A Devious Waltz: Even My Blood Flowed Where He Willed It
Musical analysis for a choreography that will require split-second precision with deep, nuanced emotion to tell an ACOTAR DanceStory
Ahhhh yes, a DanceStory project that got interrupted—no, outright derailed by:
My mom’s stroke
My own brain crash
6 months of brain scans
A trip to the hospital
A trip to Oklahoma
A three-week trip to Colorado
Three trips to New Mexico
My mother’s death
Knee surgery
Two weeks traversing Wisconsin and Minnesota
Another week glamping in Missouri (that’s glam-camping if you didn’t know)
And now I’m getting ready to go to Hawaii in a week.
Apparently the Muse wanted me to have a year of heavy-duty EXPERIENCING before I get to do any more artistic regurgitation. Or…something. 🤪
Anyway, it’s all still in there in the back of my devious mind. Lurking. Plotting. Fermenting. Eventually, it’ll be ready for consumption.
Bwu-huh-huh… 😈
It begins with a scene. Riveting. Breath-stealing. Hair-raising. Awe-full.
Next comes the song, and then suddenly, I’m choreographing a dance-tale.
In the book, there is no description of what Our Girl is wearing, so I can dress however I want. I consider the mood she’s been in. Girlie. Our rough-hewn huntress has been experimenting with — gasp! — dresses, and it’s elicited quite pleasant results. Results like impassioned dances by firelight and faerie wine highs…kisses and touches at dreamy sunrise.
😈 Also: teeth. 😈
She’s the happiest she has ever been in her life. Now at breakfast (really, they were up so late that it’s technically lunch), yes. I think this calls for something frilly. Feminine. Floral and vulnerable.
And hips. We’ll need to see those. Not only will he need to be able to see them, enjoy them… (Who, exactly, am I talking about? You tell me.) But the dance will demand it. We’ll need to be able to see it all — curves, lines, beauty, beast.
My Spring Court dress, then. The one painted in vibrant flowers. Hothouse pink… purple royale…spring green with the tiniest hints of dusty cobalt and many a flash of gold. (All painted upon a canvas of black…shhhh…that’s important but we won’t really notice that yet.)
I’ll need a hip belt for this one.
Because.
I will.
And so.
At last we’re ready for movement. But to design that, I will require the exact sequence of events from the book’s plot, because this isn’t merely an image in my head that I’m setting into motion. No, I’m enacting a very specific moment from Book 1. An infamous moment. The one that incites the entire change of scenery that will thrust us into The Dark Moment(s), the Climax, and the Conclusion of this novel.
Spoiler alert: I’m about to flash this moment before your eyes with a lot of detail, so if you don’t want it spoiled, you might wanna look away. Just skip on down past the block quotes, and you can see what I do with it once I start analyzing the music.
My pre-choreographic notes from A Court of Thorns & Roses by Sarah J. Maas: Chapter 26. These are the actions and sensations I will need to embed into my choreographic sequence to correctly embody this scene: 1
He brushed Lucien aside. Air sharp n cold. Gently pried knife away. Sent it scattering across room. “Won’t do you any good. If you were wise you’d be screaming n running.” Confused. Trembled. No words or courage.
Against volition: body straightened, every muscle taut. Bones strain. It was magic but deeper. His power seized everything inside me, took control. Even my blood flowed where he willed it. “Human minds as easy to shatter as eggshells.”
His finger across base of my throat. I shuddered, eyes burning. Delightful: Trying to cry out in terror. If I’d had control I might have vomited. “Most delicious thoughts…” - outrage n shame. Trembled at the grip on my mind. Tam’s rage: deeper cord of terror in me. “She would have been the one…but she’s more stubborn than you.” Invisible claws: lazily caressing my mind, then vanished.
Sank to floor, curling over knees, reeled back in everything I was. Try to keep from sobbing, screaming, puking. Broken, frozen Tamlin. Claws hanging limp at his sides. “Beg. Lower.” Could have wept with rage at seeing Tam on his face. Stopped shaking. “You’re too desperate. Boring. What’s your name, love?” Mind blank n calm, blurt out Clare’s name. Voice nothing but a gasp. Rhys vanished into nothing as if he’d stepped through a rip in the world. Leaving us in horrible, trembling silence.
So that’s the scene.
Next comes the analysis of the song.
Because in a piece like this, where the choreography is highly linked to the intricate rhythm and hard-hitting accents, rather than sweeping melodies I can just swirl around to, I first have to map out the major musical arcs. Later, I fill in the details of the song’s nuances and special cues I need to hit. But first, the general flavors.
