Idle Rogue Productions: Le Cirque de Nuit

What a wondrous journey Le Cirque de Nuit has been! In small but complex steps, this notion made it's way to me, from my first rudimentary attempt to combine circus and neo-burlesque, to the strangely rare gift of a book voucher serendipitously arriving at the same time as a new and clever friend, who recommended The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern. The book was a cute and quick read, but the striking imagery of a monochromatic Victorian Circus stayed with me throughout the remainder of The Very Bad Year that was 2013.

Many things failed in 2013, and others were fatally wounded. Projects that should have been meteoric failed to launch, people who should have felt beloved did not, the fog of many unhappinesses clung to me wherever I rode, but as the year ended I dreamed of a black and white steampunk circus, and when I woke, the idea stayed luminous; by December the dream was a plan, and it strengthened and consolidated throughout the first months of 2014.

Le Cirque de Nuit demanded all the time it needed. We thought we'd be performing it in January, February at the latest, but it was April before everything was in place. In that time, Gloriana Maertens built an enchanting environment that was an inspiration to everyone who saw it; Arrehn Oberlander joined the project with a formidable skillset and enough will to see this project through to a higher level. The two of them gave me toys that weren't even whispers in my dreams, and they polished and refined them as we watched the various other elements fall together around this charmed endeavour.

We called for auditions, and warned hopeful candidates that we intended to edit their work to get it to a higher standard than anyone had seen before. And one by one the candidates brought us intricate, beautifully realised acts that required nothing from us but our delight. Stars from all over the grid came willingly to work with us, hard-working, gifted performers who agreed time and again to rehearse with us, to meet with Arrehn, to learn new tools and new ways of performing. Not once was there a tantrum or a rift: everyone who joined this project brought with them goodwill and diligence, and sustained it even when they weren't quite sure of the vision. I am so grateful to you all for staying with me, for trusting in the concept and in our ability to make it real.

Two days before the April 6th premiere, we held a "teaser" preview for SL media, and as they reacted, we knew it was really, truly the spellbinding achievement we suspected it could be. Opening night audiences were rapturous, with the sim filling at both performances within minutes and people left outside the sime clamouring for a chance to see it.

Tonight we perform it again, two more times, in hopes of satiating some of the demand. Is it my magnum opus? Is it that one lucky time when everything fell into place? Is it the beginning of a SLifetime of producing totally immersive, high-quality original entertainment? Is it enough, just one time, to wash the taste of ash from my mouth?

Le Cirque de Nuit is a dance entertainment production set in a black-and-white steampunk circus, and will be performed to audiences on the Idle Rogue sim in Second Life at 7pm and 10pm on Saturday, April 19th. It features original performances by 13 professional dancers from around Second Life, as well as art installation interludes in a 90-minute production.Seats are limited to ensure a high-quality production, so the sim will be reset an hour before each performance. Audiences are advised to arrive early, seat their avatar and remove all unnecessary scripts and devices to assist the performance.
An Idle Rogue Production.

Burned for life

I'd always wanted to have a camp at the virtual Burning Man Festival, certainly after I learned of the Metaharpers and their camp, but all the way along. The festival idea is not a new one for me, most people know Idle Rogue's live music stages are designed to emulate outdoor festival stages. I have a long history of outdoor concerts and bike runs in my real life, to me it's the Australian Way.

In real life there's a good chance I'd avoid the Burning Man Festival. I don't actually care much for the heat, and it sure looks hot out there. Interestingly, the virtual festival coincided with local heatwaves and fires, so I didn't really escape by going virtual; but I enjoy that juxtaposition of the two environments, it makes the immersion more savoury.

Make no mistake, it is expensive to go to Burn 2. The parcel we procured through the generous donations of Idle Rogue supporters cost 12000 linden dollars - $48USD. For that we got a 1024m² parcel with 468 prims for roughly six weeks. The event itself runs for a week, and it runs on the same principles as the rl festival. There are no tips or other income. So that $48 bucks is spent for love.

