You should write a book!
- Thread starter madmaximus
- Start date
madmaximus
Forum Master
Yeah, I hope we can offer the student discount soon, it would be handy for a few dancers.
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madmaximus
Forum Master
So we've gotten deep into the manuscript already and is occupying quite a bit of my time now---and I must say that I am having a lot of fun doing a brain dump with the other writers.
As a way of saying thank you to all who have encouraged me to move forward with this project, we're posting a few pages of the early chapters to give everyone a flavor of the details that will go into the book.
Please note that this is totally unedited and unformatted---the current layout it is in, is a placeholder at this time.
I hope you like it.
dance.metroleta.com (click on "Excerpt Sample")
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As a way of saying thank you to all who have encouraged me to move forward with this project, we're posting a few pages of the early chapters to give everyone a flavor of the details that will go into the book.
Please note that this is totally unedited and unformatted---the current layout it is in, is a placeholder at this time.
I hope you like it.
dance.metroleta.com (click on "Excerpt Sample")
m
tanya_the_dancer
Well-Known Member
I have the "dance to your maximum" book, but I didn't find it super helpful. I felt that it was really written for couples to read and use together, and not for dancers like me who only do pro-am and thus can't really give much input on a lot of things mentioned in that book. The most helpful book I have read on being successful (in anything) is "Talent is Overrated". And it cost way less than $50 even as a hardcover. If max's book is also aimed at couples to read and use together, then I most likely won't buy it.
Isn't it the time to open a thread for corrections (apart from minor or editorial ones) to the book, suggested at DF? (But how do we make corrections if we don't see the book's pages?)
Let me begin.
I cannot understand one sentence in the draft describing the walk and common errors while doing it.
Original writing describing a common error: "The foot is either rotated towards or away from the other foot, instead of traveling perpendicular (or vertical) to the floor."
Problem: The foot does not travel perpendicular (or vertical) to the floor. If so, the dancer would not move forward or backward. The center of the foot travels in an arc which is almost horizontal.
Suggestion describing the common error: "The foot is either turned towards or away from the other foot, instead of rotating (besides forward or backward movement) in a plane which is perpendicular to the floor and parallel to the foot vector."
[ Image, or better a video here, showing forward walk containing:
- Both feet and their vectors.
- The median of the moving foot.
- The plane in which the moving foot's median does its slight up and down rotation.
- The small angle between this plane and the stationary foot's median. Ideally, this angle is zero. ]
danceronice
Forum Master
The minute you use the word "vector", Dupont, you lose 95% of your readership. That is not a word that is especially useful outside physics books and "Airplane!" gags ("What's our vector, Victor?") Most people aren't engineers and don't want to hear that level of jargon.
JudeMorrigan
Forum Master
For what it's worth, "foot vector" is a term that madmaximus' book defines in the excerpt immediately prior to the "Common Errors" section. It's not actually verbiage that Dupont is introducing himself. That said, the line Dupont quotes makes a bit more sense in context, but I'll agree that it could be phrased better. I'm not going to try my hand at that rephrasing myself though.
We all liked the diagram showing standing couple earlier in this thread. There were many definitions there, for example, "topline."
"Foot vector" is a similar definition and hopefully will be shown in a diagram. Then it will be easy to know what it is.
I don't have anything against the word vector, but, alternatively, other terms can be used to define the same line, for example, FML (Foot Movement Line).
I think too many people are familiar with "FML" as meaning something else entirely...
The number 1 result on Urban Dictionary is "fix my lighthouse". I suppose that's the one you didn't mean, but it was interesting to learn all the same.
As for "vector" -- well, there's an awful lot of jargon in dancing anyway; and anyway *some* kind of terminology is needed to convey precise, accurate, and detailed descriptions of movements and positions.
At the extreme, just consider Laban Movement Analysis.
tanya_the_dancer
Well-Known Member
yes, and also WTF stands for something else for the rest of the internet population.I think too many people are familiar with "FML" as meaning something else entirely...
OK, but still, having said that: why use "rotational" and "saggital" interchangeably (especially since, AFAICT, "saggital" doesn't actually mean "rotational" in any common usage, to the extent that any usage could be construed as "common")?
ETA
I'm sure you already know that it will of course be trivial to find-and-replace "saggital", if you like, after the manuscript is completed as a draft. It's an excellent search term, in that sense.
randomaeiou
Member
from an anatomical perspective, rotation does not equal sagittal. strictly speaking, movement along the sagittal plane is flexing/bending forwards and back. rotation, in anatomical terms, is still called rotation only.
madmaximus
Forum Master
Heh, my editor has removed the saggital from that definition.
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