User blogs
Nov. 9th im gonna do a talent show with liquid if i get good footage ill post it up on floasis
dubstep is great for liquid i highly recommend any liquid heads to look some tracks up
Footwork is something our dance has struggled with since inception and not to make excuses for it, but many dances have had (and still have) similar struggles.Where is the footwork in tutting and waving?Where are the arm motions in house, tap, or any of a variety of "footwork-based" dances? Where are the hips in ballet? Where are the fingers in ANY dance outside of digits and fingertutting?
Is it such a wild thought that a dance doesn't have to include every conceivable part of the body? Few solo dances actually do and liquid is no different in that regard.That being said...I feel that it makes sense to go 1 of 2 directions with footwork in Liquid.
If you look at people like Distortion or TinyLove, they know how to utilize space on the dancefloor, but where is their "footwork?" Take a look at one of their clips and just watch Distortion's feet in this video (he's the first dancer).
There's nothing particularly wow'ing about what he's doing. He keeps it simple and uses his feet to move around in basic ways in order to extend, but not take focus away from what he's doing with his upper body (which let's all be very honest, that's where our dance primarily resides). IMO, "footwork" like glides, house steps and complicated floats, when attempted simultaneously with liquid, are simply a distraction from the main focus of the illusion. By keeping it simple, you allow the audience to focus on the main objective, but are still able to take up the floor in order to engage them and extend the largeness of your dance.
The 2nd way I'll speak on is what I've been working on in my dance for the last few years. It was inspired mostly by Shenchi and a handful of conversations with Hgitch. It revolves around the same premise of connectivity we use to establish relationships between our arms, hands and fingers but it includes the hips, knees and feet as other points to connect to. If you watch my feet in this clip, you'll see that while sparse at the moment, there are times when the hands and elbows become linked in with the feet or knees to establish a state of pushing/pulling or locomotion.
The topic has been tackled over and over for years and the same answers tend to pop up (no offense to anyone who gives them). Hopefully this helps some folks out for direction in the footwork for Liquid.
Is it such a wild thought that a dance doesn't have to include every conceivable part of the body? Few solo dances actually do and liquid is no different in that regard.That being said...I feel that it makes sense to go 1 of 2 directions with footwork in Liquid.
If you look at people like Distortion or TinyLove, they know how to utilize space on the dancefloor, but where is their "footwork?" Take a look at one of their clips and just watch Distortion's feet in this video (he's the first dancer).
There's nothing particularly wow'ing about what he's doing. He keeps it simple and uses his feet to move around in basic ways in order to extend, but not take focus away from what he's doing with his upper body (which let's all be very honest, that's where our dance primarily resides). IMO, "footwork" like glides, house steps and complicated floats, when attempted simultaneously with liquid, are simply a distraction from the main focus of the illusion. By keeping it simple, you allow the audience to focus on the main objective, but are still able to take up the floor in order to engage them and extend the largeness of your dance.
The 2nd way I'll speak on is what I've been working on in my dance for the last few years. It was inspired mostly by Shenchi and a handful of conversations with Hgitch. It revolves around the same premise of connectivity we use to establish relationships between our arms, hands and fingers but it includes the hips, knees and feet as other points to connect to. If you watch my feet in this clip, you'll see that while sparse at the moment, there are times when the hands and elbows become linked in with the feet or knees to establish a state of pushing/pulling or locomotion.
The topic has been tackled over and over for years and the same answers tend to pop up (no offense to anyone who gives them). Hopefully this helps some folks out for direction in the footwork for Liquid.
I feel that over the past 2 to 3 months, I have cleaned up a lot of the foundation concepts in my dance. My rails are straight and defined with good crisp direction changes. I like to think of light cycles when I perform a rail. The key to getting my foundations clean and crisp is repetition. Through an entire song, I try and perform only one concept, when the song changes, I move to the next concept. I do this when practicing alone for some reason but need to start doing it in the company of others so that I can have people to talk to during the boringness of repetitive movement (thnx Kai). Anyways, This blog is more less for me, I'm going to use it as a journal since my dance notebook journal is MIA atm. So if anybody reads this, and decides to read entries later on down the line, pay no mind to any babbling or ramblings that make no sense and if you read those ramblings, I do have a country accent so keep that in mind as you read, it'll make it more entertaining ;)
A solid flow is more important to me than footwork although my footwork is far from being able to blend smoothly into my handflow
So lately i have been finding myself fascinated by steampunk and trying to figure out if it has a role in my life. I constantly find myself attracted to all sorts of different ideas and movements but very few stick. The ones that have (dance, music) have helped shape who i am as a person.. or at least, how people perceive me. I think one of the things that draws me to steampunk is the very DIY aspect of it. I often picture myself in late victorian gear, most of which i made myself, doing a heavy liquid set to a live beats antique set at the bar in which i have just opened. Thats a good looking image if you ask me.