But oh, Burn! How I loved you!

chry goes feral

The Idle Rogue community has been in a kind of recess, for one reason and another. The downsize meant we had to fore go the housing and the new resident program. The community has been languishing anyway while I licked my wounds by falling in love with another game. It's my belief that successful venues consist of a nucleus around which a wider community are loosely gathered. Those things are still very much part of Idle Rogue, and we wouldn't be who we are without Chewie, Jess, Di and Shippy. But some faces are gone, the flavour has changed, and we are in a form of stasis.

For me, the Burn2 project was a return, of sorts, to Second Life. I have spent more time there over the past month than I have for a long time, indeed, since The Big Ruckus of 2012. And it was good! It was fun!

Shippy's glorious Observation Tower, our home away from home on the playa

I talked to strangers, and watched them fashion beautiful things purely for the enjoyment of passersby. I learned their stories, I listened to them wax about their Burn experiences, their philosophical ideals, the ethics they have developed and how those are shaped by the Burn and by Second Life. I saw passion, I saw real joy, I saw kindness and spiritual generosity. I watched people transformed by their engagement with this virtual environment. I heard people cry at the Temple Burn, I saw them entranced as the man burned.

And then there was my team, Guerilla Burlesque, who grabbed hold of my vision and ran like bandits with it. They made beautiful, thought-provoking performance art and gave it to everyone who was interested to come and watch. They, also, met and engaged strangers, made people welcome and gave them memories. They were generous with their time and thoughtful with their energy. They were endearing, curious and made me full with love and pride.

Dance like everyone is watching

All of it, every bit of it, was the enchanting human at humanity's best. My humble thanks go, in no particular order (well except for first and last, who are first and first), to Thea Dee, GMetal, Meegan Danitz, GarGraVarr Rau, February Jinx, Cool Plasma, Jess Cauld, Gloriana Maertens, Azabella Alamar, Zahra Ethaniel, Huntress Cattaneo, Jordan Reyne, Maeve Branner, BabyPea von Phoenix, Knowledge Tomorrow, Biebi, Aubreya Joszpe, Deb Heron, Chewie Quixote, Tukso Okey, Padula Bing, Pol Arida, Jenna Dirvall, Darkshore, Mulder Watts, Leroy Horton, Mercutio Evanier, Diawa Bellic, Buttermilk Panacek, Eifachfilm Vacirca, Trinity Hunghi, and most especially, forever and always, Shippy.

"Wolf" Act Part 3 - choreography

omg gah! Did you guys realise this act is due this Friday night? Where did our twenty days go?

I'll never be half the instinctive dancer he is

We are up to choreography - the bit I struggle with hardest. Some people, like my partner, have some kind of photographic memory for the dance animations, and can hotkey the shit out of any musical situation. I have tested Diawa Bellic countless times, and she is always able to find a sequence of dances that will fit the music I have played, within seconds of first hearing it.

 But I can do none of these things.

 Choreography, for me, means setting aside countless hours to test dances against the music. Yes, I listen to the song I am using over and over again through this process. Not many songs make it out the other side with as much favour as they went in.

It should come as no great surprise that I have no real life dance expertise. I am that person who doesn't dance until they're so drunk they should be prevented from dancing. I will dance at home though (which is a good thing, since it's many moons since I got that drunk, and really, a life without dance would be no life at all). I trained in ballet, as a young girl, but unsurprisingly lacked the discipline to do it properly and drifted out of it before I hit high school. I am not the woman who scampers joyfully to belly dance or burlesque classes.

But I know what looks right, and I know how to feel a beat and stick to it, and that's how I do my choreo.

