"Look Mom! The rod spins around my body with no hands! (and no, it's not a Dildo!)"
A rant on the Dancing Cane plot.
...The problem of most dancing cane routine is, as I see it, is that the magician isn't dancing "to" the cane. In fact, most of them isn't even dancing--they swing the cane like crazy, and their footwork don't even remotely resembling that of "moving gracefully". Their style of performance easily fall within one of two camps--the "here are 20 moves that you will never see the drum marcher do, because they can't" camp, or 2--"look ma, no hands!" camp.
Which really is the same camp--the "Mediocre performer desperately trying to impress his audience with his magic swingy wand." camp.
It doesn't take an intellect to find out what the problem is; on one hand, the audience couldn't understand what's the purpose for swinging the cane like that (other than to look impressive), and owing to the fact that most dancing cane moves are so repetitive in nature, the routine quickly ceases to be entertaining, and the performer easily losing the little engagement the audience had to begin with. The audience couldn't identify it as a dance, they couldn't make sense out of it, and they simply could't relate to it in any way.
To do the dancing cane properly, I see 3 goals in mind:
1) Learn to dance.
It's "Dancing" cane, not "spinning the cane around in circles till they get tired of you". Learn how to dance, let the audience understand and visualise the fact that you are doing a dance. And please, make efforts to make sure it at least looks GOOD.
Look no other than the living legend David Copperfield--he doesn't only makes the performance look great, he also made it clear Right from the start to the audience that he is DANCING, and it made that clear consistently throughout. Needless to say, he looked GOOD; obviously he did took his time to practice his ballroom footwork.
2) It's the cane dancing. The magic is on the cane. Give it the focus it deserves.
The other part where most magicians fail, is where their hands betrayed themselves--they threw the cane like a yo-yo, as if that is what you're supposed to do even if you're a magician. What comes as a result of this, is that the magician becomes a huge distraction to the effect. Take the effort and TRY to hide those awkward hand gestures; in the technical case where you can't, at least FIT it into a choreography; it is these gestures that removes your audience from appreciating the cane coming to life.
Here is Losander doing his dancing broom. Clearly Losander gave up on the "dance partner" concept, and turned it into an "enchanted" "broom under a magic spell" type plot. However the lesson is the came--he made the performance look EFFORTLESS. Never do you see him moving his hands awkwardly not in sync with the movement of the cane--his hand is exactly where they should be: at a distance from the broom, sensibly commanding it to move.
It definitely worked out, and it definitely looked entertaining.
3) Dance "TO" the cane, not with it.
the name is dancing "cane"---i.e. the cane is DANCING as your partner. So treat it like one. It is your job as a magician to make the cane come to life. HOLD her like you would hold a partner. make the cane MOVE like a human being would. make it INTERACT to you the way a real, breathing person. That is where all the puppetry skills comes in.
The closest man I have ever seen in making his performance resembling to a dance, is Simon Drake.He truly earn my respect in this area. This piece of his here falls within the "victim" style of performance; it is clear that there is still plenty of room for the "witness" and "killer" type of performing styles .
Depressingly, the idea of "dancing to an imaginary partner" is not even new. It has been there for decades, with mimes and dancers taking their shot at it throughout the years.
We really can borrow lessons from the dance and miming sector.
Within 20 minutes of googling, there are already 2 solid attempts by performers of different generations:
The classic:
Vicky Lane-- the "half-man, half-woman"
The modern:
Boy with tape on his face
(dance part from 4:23)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLs6eULXDqc
Just imagine if modern day dancing cane performers learnt 1% from the above acts and try to develop a "human character" for their cane; cane routines will never look the same again.
Hoping one day someone will create a dancing cane routine good enough for the community.
and if no one is doing it, maybe I would have to give it a try myself...
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