I remember heading out to Los Angeles for the first time in 2008. I was there to meet Graph for the first time and out to the California desert to Coachella. Even though my stay in Los Angeles was short, I felt as if I was home. Fast forward over 3 years later and trips across the entire country and here I am, still in Illinois...but not for long.
I've recently been offered a job in LA and over the next 2 weeks I'll be packing my bags for what could be one last road trip. This is a big moment not just for me personally but for F.N and Liquid Dance as a whole, as I hope to become a hub for dancers interested in visiting LA from afar as well as a mentor to the future molding of a west coast army of Liquid dancers.
With both the music and dance scenes in a thriving state, I promise to do my best to represent and grow Liquid Dance to the best of my abilities. Wish me luck and as always, drop me a line if you're interested in visiting.
Like most dancers, I dream of having a studio at my disposal. Unlike most dancers, my dream studio doesn't have hardwood floors and mirrors. It has muslin backdrops and softbox lighting. I'm referring of course to a photography studio and my dream is now a reality. I'd like to take this opportunity to present some behind the scenes shots and descriptions of the setup process.
I needed 4 main things to setup my studio: camera, lights, greenscreen and space.
Mission
My purpose in having this studio available is to produce content for Floasis.Net of a calibre I feel is necessary to the artistic climate of 2011 and years to come. Too long have we been subjugated to the whims of schedule and circumstance to film a quality dance clip. It is my intention to use this studio to film and provide quality content to the members of F.N in the form of inspirational and instructional media.
Camera
In the last 2 years I've purchased 2 Panasonic GH1 m4/3 (similar to DSLR form factor) cameras for general videography. These are the cameras that brought you the DEMF 2010 Recap, Autumn Upstairs, MGM Music Video and an assortment of other personal videography and photography projects. This is a great bang-for-your-buck camera because the body is cheap, you have access to a variety of lenses and the shots just look fantastic for the price. The trade-off is that you have to really know your stuff about photography/videography. Fortunately I had a great mentor (RIP Rob Vreeland) along with fantastic online resources and was able to obtain the skills required to shoot manual focus, white balance scenes, light subjects, etc. Needless to say, the GH1 has worked out great for me.
Challenges: White balancing a subject correctly when the entire background is green is tough. It's for this reason I used a graycard to manually white balance the subject. This was done by having the subject hold the card, zooming in on the card, selecting manual white balance on my camera and snapping a photo. I find white balance to be crucial for all photography/videography scenarios because it plays a large role in achieving correct color and contrast in your scene.
Lighting
I've been reading up on videography lighting kits over at Cheesycam for a year now, waiting for the stars to align to pull the trigger. I ended up getting a total of 5 lights, each coming with a softbox to diffuse lighting on my subjects. Two lights are used to light my greenscreen, two lights are used to light each side of my subject and the final light is used to light back of my subject to provide a rimlight that separates their body from the background. The subject lighting is a traditional "3 point lighting" technique.
Challenges: One of the companies that I purchased some lights from forgot to send a remote control to activate the lights. I've received one in the mail so far, still waiting on another. Additionally, because of space limitations, it's difficult to position the rimlight in my setup.
Greenscreen
I was fortunate enough to find a lighting kit in my price range that included the stands and backdrops required to setup a greenscreen environment. Muslin fabric was draped over the stand and raised as high as my living room ceiling allowed. Still not as high as I'd like it to be (it can go higher), but it's going to have to do for now. The remainder of the cloth was laid across the floor so that the entire subject could be captured from feet to full armspan above the head.
Challenges: The screen was simple to setup, but because of its location against a windowed backdrop, I currently can't shoot footage in the daytime because portions of the screen turn to white where the windows are. I'm going to try to fix this by putting a blanket over the windows in the future.
The99Percent delivers once again with executive genius in the form of professional photographer Andrew Zuckerman. Lots of great quotes and ideas are stowed within the nooks of this video including bits on curiosity, motivation, influence and finishing projects.
Zuckerman notes that "when curiosity and rigor gets together, something happens." Curious about what he has to say? Click the play button rigorously. :)