It starts like this:
RHYSAND - EVEN MY BLOOD FLOWED WHERE HE WILLED IT
(that’s the name of the dance)
0:00 Intro
:30 STOP & stalk
:49 Louder stalk - Rep 1
1:04 Rep 2
1:20 Rep 3
1:37 STOP - frenzy
2:15 STOP - low stalk
It sounds like this:
If you’re a Spotifier, you can open it up over there during our analysis if that makes life easier. (And add it to any of your own playlists, if you dig it. Friggin’ LOVE this song. Duh, that’s why I’m dancing to it. And a bunch of others from these Neoclassical albums.)2
0:00 - 0:32 THE INTRO
Time signature is crucial here. It’s in 8, but this is no ordinary marching 8. Did you hear it?
ONE! Two, three.
FOUR! Five, six, seven, eight.
ONE! Two, three.
FOUR! Five, six, seven, eight.
Oh wait, you have no idea what I’m talking about? This is totally the way that I feel, analyze, and count music for dance. Thank you to our STEEZY duo3 for mapping it out so brilliantly:
Geekier still:
Okay. Back to our song. With this in mind, this is how the time signature feels:
ONE! Two, three.
FOUR! Five, six, seven, eight.
ONE! Two, three.
FOUR! Five, six, seven, eight.
In our Intro, finding this time signature can be elusive until you understand what you’re listening for because there is no percussion. No audible downbeat through rhythm. There are only the stalky, ominous chords.
Until that ticking sneaks in around :13.
The clock ticks on the downbeat, so you can start setting your bodily metronome to it as we warm up.
In the Intro, there are 8 of these 8-counts. Technically, if you listen to those foreboding notes being played, it’s 4 and 4 — a repetition that is nearly identical except for the addition of that teensy ticking the second time through, and the big whoosh at the end.
After the whoosh they make us wait and hold our breath for a couple extra oddball counts of silence—they break our steady 8-count, just to set us on edge by not letting us know exactly when we’ll be starting the downbeat again.
Because this is a DEVIOUS dance, remember?
Music is storytelling. Through the music, the musicians conduct our emotions and play mad marionettist with us, just like Rhysand, Fae High Lord of the Night Court, is doing when he controls this piddly human’s mind and body.
The ticking adds even more tension. Why? Sounds like a clock.
And make no mistake, we are racing against the clock here. More spoilers ahoy: With every second that this diabolical Night Court prick lurks in our dining hall, the more likely it is that he will find Feyre Darling where she’s been hidden behind layers of glamour. (Feyre, for the purposes of this choreography, is me. The lone human in a cutthroat land of superpowered, practically immortal Fae.)
We’re also against the clock in the grander scheme of the book, because we’re mere days away from a deadline Feyre doesn’t even know she needs to outpace. (Yet.) Fail, and she dooms Tamlin — the one she loves — along with pretty much this entire magical land.
Did I pick this song because of that ticking time-bomb?
Yes. Absolutely.
But not consciously.
My left-brain and frontal lobe only noticed the ticking once I started to analyze the song. But it’s always been there, felt through the flavor by my right-brain and deeper impulses. Unless I call attention to these tiny details by dancing specific moves to them, they won’t necessarily register to anybody else while they watch the dance either, especially if they only watch it once.
But it’ll be there in the background of their subconscious, too…
Tick-tick-ticking away, and adding to the ever-building tension.
0:23 - 0:32 - THAT CRUCIAL LAST BIT OF THE INTRO
Often the intro to a dance is one of the last things I wind up choreographing. Just like drafting the opening of a novel, it is one of the elements most likely to change multiple times. I don’t worry much about choreographing the intro at this point. I know Feyre is standing by the window with Lucien, pretending that she’s nothing but a curtain and trying not to breathe.
But Rhysand smells her.
Then he Sees.
And he is NOT thrilled that his enemies are attempting to bamboozle him with glamour. He brushes Lucien aside, and then it’s just Rhys & Fey, face-to-face for the second time. At this point, all those niggling, hackle-prickly warning instincts she’d had about him are unequivocally confirmed.
For this suspended, breathless moment before Rhys starts getting all Rhysie, we have 4 counts of silence. The whoosh happens on 6, we hold for 78, and there are 2 random excess beats of suspended tension because Rhysand is the High Lord of Nightmares and loves to keep everybody off balance.
Prick.
:33 - :48 THE FIRST STALK
In this first pass after the Intro, we have only a 32-count section (four 8-counts).
There’s a different type of hit here. The ONE is still prominent, but the FOUR is much more subtle. In the Intro, these were evenly weighted piano chords. But now our ONE is a great, echoey THUD-D-D, and our FOUR is an ominous low note.
Take note of the D-D at the end of the THUD. As you tap out your metronome to the beat, now whisper quietly all the counts in parentheses — (shh!)
ONE-and-two, (three), FOUR (five, six, seven, eight)
ONE-and-two, (three), FOUR (five, six, seven, eight)
Or for my non-counters, you can feel it in a more right-brained way:
THUD-D-D, (shh), DOOM (stalk, stalk, stalk, stalk)
THUD-D-D, (shh), DOOM (stalk, stalk, stalk, stalk)
For this section, the musicians have done that delicious pattern that builds the tension and also alerts us to the fact that they’re about to change again. The pattern is called AAAB.
