#quickstep

[beetle-clan]

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Webby :- ( i felt so sad posting moon 31 knowing what happened to them only 2 moons later

[it-happened-one-fic]

Dancing Through The Stars - Viral - Caelus - Quickstep

Author Notes: I've already wrote one of these for the Twisted Wonderland fandom (Strictly NRC Dancing), and I'm still working on the series for the Genshin Impact fandom (Dancing with Visions & Dancing with Visions 2), so I thought I'd try and do one for the Honkai: Star Rail fandom! (As a quick disclaimer I do not play Honkai: Star Rail but have followed the fandom in varying levels of activity since approximately the release. You can just think of me as a friendly ghost). Additionally, I'm just going to be sticking with female reader for this series and all of this is going to be from the "you" perspective (I'm practicing!). The performance was inspired by Alix Earle and Val Chmerkovskiy’s Quickstep to the song “Pop Muzik” by M on Dancing with the Stars.

If you wouuld like to read more of this series, the fics can be found here: Dancing Through The Stars Master-List.

Type: Female reader/ sfw/ fluff/ can be platonic or romantic/

Word Count: 1359

You shifted quietly, glancing nervously over at Caelus before the lights cut on. But, simply put, you couldn’t help but feel anxious about this performance.

You were being paid good money to put on a quickstep performance with inspiration from one of the recent dance trends. All in all, not that hugely problematic of an issue save for the fact that your partner had gotten injured last second in a bit of scuffle which had left you partnerless. 

Honestly speaking, you were beyond lucky that Caelus had stepped up, from out of absolutely nowhere, to help you. Proclaiming that he not only knew the recent dance trend, but had one of the most watched videos available thanks to March.

So, you’d gratefully accepted his offer and taught him the steps to the quickstep as quickly as possible. Praying that the audience would be relatively small and that this would all blow over. 

But apparently Caelus had not been joking about his take on the dance trend being an internet sensation, because in the single day before the performance word had gotten out that he would be one of the dancers. And after that, tickets had practically been being sold at the speed of light.

At this point, almost all of Penacony was apparently coming to see us. And it just made matters worse since, despite Caelus’s surprisingly quick learning and definite eagerness to help, he still had only just learned the quickstep. The number of things that could go wrong were almost incalculable.

At odds with your concern, Caelus seemed perfectly at ease though. In fact, when he noticed your nervous glance his way, he blinked owlishly before holding up his hand in a slight wave followed by a wink that had you staring at him in mild disbelief.

After a brief moment you let out a sigh though, a smile slipping onto your face as you shook your head at his characteristic lack of worry. You supposed that was just a part of Caelus’s charm that helped to make him oddly reliable despite his generally relaxed, go-with-the-flow demeanor.

And, at the very least the quickstep’s playful nature was a good fit for Caelus overall. You would just have to hope that everything worked out.

The lights clicked on as you resolved to match Caelus’s calm and the music started with its heavily syncopated beat.

You bounced your shoulders, glancing over at Caelus once more to see him smiling as he met your gaze. A glimmer in his bright yellow eyes as his shoulder bounces somehow became just that much more playful the moment his eyes found mine.

And then, perfectly in time, you both snapped into position. Your positions mirrored as you faced the audience. One arm raised with your palms facing out, while the other was angled out to the side and exactly opposite your raised one as you both moved your hips and shoulders in exaggerated circles.

Caelus froze in place as you moved through the next motions which he was, admittedly, better at than you were since they formed the next part of the viral dance. And the very moment you’d finished, he was repeating your motions, at twice the speed.

You almost laughed as you both popped back upright and shifted to the side with exaggerated swinging motions as we traded sides of the stage. With you crossing the floor in front of him before he spun, facing you as you bounced your hands to the rapid drum beat.

You both straightened once more, his arms popping up with comedic speed that almost seemed exaggerated as you slipped into closed hold. Moving rapidly across the stage with quick footsteps interspersed with little twists towards each other where you shifted up onto tip-toe before twisting back and continuing onward.

