Scenario:

• You are using the Performance Director
• You are performing 2 dances – dance 1 has three dancers in it, dance 2 has seven dancers in it
• Your Performance Director has 2 notecards in it – one for dance 1 and one for dance two
• Movers 1, 2, and 3 have two notecards in them – dance 1 and dance 2
• Movers 4,5,6,7 have one notecard in them – dance 2
• You are using the same movers for both dances, and you are going to keep them all rezzed for the show

Issue:

When you play the routine for Dance 1 – dancers 4, 5, 6, and 7 move too!  They aren’t even in that dance!  <insert strangled cry here>

Why did they move?

When you load a performance director routine, this tells the movers which notecard to activate.  Have you ever noticed that your text labels change when you do this?  Maybe it changed from Dancer 1 to Werewolf?  Now the mover notecard for that routine is active and the mover will follow the movements for that routine when you press play.

But wait – movers 4, 5, 6, and 7 don’t have notecards for that routine!

They don’t, but movers still want to move and when they hear the Performance Director shout “GO!” like the great wizard of Oz.  They are going to follow one of the notecards they do have in the mover when you really want them to stay put and wait their turn.

The Answer:

Dummy notecards!  (yes, that is the technical term – I think…)

The movers for dancers 4, 5, 6, and 7 need a mover notecard for dance 1 too.  No, they aren’t in that dance, but they need a mover notecard that basically says “stay right here” for this routine.

I’m assuming you’re using a backstage routine/notecards so that all your movers wait backstage.  If this is the case, copy the backstage notecard for that mover, rename it the name of your 1st routine notecard, and put it into that mover.  Now mover 4 has a notecard for each routine, and for dance 1 the mover is being told to stay in its backstage position.

To sum it up:  All movers rezzed need instructions for each dance, much like military bootcamp.  You have to tell some of the recruits to stay, and some of the recruits to go run that 10 mile course.

Creating Dummy Notecards (a mover notecard that tells the mover not to move)

1. Decide where you want the mover to stay when not in a dance routine.  I usually go to the main dance venue I dance at to do this.
2. Rez out your stage manager and make sure it says it is configuring for that stage in local chat.
3. Put out a mover ring where you decided you want the mover to stay.
4. Rez one waypoint in the center of the ring.
5. Click on the designer ring and select “get notecard”.
6. Create a mover notecard with this information and add the additional commands such as @text Dancer4, @spot_dancer 4
7. Name this notecard the name of the routine the dancer ISN’T in.  In this case, they aren’t in Dance 1, so I’d name that movement card “Dance 1”
8. Add this notecard into dancer 4’s mover.
9. Now when you play Dance 1, mover 4 won’t move.  The notecard for that dance in the mover tells it where to stand and to stay there.
10. Repeat this for dancers 5, 6, and 7.