Matryoshka Dance Tutorial - B

This side contains the chorus and the ending. There are two parts in the chorus that are almost the same, but I made two of the cause there obviously are some differences~

Matryoshka 3



Matryoshka 6



As you can see, first half is the same, then some changes intervene.

Part 7 is next:

Matryoshka 7



There are some similarities here as well. If you managed to learn the dance till here, you’ll definitely find it easy. And the ending, which I’m still having troubles with ^^” the direction is giving me headaches…

Matryoshka 8



And if you reached this point, congrats, you’re done! Here’s the mirrored version – practice on this. It won’t be hard, you’ll just put everything together and you’re done~

Matryoshka Mirrored



Dance Tips:

- You might want to personalize the dance – and to fill in some moments where you might feel like you’re just standing there through the dance
- Careful with the posture
- The song has a doll feeling to it – of course, the moves might fit to be the same
- Have fun while you’re doing this~

Matryoshka Dance Tutorial – A

I found an awesome dancer in the wide world of youtube, and she agreed to let me make tutorials out of her dances. Which is quite awesome as well~ Here, see for yourself~ here's her channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/mikuruchan88

I didn’t explain all the steps like I did with the other one, mainly cause of lack of time and because I think people get bored when you post huge stuff. But if you have troubles just leave a message and I’ll gladly answer xD

Fist of all, this one doesn’t have subtitles as they don’t really make that much difference in learning this dance. Here are the lyrics if you want to get used to them: http://www.animelyrics.com/doujin/vocaloid/matryoshka.htm

Then, it has two sides, A and B, all made up of four parts. I think there’s a bit of a problem with the audio, but that didn’t even make troubles for me, and I have no kind of experience in this, so I think it’ll be okay like this. Also, I didn’t make a tutorial video for this, as it would be like a slow mirrored version and it would be pointless~ even so, if you need it, send me a message and I’ll post it.

This dance is easier if you learn each part separately, and at the end practice it together from the beginning. To start, learn these three parts:

They have similarities, and they’re pretty easy. Once you learn the first one, the other two will be pretty easy.

Matryoshka Part 1



Matryoshka Part 2



Matryoshka Part 4 [No, there's no mistake, and no one ate part 3 xD]




This part 4 originally had one more part of the dance in it, but I took it out for the sake of letting this being continuous. It’s better if you learn it separately and add it to the dance when you practice it as a whole ^.^ Here’s the missing part, you’ll see at the end where to put it, but don’t worry about that yet:

Matryoshka Part 5



Part B of the tutorial will be in the next post xD Have fun~

Happy Synthesizer Dance Tutorial

First tutoriaaal~

First of all, there are many many videos on youtube with this dance. Of course, some better than others, but the Japanese dancers will always look better doing it. And it’s easier to learn the dances from them, as they seem to have more precision in their moves. But before actually starting to learn a dance, since it’s probably not in your native language, you have to get accustomed to the lyrics, and to make sure you actually understand them, even get familiar with it up to the point when you memorize the lyrics. That’s a first step.

For this, here are the lyrics. I thought of pasting them in here at first, but since it seems to take too much space I’ll just link the source: http://www.animelyrics.com/doujin/vocaloid/happysynth.htm

Right now I’m looking for a video editor, but till I find a good one I’ll use what I have. Also I can’t say I’m completely accustomed to all the means internet provides, so till I find a better way I’ll just upload the short tutorial videos, since there are more for each tutorial, and I’ll post them here. I’m using this video because it seemed clear to me, and the moves were easy to distinguish.This video was originally posted on youtube by Treetopfan: http://www.youtube.com/user/Treetopfan

First of all, we’ll take each separate part of the dance. I split it in 5 main parts.

Part 1 – to get used to the rhythm

I know it is an easy part of the dance, mainly like the whole dance itself, but I, not having any kind of exercise in dancing till now, had troubles even here xD

To put it simple, follow the lyrics on the video – bow on the emphasized syllables and bend your knees on the other ones. If you listen carefully on the slowed down version of the song, the beats are quite clear.

This part, as well as the whole song, goes like this: 1 – 2 - 3 – 4. So, after you done leaning forward for the 6^th time (1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 1 – 2 ), you do the spinning hands motion for 3 and 4. After that, you start again from 1, for the part without lyrics. From 1 to 3 you wave your hand from one side to another, raising the corresponding knee at the same time, and at 4 the hand goes in the same direction as 3 while the knee alternates. I bet it’s more obvious on the video itself than from this explanation, but it’s interesting even to see the math of the song.