In just a few moments you were all but trotting forward, giving little hops as you moved along. And you abruptly realized you had absolutely no reason to be concerned. Because apparently along with Caelus’s inexplicable ability to pick up most any fighting style or path he wanted, he was also a weirdly good dancer.

He leaned you back, rotating with you quickly as he grinned widely and you almost found yourself laughing in delight as you danced across the floor together.

And, as if egged on by your reaction, he started lip-syncing to the song. Making exaggerated expressions along the way and causing cheers to erupt from the audience as the two of you shifted around each other. 

He slid around behind you, with your hands still grasped in his, so that your arms crossed in front of you as you both bounced your shoulders playfully to the beat before you slipped under his arm and lifted your hands at the same time so that he could spin.

And the moment he’d finished his turn he was twirling you so that the two of you could slot yourselves back into closed hold with a pointed smile at the nearby camera that was filming us.

You danced backward, reaching the middle of the stage and stopping there. Starting into the more complex, hopping steps where you both had to perfectly match each other and you hesitated, lagging with him until he was ready and he nodded. Bobbing his head determinedly with a brief expression of focus appearing on his face as you started.

But almost as quickly as that expression appeared, it disappeared and he was grinning again. Looking over at you excitedly from where he’d glanced down to check his feet placement.

You bobbed your head encouragingly, briefly letting go of his hands as you both leaned forward with one hand behind your backs. As if you were bowing to one another before you both reached out and clasped hands again and started to the side. Moving across the stage once more.

You actually laughed outright as he swung your hands lightly before you spun together. Your hands stayed locked together even as you both mirrored each other and leaned backward into the rotation before you were popping back upright and spinning out so that the two of you were hand-in-hand, facing the audience.

And even despite your early concerns, they were loving it. Clapping along and singing to the song. Some were even standing and mimicking the dance trend that had inspired the performance.

Robin and March, in particular, were side by side and cheering along enthusiastically. Swaying lightly to the music and laughing as March snapped pictures of you and Caelus.

You spun across the floor, reaching out and feeling Caelus grasp your arm with a firm grip as you let yourself lean towards the floor as he walked in a circle. And guided, by your shared momentum and his motions, you spun across the floor before slowing and letting him pull you back up before the two of you parted.

Standing side-by-side and raising your arms to greet a new onslaught of cheers as the audience joined the two of you in the dance trend’s motions before the two of you turned to re-enter closed hold yet again.

You danced lightly across the stage, laughing all the while right until the last second where you broke apart and Caelus hit his knees. Bracing one hand and sliding across the floor on his knees before turning to look back at you with a wide smile and bright eyes as he reached back.

Your hand found his easily as you suppressed the urge to giggle at the sheer energy your dance held as he tugged you, spinning across the floor, towards him before you all but threw yourself backward and over his bent knee where he caught you in a dip right at the last beat of the song.

And it was no exaggeration to say the crowd went wild. Their cheers were almost deafening as you felt Caelus tug you up and into a tight hug with hardly any effort. And your arms were wrapping around him almost instinctively as you laughed into the tight embrace he gripped you in as he shook you back and forth as gently and excitedly as possible.

If you would like to read more:

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[triskadecaphobia]

I love this woman ❤️❤️. And Miranda, too 😁

[dwtsfun]

Dancing with the Stars Season 34 Week 9: 20 Years, Can You Believe It

Surprise! I'm writing about this week. And it will be the last week that I write about because the judging was atrocious and the level of dancing for it to be week 9, is so incredibly weak. But I felt like this was a good week to write about to sum up my thoughts on each couple.

