vid rec - lacrymosa by solestella

If you are a period drama person--which I am--you already spend a lot of time squeeing over every ball scene because you get to see the penultimate show-not-tell; dancing is how we know our couple is meant to fucking be. Gloved hands, careful distance, each stylized, formal movement that never comes too close and the most explicit thing you will ever see is clasped hands.

Everything, everything is conveyed in matched body language; the synched movements of their bodies, the unflinching eye contact that lasts the length of a life and when they look away from each other, you feel it like a shock of cold water.

That's a lead-up to this vid.

Lacrymosa by solestella - multifandom - this is an almost-eclectic mix of both period and modern dance, both formal, semi-formal, and casual. Above and beyond the amazing use of movement that's carried between cuts--which I love fast cuts, the faster the better, so this works for me in a big way--it also manages to carry the similarity of body language and expressions of sexuality and passion that's implicit in period and explicit in modern dance as well as formal dance.

I talked about movement--this one is all movement, above and beyond this being, y'know, dance. The continuity between clips is unreal--while the times change, the rhythm and the meaning don't, and matching a Regency country dance to ballet to the waltz to the tango shouldn't be this flawless as she carries the emotion and meaning between them effortlessly. Especially recced for the bridge, where it's all passion, focusing almost entirely on every way that dancing conveys passion and want and desire, and how no matter how it's expressed, they're all very much the same.

This isn't sex; this is everything that comes before. This is yearning, when everything you are is focused on that one person, this one place, because it's going to happen, you know it, and this is where you can't do anything but show just how much you want it and what you'll do to get it.

Comments

Re: *pops out of lurkdom*

[seperis]

My professor did it the deep-plunge way; after we had the steps for the rhumba and one other one, he pulled me up for the samba, which we hadn't learned yet, to show that once we understood the theory of Latin dances, we could learn the basics of any of them immediately wtih a competent partner. And he judged me just right in that I hate looking stupid; in two minutes, I figured out what I hadn't been able to do in weeks, just on the strength of a classroom of people watching me.

It probably helped it was a very close dance; I had to match rhythm or I'd rack him or fall over, which was also highly inspriational since I really wanted that A.

It's the anticipation problem, you're right; with the samba, I literally had no idea what to do, I hadn't even seen it yet, so I couldn't anticipate either, just follow. That's still one of my favorite classes; it taught me more about my body than two years of cheerleading and how to move and be comfortable with it.

Re: *pops out of lurkdom*

[arrghigiveup]

Hahaaa, that is awesome. I eventually learned in a somewhat similar manner: I social-danced with my instructors. In the salsa community over here we have what we like to call "bastard moves", i.e., moves that make the follow want to call the lead a bastard. These are moves that 'trick' the follow because they start out looking one way (like, say, a travelling left turn, or a prep for a spin), only the lead stops you a couple of steps in, and does something else entirely (like turning you in the opposite direction, or turning himself instead).

It took just a few of these before I figured out that a raised arm does not always mean a single right turn, and that if I tried doing things myself without waiting for the lead, I was going to wind up wrenching my own arm into a number of extremely uncomfortable positions.

Unfortunately, the anticipation problem starts to come back if I dance regularly with the same people, because I start to recognise their favourite patterns and do things on autopilot. Which screws me over when I have a dance with people with wider repertoires and more bastard moves XD

Re: *pops out of lurkdom*

[seperis]

You have no idea how envious I am right now! That sounds like so much fun!

Dammit, now I want to go dancing.

Re: *pops out of lurkdom*

[arrghigiveup]

You should! Salsa's great fun ^^