Re: Geting into Character
Ok, you are an actress--and a good one if you want to make a lot of money. Hopefully you are working in a club where they actually care what you look like onstage, so you are also performing for an audience.
You definitely want to psych yourself up and adopt a persona. Might as well make it as fun and glamorous as possible. I am sure there are many ways to go about this. I never had any ritual for psyching myself up as DJ, but maybe thats not a bad idea. Rituals have their place.
By the way, and I repeat, Karma is a great name--I hope you are wise enough to use it onstage.
Re: Geting into Character
Yes, getting into character, yup. In the beginning I never really was aware that this was what I was doing but as my stage persona developed I found that YES, I certainly had two different roles.
It seems to come as I prepare my make up (heavier - stage make up) everything coming thru larger than life, even just walking off the street into the club I am working at, is enough to switch over. Its automatic.
Re: Geting into Character
You are an actress like djoser said. You can not be who you really are when you are not working. You hustle at work for money, you flirt with all the guys, and you (should) be dressing differently and wearing things you would never wear on the street.
It's all about who you "are not". Thats why we have so many tips for newbies. Become a woman who wants to make money! It's a job, lots of dancers even "fake" liking a guy, because he is an ass, but money. Become that actress, we should not be when we are outside the club. Read "You know your a stripper when". It's funny, but some are Sooo true! We need to watch it outside. Lol.
Pamela
Re: Geting into Character
Whenever I do a performance or just go dancing at a disco, I frequently put myself into a different space. I might fantasize I'm a prince or a Romeo. It's almost like a trance. I let the music take control of my body and set it to the motions. At that point I'm practically detached from who's around me, who I am, and where I am. Heck, I'd probably freak out if I was conscious of it.
Re: Geting into Character
When I started dancing I was this total little tomboy. I mean, I was horrible. The older women at my club sat me down one day and made me watch Beauty and the Beast, and Pretty Woman, Marilyn Monroe movies, and a bunch of movies with ladylike and sexy but ladylike women in them. Then they said, that is who you will be at work from now on.
So when I'm getting ready for work I become my Marilyn Monroe character. Soft, sexy, horny, maybe slightly willing.
Think about it like this: when you're on stage, you can't be thinking about how the customers are all assholes and you have to go grocery shopping tomorrow, you won't make any money. If you go on stage and you think about sex, or whatever, it will show in the way you move and you will make money.
Sometimes I get so into it, the way I'm moving and how soft I am and everything, that at the end of a lapdance and look down and go "ohmygod there's a man underneath me!!"
Lena
Re: Geting into Character
I begin getting into character as the makeup and hair gets done. Suddenly I am looking at a new woman in the glass. My next ritual is to just feel powerful: I close my eyes and I envision my being irresistible, I envision myself being the seductress and no one saying no, I envision money and smiles and my being in demand... then I sort of pull it all into "core". Then I go downstairs and use a modified version of my old catwalk walk while keeping a sort of "shimmering" image of myself in my head.
For one scene in particular, and for just a smile, check out the film "Dangerous Beauty". It is about the famous 16c. courtesan Veronica Franco (albeit a sappy and abridged version of the story). The scene where her mother is teaching her to eat and drink seductively is priceless.
Re: Geting into Character
I just danced for my first time last night and I didn't make up a stage name, I used my real name.... after dancing the entire night i kinda wished i had told a different name, because the person dancing up there wasn't me. All of the customers are regulars so they now know me by my real name... should i not worry about this and just continue to use the same name? ???
Re: Geting into Character
Hey girl, I used my real name, which is Ginger. Believe me, those guys think it is fake. I asked someone his name and he said something off the wall and asked mine. I said ginger and he just laughed and said yeah right. I'm going to change it though, use the name of an actress ppl say I remind them of, maybe you should do the same. When I'm on stage I feel completely different, I love it! I think I may have taken things too personal b/c I used my real name. Good luck, ttyl.