Before we get into the couples, I want to get into the celebration piece of the show. I'm gonna be honest with y'all, I wish they were given a separate special like they got for the 10th anniversary. While it was nice to see old pros and stars in the audience and I loved that Tom was the guest judge, I don't think we got to celebrate everyone in the way that I felt was sufficient. I mean this is 20 years! How many shows do you all know that make it that long? It was nice seeing old winners (although half of them were from some of the more recent seasons). And I'm glad we got to see the six original pros, even though I felt it was too short. But I wanted to see other performances like we saw in 2015. Now that there's enough of them, we could've done an all NBA/WNBA (s/o to Arike) dance. And there could've been other performances. I just think there were so many missed opportunities for this one. It felt like the 500th anniversary special from last season. And I think they could've gone harder for the 20th year anniversary. If they had, we might've gotten more people from the past to come back.

Freestyle Homage Round

Elaine and Alan (Mario and Karina from Season 3)- Salsa (Score=36)- Elaine did a really good job here. She didn't miss a step. The dance was rhythmic. Her arms looked good. And her hips were great. I wish her legs had been a bit stronger and sharper. That was the one thing that was missing here. So I agree with the 9s. This dance was fantastic and Elaine is hitting her stride at the right time.

Robert and Witney (Bindi and Derek from Season 21)- Foxtrot (Score=40)- People have been mad at this score all week, but honestly, it was well deserved. There were slight issues with his frame, but sometimes the emotional performance of a dance kinda trumps that. And I also want to add that Robert's technique was really good outside of the small (and I do mean small ) frame issues. He is so much more fluid in his movements now than he was when he started. His lines were gorgeous. His attention to the details was so good. There's a certain thing that he did in all of his previous dances that stops the fluidity of the performance. However, I did not see that in this dance. It was great seeing Bindi out there on the floor with him. Witney's choreography was beautiful. Yeah, this was the dance of the night for me.

Andy and Emma (Jordan and Lindsay from Season 25)- Quickstep (Score=29)- Yikes. This was bad. I've been avoiding Andy's dances all season, because I just don't think he's the enjoyable type of bad. His bad is very pedestrian and annoying and I feel nothing when he dances. So I would've given this quickstep a 5. It was WAY overscored. I'm sure he was trying, but no. It was slow. His frame was terrible. He was out of sync. It lacked musicality. I hate how they invoke Len's name for dances that he would've hated and act like he would've loved it. Len would've chewed Andy and Emma up after that dance, told them that it's their time to go and thrown out a 5 or 6.

Dylan and Daniella (Milo and Witney from Season 27)- Argentine Tango (Score=40)- While I had issues with Andy's scoring, I think this was WORSE. It was a fine Argentine tango, don't get me wrong. But take Daniella out of that routine and what do you see? Dylan was hesitant. His ins and outs of the lift were not seamless. He didn't dance much. The in between moments left much to be desired. His frame needs work. It just wasn't perfect score worthy. And it definitely wasn't deserving of the crown of best male Argentine tango. That Gilles tango was superb and there were others right on his heels. Like I did for male rumbas when CAI made a similar wild claim about Joseph Baena and Daniella (go figure), I will be posting some of the best male Argentine tangos to show you all what Dylan is up against and what she conveniently forgot. Anyway, 36 max for me. That 40 was a crime.

Jordan and Ezra (Wayne and Witney from Season 31)- Cha-Cha-Cha (Score=37)- This would've been an appropriate score for Jordan if Dylan hadn't gotten a perfect score and if Andy had been given 6s. But as soon as those two events happened, she needed a perfect score for this. While it was a very very good dance, there were a couple of issues. The first is that Jordan's free arm becomes a little gymnast-y. So she needs to loosen up the arm that isn't doing anything. The other thing is that at one point in the routine, her legs were lagging just a tad. Great dance overall, but I did notice those things.

Alix and Val (Nev and Jenna from Season 29)- Foxtrot (Score=40)- It was good. Great even. And the perfect score was deserved. But Alix bores me as a dancer. Sorry. I wish I felt something when she dances. I don't though. It's nice. That's it. She's the only one left in the cast that I feel like that about. She's a "meh" kind of performer.