The first stop is always A&M Mocap, and regular readers will know why that is. The first time I went to A&M, I was so besotted I was there for four hours. I am still there for hours, but I must admit it's not the joyous experience it was then. The animators at A&M Mocap have a great sense of theatrical dance, and I think it's important to see and recognise the difference. These dances, as beautiful, emotional and sensual as they are, are not for use in clubs - though A&M have plenty of dances which are - and to my mind, it's similarly true that club dances don't look good on stage.

the advent of mesh has added a new set of hazards for choosing a dance

I'm no  fan of Gor, but I think we professional dancers owe the girls who come to SL to play slaves and concubines a great debt; their active engagement with SL has ensured a legacy of sensual and performance-oriented dance. Some of my very earliest dances and poses come from the Gorean lifestyle.

So based on what we know about my dancing style, we know we need rhythm. The song has a good pace to it, it's looking for fast and big steps ... but I think the story calls for some dignity too. It's the story of the respect and love "wolf mother" inspires. So she won't be prancing, and she won't be rolling around on the floor. But you knew I would say that anyway, right?

Each time I do a new act, I purchase 4 new dances. A dance animation is usually around 26 seconds, and a song is roughly four minutes long. So I buy four new dances when it makes sense, and use between 2 and 4 that I already own.

You can't really say this too many times, so here's my PSA for the day: Do NOT buy trans/no copy animations. Yes, they can be as much as 200L cheaper. But you only have to lose your hud one time to realise your investment was pitifully inadequate. We know 4 new dances will cost 400L each. That's 1600L, for those playing at home. A Guerilla Burlesque dancer will earn 700-1000L in a Friday night show. My second PSA for the day - do not go into professional dancing thinking it will make money.

Suddenly it's midnight, and I have bought four dances - Thought You Knew, Spring Jive, The Arrival and Aziza, all from A&M. I'm sleepy, I have to stop now, but I'd wanted to have a look at Henmations and My-Animation too. I like Henmations dances very much. I am less impressed with My-Animation, but I love their AO stuff so much I will use any excuse to go by and see what's new. And sometimes it's a great dance :-D.

I caught a break, in that no-one else is ready for Sunday night rehearsal either. We'll reschedule to Wednesday, which wreaks havoc on my other jobs, but buys me a little more time to pull this act out of my head and onto the stage.

"Wolf" Act Part 2

Continuing my series on how I create and stage an act for Guerilla Burlesque, today's post will deal with the selection of costumes.

Despite yesterday's small hiccup (now deleted post), the act for "Wolf" is slowly building itself. I spent the day browsing marketplace, looking for wolves and trying on ideas.

The Lycan avatars are too muscular, the furries too cute. There are some nice looking mesh wolves, but the price range is 2000-5000L. A dancer could reasonably expect to earn 700-1000L from the Guerilla Burlesque show, so obviously that kind of cost is too much, especially since it's only half the costume. I want a transformation in the act, despite the fact that my long-term fans know I have done that before, notably in the Stripped act (transforming from a deer into a girl) and the Of Wolf And Man act (transforming back and forth from wolf to girl to wolf). From the latter, I still have the wolf avatar from Grendels Children, and it was to Grendels, finally, I returned.

Grendels sim, if you have not been, is a lovely explorable set of sims that house a vast collection of avatars and builds, mostly relating to animals and fantasy creatures. I had heard last year it was to close, or scale down from the four sims it once occupied. If this is so, it is a very great shame. I have such great memories of roaming it's wilds hunting baby dragons and exploring with Yop.

The wolf avatar is not too bad, a little old-fashioned by SL standards, but the price is fantastic, and the aesthetic shortcomings don't really make a difference. The first time people see the avatar, they're just excited to see it.I have never worn it without several people being pleased with it. So it will do the job quite well.

Now here's the thing. I know what I want. However, we know I have done versions of it before. That's not a great feeling ... but I console myself with the notion that it is a great song, and I believe audiences will enjoy even the most basic storytelling because the song is cool.

