One of the least understood, and almost completely lost skills of Classic Online Gor (say, up until 1997 or so), is the Art of Gorean Dance. To the great sorrow of many Goreans who remember kajirae falling faint, flushed, and with searing belly after a dance, what has happened is that for one reason or another a simpler, less visceral form of "dance presentation" has grown up and become accepted as "Gorean" dance.

This odd form consists of a fixed series of "posts", whether emotes (/me ...) or texts in WebChat millieux, that are "played" one after the other. The kajira spends hours and hours on these posts, polishing them, enscribing the feelings she wishes to present, until finally she has a finished product. Slaves are concerned with writing style, with how their posts are viewed by peers and the odd Master who didn't fall asleep or go off to tend his email. And, if asked to do the "dance" again, she can trot out exactly the same nine posts, in exactlythe same way, and get exactly as little "belly" from the whole experience.

This is not Gorean Dance.

Gorean Dance has two properties:

1. It is performed, and
2. It involves some aspect of Gor

However, and this is the hallmark to true Gorean Dance: each performance is subtly unique. Although every time she performs her "Whip Dance", for instance, though she may always use nine posts, and the basic actions and reactions in each post remain the same, the precise wording and presentation varies slightly from performance to performance exactly as it would with a live flesh-and-blood performer.

Are we saying that all prewritten dances are bad? Not at all. Just that none of them are Gorean Dance, no matter how many terms from the Scrolls, from MSN, from Kassar and Tuchuk, and even from GLUEDOG you throw in.

An interesting side-benefit to true Gorean Dance for the kajira, is that it cannot be stolen. Each dance is performed live, so copying a dance from someone's log won't do the kajira a bit of good -- she still has to perform it, and for that she needs notes, and needs to know how to turn notes into Gorean Dance.

The second quality, the Gorean aspect, should be obvious. If a kajira dances a "puppy" dance (there are no dogs on Gor) or decides to add ostrich feather fans as props, this is obviously not Gor. Furthermore, a dance where a kajira dominates a Master (other than in the grossest satire of Kajuralia ) is clearly not Gorean, and would probably get the stupid twit killed or thrown out bodily in most places if she tried.

At tLi, Gorean Dance is viewed as an advanced skill; it is simply not taught to slaves who have not achieved "Advanced" Level (refer to the tLi Slave-Training Syllabus). Prior to this, a girl is not a full-fledged kajira. We feel that she does not have the maturity on line or on Gor, or is hardened enough to continue through gruelling work to gain the skills and techniques that Gorean Dance demands.

Moreover, we believe that a kajira has more than enough to learn through her Advanced level, and struggling with Gorean Dance would just be a distraction. Many girls are never taught to dance; they may leave training before they are ready, or may be judged not able to perform Gorean Dance. Not all girls can perform Gorean Dance, just as not all girls can, say, skydive or break down an assault rifle, blindfolded, under fire.

In tLi, we teach three modes of Gorean Dance:

1. Choreographed,
2. Styled, and
3. Free-form

1. The Choreographed Dance

The Choreographed dance is similar to what has become known as a pre-planned dance, with the crucial difference being that the dance is performed from notes or a sketch and never "played".

It is generally used either for competition or when a Free Person allows the slave to choose a dance. It is the last mode of dance taught to a kajira at tLi, only after the kajira has mastered the other two modes of dance.

<Master> dance for Me, slave
* slave looks up at the Master
<slave> which dance would the handsome Master wish this eve?
<Master> surprise Me!


The kajira plans the dance to express a set of feelings or moods, or perhaps to tell a story. She may actually physically dance ("pre-dance") for herself before mirrors, in sketches, to see what movements flow and to focus those feelings or mood that she wishes to express. She then records the movements and changes, noting anything she will need to later reproduce the dance on-line.

Oddly enough, though she may spend hours and hours prefecting each motion so that the dance expresses her innermost feelings, some may consider this mode of dance to be the easiest of the three, for she does not have to fit within an exact, prescribed framework as with a Styled dance, nor does she have to think on her toes as with a Free-Form dance. In reality, it is the hardest -- because she has no boundaries, no "given" within which she must create a dance.

2. The Styled Dance

The Styled Dance adheres to a dance form that is described in the Scrolls - such as the "Tavern Girl's Dance"  or a "Pole dance" .

It is used in certain rigid competitions, and is often used as a training-level qualifier. The Styled dance must remain as faithful as possible to what is described in the Scrolls, but is yet performed live, never posted. It differs from the Choreographed dance in that the theme, flow, props, and action are detailed to some extent within the Scrolls. In competition or when qualifying for a training level, to deviate from what is described (beyond the bounds of artistic license) constitutes a foul, and disqualifies the dancer.

For example, suppose she is doing the "Tavern Girl's Dance". Consider the climax of this dance, as Norman describes it in Book 15, Rogue: pg. 10:

"Master," she said, dancing before me. I regarded her through narrowly lidded eyes. Then she sank to her knees and on her knees, leaning backwards, danced before me as a kneeling slave. The music swirled to its climax and, as it ended, she straightened her body and then, from her knees, lowered herself to her right hip and extending her right arm to me, lay before me, submitted, her head to the floor.

The kajira who dances this dance must emulate these motions at the climax of her dance; however, as Norman was vague as to the movements leading up to this final danced seduction, the kajira who dances it may also be creative.

However, should she end up on the whipping sands, or somehow work a sash into her dance, she will have varied from what is described in the Scrolls, and will be disqualified.

