The long dance
The long dance is literally a dance endurace battle. These are both artistic and feats of strength. Being an elvish competition one of the most popular categories involves lyrical dance mixed with contortionist moves. Many categories include props and specific clothing styles.
Most categories of dance are half hour long performances graded on strength, beauty, and flexibility. Current popular categories of dance include: spider wall, mast, contortion, and staff. Spider wall and staff are performed with long baggy pants and tight tunics, with the remainder being in tight shorts and tank tops.
In recent years some are creating new categories, including the water balance dance done on a floating disk in the water. The other is the aerial dance, done on a tiny platform high above the ground. These new categories are spearheaded by the young elves and other ancestries picking up the tradition.
Novusmere is the most important competition in the country. It is both the most intense and has the highest cash prizes for winners in the various categories. Recently a set of non-elvish competitors have been attempting to place, but have a hard time doing so. This is partially due to the fact that elves are generally androgynous and natural contortionists, which makes commonly scored moves hard to complete visually with different body structures.
Most categories of dance are half hour long performances graded on strength, beauty, and flexibility. Current popular categories of dance include: spider wall, mast, contortion, and staff. Spider wall and staff are performed with long baggy pants and tight tunics, with the remainder being in tight shorts and tank tops.
In recent years some are creating new categories, including the water balance dance done on a floating disk in the water. The other is the aerial dance, done on a tiny platform high above the ground. These new categories are spearheaded by the young elves and other ancestries picking up the tradition.
Novusmere is the most important competition in the country. It is both the most intense and has the highest cash prizes for winners in the various categories. Recently a set of non-elvish competitors have been attempting to place, but have a hard time doing so. This is partially due to the fact that elves are generally androgynous and natural contortionists, which makes commonly scored moves hard to complete visually with different body structures.
History
Originally the long dance was actually an endurance competition with weapons. The original categories were knives, single blade, dual blade, blade and shield, polearm, bows, and magic bolt. It was quite often done wearing full armor and gear.
Participants
Most of the time individuals will enter the competitions, but there are entertainment group divisions during festivals.
Observance
Sometimes performed for entertainment at pubs or public events, it is most common during the late fall harvest festival. It is said that in the most elaborate dances one can bring luck to the new year. So many will work to perform a strong dance in expectation of the new year. Even without competitions many elderly or mid-life elves participate in these community dances at festivals. It can be uncanny for other races to see dozens of elves doing completely different dances all at once on the same field.
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