Wednesday 20 August 2014

ToySoldier Thor -- Fellow Dance Groupie

ToySoldier Thor - Photo by Toy


Points her finger up at ToySoldier.  That man up there.  Yes him.  He's the reason I became a dance groupie!  

ToySoldier Thor is another of the artists who exhibited at the art gallery which I curated and co-owned and who became a good friend.  If Roni is Renaissance Woman, Toy is SL Renaissance Man! 

A Second Life artist who also has shown and sold his SL work in Real Life exhibits, he's the creator of landscape sculpties which are used all over the grid.  He built a wonderful five storeyed gallery to display his 2D and 3D artwork and also sells his artwork through Deviant Art.  As a music lover, he follows many live music performers and attends multiple concerts every evening in SL. Karaoke anyone?  Yes, he loves to sing at the various Karaoke locations around the grid! Besides having his own website and blog, ToySoldier Thor.com, he is very active on Facebook and the new Avatar Social Network.  Yep, SL Renaissance Man!

But he too has a passion for dance! He kept telling me about the Guerilla Burlesque dance performance group, how professional the show was, how much I would enjoy it.  He never missed it!  You get the idea!  There was just one little wrinkle.  It starts at 12 midnight on Friday nights!  Plus you have to arrive at least an hour earlier to get into the sim before it fills up!  Sighs.

Persuaded by his enthusiasm, I braved the witching hour and the long wait and I too was hooked! Even though I crash out at least three times during the performance and sometime before it even starts I try to go as often as I can.  Fortunately logging into last location seems to get me back into the sim again. I dare not take photographs there, although Toy usually does and posts them to his Facebook wall.  Of course I persuaded Roni to come along too.  She'd love to be a dance performer in Second Life if she had more time so it wasn't hard.

So you see, it's all ToySoldier's fault that I've become a dance groupie!  Oh and of course the amazing dance group at Idle Rogue, the Guerilla Burlesque!  But more about them another day.

Of course besides being a dance groupie, ToySoldier Thor has created one of the most beautiful dance- related objects in Second Life in my opinion.   If there's a fire in my SL collection gallery, this is what I'll be grabbing to take with me and save from the "flames".  


The Princess and the Goblin
3D mesh sculpture
created by Toysoldier Thor - photo by JMB Balogh, in his gallery


Of course there's a story behind this exquisite mesh sculpture which so reminds me of Henry Moore's work.  From the artist's notes for the work:

One morning I was reading the daily paper.  I came across a lifestyles photo of two premiere ballet dancers from the Royal Winnipeg Ballet as they were in mid-pose while rehearsing for their up-coming lead roles in THE PRINCESS & THE GOBLIN.  The Dancers were Alexander Gamayunov and Serena Sandford. 
The position the local newspaper (Winnipeg Free Press) captured them in immediately caught my eye on the intimacy of the embrace.  I do not know what inspired me as soon as I saw the photo but I wanted to try to create a 3D digital model of this pose as an artwork. I tore out the photo from the newspaper and went to work.  Over a week later, I completed my 3D model as well as this 2D rendered artwork from the model.


 The Princess and the Goblin
in 2D and 3D
in my collection gallery


Great dancers are not great because of their technique, they are great because of their passion.   
-- Martha Graham

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