Part 2 

This one is actually made of 4 parts/groups of moves (2 lines from the song for each group). If you want, you can learn the separately and join them together after you know them all:

-                           first part: first two lines, the weight shifting from one leg to another with the alternate hand to the shoulder, ending with the spinning;

-                           second part: next two lines that say “Everything seemed to shine so brightly/Those days are smiling clearly” – the moves fit the lyrics -> it’s a bright mood, you look back to the happy days: hand at your forehead, leg at a 45 degrees angle during the first two beats, then come back to the center for the next to beats to complete the cycle of 4. Do the same on the other side (slightly bounce on your feet to feel the (1,2) (3,4) beats, don’t be stiff); then the walking-like moves that form almost a  “+” shape with the sides at a 45 degrees angle – technically, the left leg stays in the middle while the right leg forms the “+”, when the right leg touches the ground, the left one goes up; 

-                           third part: first 4 beats are (1,2) (3,4) again: point up to the right side twice; then come back to the middle, keep your heels on the ground while your toes go left – right – left and then clap. Do the same for the left side;

-                           fourth part: do the cute bouncy move ^.^ it comes natural cause you only move in the opposite direction, as you turn around; moves last two beats, one leg touches the ground for each beat; at the end, hold your hands together at your shoulder level, then move your elbows to left – right, then spread your hands to the sides as you cross your legs and get ready to turn around;

Part 3 – the chorus – each paragraph is a group of moves 

-                      Keep your thumbs connected after you turn around. You’ll alternate your hands up and down fitting the lyrics – it’s pretty easy, just feel the beat; at “kimi no” when you move your left leg and your hands, move your hips on the beat just like you do with your hands.

-                      Now form a heart shape with your hands ^.^ and imitate the heartbeat motion with your heart-shaped hands, still keeping to the lyrics. While you do that, your legs go left – right (2 times for each side). The legs part confused me a bit, as I can’t seem to be able to do it as the dancer does, so I was happy to just move each leg to the side and then bring it back. (this lasts for 6 beats) Just like in the beginning, the last two beats from the second cycle of 4 are completed with the hands spinning move.

-                      The next move is simple, you only have to keep in mind that the knee move starts in the opposite direction of the hand (for the left side).

-                      After you’re done with that, next is the big circle with your hand – you first face left, then right. For the move when you step backwards, move your right hand first up, then down, while you keep the other to your chest – I’m explaining cause it confused me a bit. Once again, with no kind of exercise, even this pretty dance was hard for me at some parts.

-                      What follows is a sequence of pretty quick moves starting with the beat before “nanno torie mo nai” – one for each beat. You could try understanding how the moves go, then practice without music while you count to 8, as slow as you need, so you get used to it. The 7 – 8 beats fall on “hito-tsu” – that’s where you motion “one” with your hand. For the next cycle of 4, swing right – left – right – left, and then do the 3 moves when you step forward, ending with a clap to complete the cycle of 4 beats.

-                      Next is the cute bouncing move, that’s easy. After that, it’s like you’re trying to draw a square on your body – your hands go parallel, first horizontal – while you step to the side with your left leg - then vertical – step behind with your right one – it ends on “tsutaeruyo”, so the hand move is like you give something to the watchers.

Part 4 – I doubt it needs any explanation; the first three parts were actually the main ones, parts 4 and 5 are linkers

Part 5

This is difficult. I understood how it goes, but I can’t do the moving-to-the-side motion.

Mainly, you have to touch the corresponding leg with your hand, and after you did that for both sides, do the same but with opposite leg. Then step in front (1 - 2) and back (3 - 4) and then you do that move with your legs. It’s like…while you keep one heel from one leg and the toes from the other leg to the ground, you move the other heel and toes. Like the move the girls from SNSD do in their dance. Or like Yamada from HSJ does during the Making of MNSB.

And that’s pretty much it. Once you learn there 5 parts, put them together. It goes like this: 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 2 – 3 – 5 – 3 – 3 (beginning – stanza – chorus – linker1 – stanza – chorus – linker2 – chorus - chorus) Here's the mirrored version:

Tips:

·                    Always keep your back straight;

·                    As far as I noticed, during the dance, when you have nothing to do with one hand or both, you keep them on your hips – I guess that’s up to you if you do it, it just looks neat like that;

·                    Don’t be afraid to raise your legs or to move your arms; don’t be stiff;

·                    Energy is a plus;

·                    Once you get used to the dance, try your best to have fun while you do it, so you can smile at the same time. It gives a better look and a better experience for yourself;

·                    Don’t force yourself to dance exactly like some other dancer does. Do the moves in a way that it’s comfortable for you, but keep to the original dance and don’t be too dramatic (I’m saying this cause I saw a version of the dance today and the feeling it gave off definitely wasn’t pleasant, not because of the quality of the dance but because of the dancer’s gestures).