Whitney and Mark (Gabby and Val from Season 31)- Argentine Tango (Score=40)- It was good. I think Whitney has a tendency to lose a bit of control when she dances. And while it wasn't big this time, I saw slight moments where her legs lost some polish. I also think her legs were a bit soft in certain spots. It was great. But meh.

Relay (Really Just a Dance-Off) Round feat. Previous Winners

So this round was silly. I didn't particularly care for the idea of it. These celebs are not professionals and many of them have been out off the dancefloor for over 10 years. Anyway, let's get to it.

Jordan and Apolo vs Elaine and Rashad- Quickstep- This was my favorite relay of the three. I think it was evenly matched. Both couples had similar problems (timing and synchronicity). But for me, the couple that won was Jordan and Apolo. Their frame was better to me. I gotta really commend Apolo for that frame. That was the best frame that I've seen from a male celeb on this show in years. Rashad and Elaine were great too. But yeah, the frame took those two over the top for me.

Dylan and Rumer vs Andy and Kaitlyn- Viennese Waltz- An obvious Dylan win here. This was the best I've ever seen Dylan. Probably because he couldn't hide behind how good Daniella is. Rumer also partnered him really well and her lines were gorgeous. As for Andy? Well, yeah. What I will say is that Kaitlyn really bored me throughout her entire season. However, this little thing was the most I enjoyed Kaitlyn on the dancefloor. So that lets me know that Artem was the problem there. There was so much to that performance and I was feeling it.

Robert and Xochitl vs Alix and Joey- Jive- People are trying to make this close, but it was not. Not at all. Robert was the winner here. He was made to jive. He and Xochi also had great chemistry. I want to shout Witney out here as well. She had to teach Xochi the technique for jive since she never actually did it in her original season. And that girl was good. I wish the judges had pointed that out. Their kicks and flicks were sharp and super energetic. Alix and Joey? A different story. Those kicks lacked sharpness and energy. And Joey's footwork was atrocious. I told y'all all last season that his feet were bad. Now that we have another capable male up there with him, everyone can see exactly what I was talking about with him. Zero technique from him. Just vibes and tricks that didn't pan out.

So that was it. The last couples standing were Andy and Emma, Elaine and Alan, and Jordan and Ezra. And Andy was eliminated. It was beyond time. He had fun. But nah, I'm not watching anymore, but no one else deserved to have to sit through two full length dances from him next week. Of all 34 seasons, he's one of the worst dancers to make it to the 2 dance a week point of the competition. That's all I got. Let me know your thoughts and I will be back soon with that Argentine Tango post and some other things to celebrate the 20th year anniversary (and also the 14th year of my blog!).

[strictlycomedancers]

Alex & Johannes | Quickstep - Suddenly I See from The Devil Wears Prada

Score: 7,8,7,8 (30)

[gifs-of-puppets]

The Muppet Show (1976-1981)

[idverbhim]

[ktkellart]

Puttin' on the ritz - Good Omens version

When I saw Layton and Nikita dancing the quickstep to 'Puttin' on the Ritz' on Strictly come dancing in their beige and black trousers, my mind wandered to Good Omens, (naturally). So by the time the dance finished, all I could see was Aziraphale and Crowley dancing and having the time of their lives. Which gave me an idea. 

So, with nearly 400 individually drawn and coloured frames later using the rotoscoping technique, edited using free programs and an embarrassing amount of hours of work. (I have a new found respect for animators now!) here is my silly little animation! I hope you enjoy and it puts a smile on your face!

I may tidy it up in the future, or I might leave it as it is... I’m working on 4 or 5 animatics at the moment so we’ll see. Haha! Too many ideas, not enough time!

- Music by George Porter 

- Background from Good Omens Season 2 ‘Before the beginning’ scene 

- Rotoscoped from Layton and Nikita’s dance on Strictly