Aerial Dancing Practice...

Since being contacted by an aerialist dancer, the idea of using this technique in my animation is very exciting. After watching some videos on Youtube as examples of aerial dancing, I have noticed a lot of it relies on the poses set by the dancer at each stage of the routine, as well as the set up for it. It looks like it takes a lot of physical strength to perform a dance of this kind, so I really need to show the focus in weight and the strain on the silk as the dancer moves in order for the animation to be believable. Here's an example of aerial dancing:



From this I have taken poses to sketch, as practice incase this idea develops further. With these sketches I wanted to practice gaining the 'line of action' in a characters movements, so in my examples I've marked each with what I think represents the action.

I observed the video above to create these drawings, and I think most of them are fairly accurate; I've noticed that all of the positions look arced and smooth, as opposed to a straight line - even when her leg's bent they aren't completely angled.

With this in mind, I will watch the dancer I end up collaborating with to see how smooth her actions are, and after practicing looking for the line of action, I should be able to draw poses more accurately to keep them interesting throughout my animation.