 Here is the Youtube tutorial:

After you’re done, if you want to check the moves with the video of the one who choreographed this – also if you want to see an amazing colab video – check this:

All this text might be confusing and boring to read, right? Well for the next tutorial I’ll try to come up with a simpler and better way to put things, but for now I hope at least the videos helped someone. If someone has any request of tutorial for a dance, I’d be glad to do that, since it doesn’t take me too long.

I’ll keep posting about the things I see on youtube, while I’ll be looking for a proper way to post the short videos here. Also, I’m using an inactivated version of AVS Video Editor, that’s why videos have that watermark, but I like that software and I thought it was worth coping with the watermark.

Have fun ^.^ I’d love to see if anyone tried this.

Support Japan – The way we can

We definitely can’t do much if we’re not there, we can’t do much if we can’t donate, and even if we donate, we can’t do much about those people’s suffering. It’s heartbreaking if we realize indeed what happened there, and it’s overwhelming how they keep standing and how they face it.

Even so, I saw youtubers support those people in the way they can. They sing, they post different videos, I even saw channels who asked for subscribers, saying that “all revenue from the channel is going to charities helping the survivors of the tsunami”. Honestly, I had no idea what “revenue” meant. Sue me. Anyway, here:

The one that posted, ffstip -> http://www.youtube.com/user/ffstip

The video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auiN04lWnbk&feature=feedu

And, obviously, the channel ffstip was talking about http://www.youtube.com/partners4japan

I’ll say what ffstip said as well: I have nothing to do with this. I just thought this might help them.

I remember the news a few hours ago. It was, definitely, good news, they said something about how things are getting better at Fukushima. The news guy also said: “There’s a good news coming from the rescue teams as well: they found two more survivors under the ruins” or something like that. And then it hit me: what difference do two people make to the world? none. They technically mean nothing for the world compared to the thousands of victims that died there. But still, there is for sure someone out there, for whom those two people mean everything.

We are humans, so we should help humans the way we can. We might be kilometers away, it doesn’t matter. The truth is, we’re only one heartbeat away from them. Even if this is internet, those people are real just like we are, though some don’t realize it. We all live on the same earth; we’re all under the same sky.

Another nice thing I found, a song wrote, apparently, by a girl, for the victims in Japan. That girl’s friend sang it and posted it here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_1gg99bUxU&feature=feedf

Everyone supports Japan the way they can, and every little effort, even a song, even a dance, even a good word, I think it counts. Even if the disaster passed, there are still open wounds there that take time to heal. We should really do our best, we should learn from them, we should try being as strong as they are, we can change something through our everyday life, we can make things better. I myself pray for this, I pray for them, and I’m sure many people do it, no matter who says it’s useless.

YouTube Dancers/Dances

It is not a secret that YouTube has quite a few great dancers, and even more users that do their best to learn the dances.

All the dances usually are taken from J’pop/K’pop bands’ PVs or choreography that is made by different people for different songs. Like Vocaloid songs. Which, ask me, is pretty awesome.

What is even better is the fact that this activity cannot be labeled as ‘useless’, as some of the other internet related activities of the teenagers are. Dancing is a great thing, and is even a form of sport, since grown ups complain so much that we don’t practice. Even internet idols came out of this. But anyway, telling this might seem pointless since everyone that had contact with this ‘fandom’ knows it.

There are two types of dancers on youtube. Or at least I split them in two in my head. There are the dancers who have a channel on youtube, and the nico nico douga dancers whose videos are brought on youtube by different users, which I will mention sometimes. Also, I noticed that the first category is split in two as well: the dancers that are on their own, and the ones that joined a so called ‘project’. Anyway, I admire all of them, no matter how they do it, for their efforts and their enthusiasm.

I myself tried to learn a few dances. And that was the point where this idea came to me: since not everyone finds it  easy, but they still want to try dancing, what if there would be tutorials? There are none, or few, as far as I saw.

It’s simple for me to organize the dances in parts that make it easier to understand and practice, and since I’m doing that for myself, I thought of doing it for the others too. It's mainly about the math of it, and some dances can turn pretty easy. I don't promise to make easier the most complicated things - I don't aim for the impossible. What I'm trying is to give a possibility to learn the dances to the ones who find it hard - like me ^^ Also, another purpose of this is to bring together those great dancers from youtube, and to show them to the others. They are artists, they are awesome, and they deserve it.

This place might deal with singing too, the covers/fandubs or coverers/fandubbers, but that if the dance tutorials go well.

For now, I’ll try finish the first tutorial.