But you know I am not, in my heart satisfied. I like to make acts that make the audience believe in the medium. I don't need them to be elaborate or tricksy ... some of my favourite acts feature very simple sets. I just want that immersive feeling of being in a theatre, watching a show, and suspending disbelief just enough to go along for the ride. This is a story that can be told without too much stretching ... but the bar is so very high at Guerilla Burlesque now. So the brainstorm part of proceedings is far from over :-)

Oh, and I guess I've styled the girl part of the act. It took some doing, too. I can't really enjoy "off the rack"; even in my day-to-day, one of my favourite things is to combine different elements to create outfits that are so unique I can never remember them to wear them again. It's also, partly, that some creators make really beautiful clothes, but their shoes are way below the standard. Or other variations on that notion.

The outfit I have settled on is sourced as follows:

Hood: Thana by Cellar Door
Hair: Maria Naturals by emo-tions. I cain't quit you, Mirja Mills!
Skin: *League* Skin Amber Fair -Smoky
Eyes: Fashism Sunrise Eyes in Light Lagoon
Cloak, skirt gloves and pants: Fia by Jessie Auer
Boots: Far Polar by Miel

More on these choices once I have settled on the configuration of the act. I am pleased with how it's coming together though!

"Wolf" Act - Part 1 (creating a dance act for Guerilla Burlesque)

As promised, I am planning on detailing how I create the dance acts I present at Guerilla Burlesque. I intend to lead you through my personal process, from when the concept first germinates in my mind, to it's performance, which is scheduled for the show on March 2nd - so we have just twenty days to make this happen! Bear in mind, my process is not "the" way to do it, and in fact, I know other dancers on the Guerilla Burlesque team do it completely differently. On the other hand, I am often asked "how do I start", so for those of you thinking you might like to try this dancer caper out, welcome aboard.

For me, the process always starts with the song. I have been dancing for four years now, so it's safe to say I have used most of my favourite songs, but I have learned, too, that your favourite song cannot always be made into palatable entertainment. It's also my duty to point out that favourite songs tend to drop off your playlist after you've listened to them on repeat play for a few hours.

The song I have chosen to work with is Wolf by First Aid Kit. Little known chryblnd trivia: I have the radio on 24 hours a day, a habit from my youth when I had reason to be a very light sleeper. I find the continual flow of radio provides enough background noise to grant me unbroken sleep. That said, I am sometimes woken by the same song, every time it's played, and these songs tend to end up in my lifelong favourites list. 

Wolf is one of those songs. Released late last year, it woke me up several times through the holiday season. I like the drums, it's got a rollicking beat, and I was struck by the vocals, which seemed very Americana to me - though it turns out they are a Swedish band. And in a special bonus ending, the song turns out to have a story, or a bit of a story, which is just about perfect for my purposes, since I can create something that fits the bones of the song, but takes it in my direction.

So now I move onto what I would like to do to tell my version of this story. If you liked the song, you might already know there is an official video, and that's the first thing that will affect my interpretation. While I have complete admiration for those people who are recreating music videos in SL - it must be such a painstaking process - it's not my thing. I prefer to tell an original story, and that's how I let myself call what we do "dance interpretation". The result, of course, is that pagan rituals, leafy headbands, white dresses and fake wolves are out. 

But I still want to tell the story of a wolf or wolf pack. And I still need to have a sexy girl in there (because that's how I roll. Shut up. Don't judge). And here is where the brainstorm starts. I want the realism, I really love highly realistic stage sets. I wonder if there are any good wolf avatars out there? I used a wolf avatar once before, in my opening act for Beautiful Freaks Burlesque Circus. It was from Grendels, if memory serves. I wonder if there are newer avatars. maybe someone's doing mesh? Oh and I love forests, everyone knows most of my acts are just fresh versions of me prancing around in a forest. Wait, that's no good, I need to break that mould. But ... if I used the mover, that would meet the "fresh" requirement ... wouldn't it? Ehhh .... well I am not doing metaphorical wolves and prancing around Wall Street!

This is generally where I start building a set, a process that, for me, is like doodling, but cooler. The picture that ends up on stage may have nothing whatever to do with the picture I start out with. But here it is, so that you know. And no, I have no idea what that huge torus is for. You have no idea how long I stood around waiting for it to rez though :-)