up martial arts drill and schizophrenic spasms. So yes, I probably look
like a spaz or a dork. But really, why should I give a fuck if it makes me
feel good? When I was younger I used to go out to nightclubs and worry about
how I was looking, whether there was any chance of getting laid or not,
whether I was cool and so on. When I began going to raves it was a great
relief to drop some acid along with everyone else and just go nuts to the
music, and I still like psy trance a great deal for its sheer danceability
and energy. After a while of doing this I stopped caring at all about how it
looked to other people, beyond the basic politeness of not barging into
other people's space when one is dancing. By the time I got into IDM I was
at the stage where I could feel equally unrestrained physically with or
without drugs - in fact I think I get more out of IDM when I'm sober in many
ways.
My feeling is that if one is having fun and just letting the music dictate
one's movements, it's going to be far more comfortable and really
expressive, and will probably look cool anyway. The people who would write
me off as a spaz probably think that IDM is 'just noise' or spazzy music
anyway, so I don't care about that. Kids dance around any way they like to
music (and a lot of kids like techno) and as long as they don't fall over
it's great. I'd much rather feel that unrestrained than try to impose
consistency or form onto dance movements. I find dancing very relaxing and I
really enjoy dancing with someone else at a party where you can communicate
about the music, feelings, etc. without having to speak. I don't think of
myself as any special dancer, but people come up to me quite frequently at
parties and say they like the way I move around, so I must be doing
something right.
quoted 1 line Can one dance to noise-IDM and not look like they're on a gram of speed?
> Can one dance to noise-IDM and not look like they're on a gram of speed?
Well, no...though all the above can be equally applied to a slow or mellow
track just as easily as a busy one. The first IDM party I went to, I had a
great time but my girlfriend thought everyone was on speed for just this
reason. Then again the first time she met me she thought I was on speed too
(I put a lot of energy into dancing and I'm also pale and skinny), but she
let me chat her up anyway. So don't worry about it. Just shake yer booty and
have fun :-)
Anig Browl
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