Thread: Would-be Goth Dancer from Toronto!

Hi all!

I be Briar (or LJ, I respond to either), and I'm super-excited to actually be attempting a bit of dance-based socializing. I'm from Toronto. I've been taking belly dance for about five years, but I've only started to get serious about it in the last two. I constantly feel like I'm behind my peers because my technique is pretty crap, but I think I come up with some pretty okay choreography ideas. But I know I have a LOT to learn. I have a couple of dances friends nearby (if you call them being in two different cities "nearby") who are pretty awesome with giving me inspiration and confidence, so I'm very grateful for them.

I tend toward darker music and aesthetic, both in dance and everywhere else. I'm supposed to dance in a street fair this Sunday and my instructor sent us all an e-mail saying that the songs should be "upbeat" and "light". After browsing my music collection for about two hours I was down to flipping a coin between a violin track from the score to a vampire movie or an all-harpsichord cover of Always Look on the Bright Side of Life. Then I had a flash of inspiration and hit up the iTunes store for the Beetlejuice theme. What?

To summarize: Toronto, big ideas, bad with follow-through, lazy work ethic, poor technique, and goth. Glad to meet you!

-Briar (LJ, whatever)

Hi Briar, welcome to the forum from a fellow lurker on the dark side.

Thanks, Lilith! I like your name. :)

Briar

Welcome Briar!
I'm a part of a gothic troupe but most of our performances are supposed to be family friendly. A lot of our songs are either in a different language that is not prevalent in our area (Latin, Romani, etc) or purely instrumental. Example, one of our staple songs is a little girl singing about her family slaughtering the lambs in the spring. Unless you know the language you don't know how dark the song is.
Another suggestion is songs being covered by goth bands. My duet partner and I dance to a cover of "Bad Moon" by Rasputina. YouTube is a great place to get new ideas for music. I also love to use Pandora, LastFM.com, and Blacklight Radio to get new ideas. I know it is hard to find music that suits both you and your audience.

Scarlet