3. The Free-Form Dance

Many consider the Free-form dance to be the hardest of all. In this mode, a Free Person dictates what he or she wishes danced. The kajira must, on the spot (after perhaps a few moments thought) dance what is asked for.

For instamce:

* slave approaches the Master
<slave> how may this one serve the handsome Master?
<Master> Dance for Me, girl. I want a dance of love, of larmae, and as a larl!
* slave swallows, thinks a moment, and looks at the Master
<slave> may this one run to the kitchen and grab a few of the fruit?
* Master nods


This is not as impossible as it seems. As will be clear below, a kajira learns to dance by dancing many small, one- or two- post Free-From improvisations. By the time a girl is allowed to go on to her first Styled Dance, she has danced upwards of 50 - 100 individual objects and moods, and has experienced expressing these in dance.

Of course, she may not use any of these dances in the form that they were danced at first -- like all other Gorean Dances, the Free-Style dance must be performed, never played.

Dancing, whether on-line or live, is a skill. It must be practiced, and practiced, and practiced again if the serious kajira wishes to master this most rare of on-line arts.

She starts by being totally fluid and adept at movement. Her serves, her skills at approaches are honed until more than merely getting from one place to another, and more than merely "shaking her tits and ass", she projects herself to the watching audience. This is familiar territory; she's been serving since she was a white-silk! But at this level, she now turns to the motion itself, performing trips to and from the kitchen, about the hall, etc., merely to show her movement. The accent here is on the sensual, and on gaining a deep consciousness of her own moving body.

When the Trainer decides she is ready, she then begins dancing little Free-form snippets:

1. One post to show "happy"
2. Show two posts, but you are a slave whip
3. Dance paga, in two posts
4. etc.

The kajira now is made to dance 3-, 4-, and 5- post dances, also Free-Form. She concentrates on displaying the concepts demanded, and is made to develop the ability to write something, anything, within one minute.

At this stage her spelling, grammar, and lack of typos is completely unimportant; she is being trained to think, to express those thoughts in textual motion. She is severely punished if she goes more than a minute without a post. In the beginning, this may be very hard for most kajirae; but they learn, or they are punished and then learn.

Having first demonstrated the ability to think on her feet, she now is allowed a little more time -- three whole minutes -- to correct spelling, grammar, and punctuation.

The Trainer may decide the degree of laxity to allow, say one or two errors per post. Any more than this, however, and the kajira is punished and the dance does not count. The Trainer may, of course, decide to demand no errors at all; and the kajira must fulfil this, within the allotted three minutes.

The Trainer now begins to demand three things from the kajira:

1. Longer Free-form dances, of 6- 7- and 8- posts;
2. That the posts be no more than two minutes apart;
3. And that they contain no more than one or two spelling or grammatical errors

The kajira should start her dance portfolio with a list of the subjects she Free-Form danced. Although she may keep the logs, they won't do her very much good as the next time she has to do that same subject, she will need to "create on her feet" and will not rely on playing a series of posts.

After this point, she is considered competent to begin to learn to plan dances ahead of time: she will begin to do Styled dances.

Now that she has mastered the rudimentary skills of performing Gorean dance, she now goes back to the Scrolls (or the tLi dances page) and writes her first notes for a Styled Dance.

The girl must research the dance, and then write an outline for what it was about. Why it is danced, who is required to participate, what emotions should be displayed, what were the key actions the dance had to show. The idea is that the dance should be recognizable for what kind of dance it is, by looking at the key features it portrays.

Given approval from her Trainer for the Outline, she then creates her version of the dance, enscribing a series of notes to be used when she performs it.

At first, she may do this with her Trainer or with an experiecnced kajira, so that she learns the separate skill of writing down a Gorean dance. She needs to have enough information so that she can perform the dance, but not too much detail so that the dance is "posted" rather than performed.

The Trainer must review and approve her notes for the dance.

When the Trainer approves her notes, she then performs the dance in public. And then, as soon as is possible immediately after, she performs the same dance again -- either for a different venue, or once again in her home.

She repeats this process with the next Styled Dance; after her third Styled Dance is performed, she will continue to write Styled Dances, but will no longer need the Trainer's review of her notes.

There are about 40 different dances detailed in the Scrolls; she should perform at least ten of them (at the Trainer's prerogative) to complete this phase.

She should be permitted to keep the notes from all her Styled dances in her portfolio, to be available to her later in her career.

The kajira has now learned to show movement, to express complicated thoughts and a developing story line, and to write notes for herself that allow her to perform the dance. She is now allowed to be free of creative restriction, and assigned her first Choreographed Dance.

The kajira must first pick a theme or a story; it must meet with the Trainer's approval.

She then creates her dance. She may perform it r/l, or write posts to herself, to help her visualize the movements and flows of the dance. She may work on this first Choreographed dance for a short period of time -- a day or so. At the end of that period, she must take what she has, and dance it for her Trainer in public.

The Trainer reviews her dance: did she express the concept/ feeling?

Then, she rewrites it. Yep. Throws the first one completely away, and does the SAME dance a second time from scratch. This time, it's danced publicly without the Trainer reviewing it. If it's not up to par, if he can't see her movements or understnd what she's dancing to him... or if the posts take longer than a minute each, or have too many spelling/ grammatical errors, she's punished. And has to do the dance a third time, a fourth time, a twentieth time until she gets it right.

And if it IS good, the second time? Then she performs it before a new audience, who have never seen it, and naturally, still under the Trainer's eye. She may keep the notes from either or both of these dances in her portfolio.

When she can perform two Choreographed dances, one from scratch, and the other from scratch twice, THEN, and only then, can she call herself...