A) Something the same
A) Something the same
A) Something the same
B) Something Different.
This is a really common way to finish off a 32-count section. Or, like in the Intro, to finish off the second repetition in a 64-count section. Why?
This something different cues us to get ready to change.
As dancers, it’s really important to embody this. Whatever they’re doing in the music, choosing motions that mimic this cue also cues our audience:
To snatch a breath before the tidal wave crashes over our heads.
To inhale before we surge into the race for our lives.
To gasp—hold it…before a luxuriant siiiiiigh…
Whatever the musicians command us to do next.
In this case, we’re firing up the engines to launch from the short Stalking Section into the bulk of the song — the melodies and rhythmic pattern that will comprise the meat of this choreography before the Big Climax and the Conclusion.
Huh…sound familiar?
Like I said. Music is storytelling, just like dance — even if my dance is merely telling you the story of how a piece of music makes me feel.
In our stalky AAAB section, it goes like this:
A) THUD-D-D, (shh), DOOM (stalk, stalk, stalk, stalk) (1-8)
A) THUD-D-D, (shh), DOOM (stalk, stalk, stalk, stalk) (1-8)
A: THUD-D-D, (shh), DOOM (stalk, stalk, stalk, stalk) (1-8)
B) THUD-D-D, (shh, shh) DHUNK. Zzzzzhwing! (1-8)
For my left-brained counters:
A) ONE-and-two, (three), FOUR (five, six, seven, eight)
A) ONE-and-two, (three), FOUR (five, six, seven, eight)
A) ONE-and-two, (three), FOUR (five, six, seven, eight)
B) ONE-and-two (three, four) FIVE. (six, seven, eight)
When you listen to the song, did you notice that other little sneaky-deaky background sound growing louder…and louder…and LOUDER throughout the last three 8 counts? The fast strings sneak in around :40.
Yeah, use that, too. Or at least register it in your own ever-intensifying tension. This is not a clock ticking. This is…well, for me in this choreography, it’s the sound of a racing mind. It’s being discovered, exposed, and menaced by somebody who’s just made my two big, bad protectors quake in their widdle Fae booties.
At least, I thought Tam & Luci were big and bad until I got a load of this dude, Rhysand. Annnnd now he’s in my face—nope. He’s actually raking around in my head with his mental claws—fuck!
This head-fuckery and the subsequent taking control of my body, my breath, even the very blood inside my veins is cued by the windup that will zzzzzzhwing us into the next section.
This time, Rhys does not dangle us, breath held, feet-kicking in uncertainty as we wonder when the downbeat will continue. Nope. You can clap out this metronome under the zzzzwing and know exactly when he’s going to start throwing down.
In…
THUD-D-D (shh, shh) DHUNK — here. i. come.
LIFTOFF…
Technically:
ONE-and-two (three, four) DHUNK (5) — zzzzzzhwing (678)
LIFTOFF… (1-8) (1-8) (1-8, etc…)
:49 - 1:41 MEAT & POTATOES
As noted in the overview outline above, there are 3 repetitions of the next musical theme, which takes elements of all the previous themes and layers them together.
We’ve returned to our scawey chords on ONE and FOUR, but with the THUD-D-D pumping the ONE, as well as the additional tension and fear-builder of the racing-mind strings, now played prominently and overtly in the background.
In written notation it can look something like this:
One-ee-and-a-two-ee-and-a-three-ee-and-a-four-ee-and-a…
Tekka-tekka-tekka-tekka-tekka-tekka-tekka-tekka…
Over this, our chords are doing AAAB:
:49 - 1:04
Mid (2,3) high (5,6,7,8)
Mid (2,3) low (5,6,7,8)
Mid (2,3) low (5,6,7,8)
Mid (2,3,4) mid (6) low (8)
1:05 - 1:20
Sing it again! (1-8) X4
1:21 - 1:41
And one more time. (1-8) X4
Listen carefully to this third repetition from 1:21 - 1:41. We’re just a hair louder, more intense, and with really subtle power-surges here and there for everybody in the cheap seats who didn’t quite catch Rhysie’s point the first two times.
And now, I give you Performing Monkey Girl if you need to hear me match up the notation with the song. (I meant to say “doing AAAB” but I’m not recording this thing yet again. Because. This is, like, my third try and…I’m not. Hahaha!)
If you go back and listen to the nuances in the song, at the end of this section, did you hear how the musicians cue us ever-so-generously that this is the last iteration of this theme? I mean, they drew out that shhhhhhhzzzzzwoop! before the big stop through that entire last 8-count. That’s our cue that they’re wrapping this up and a change is coming.
1:33 - 1:41 - SUBTLE THUD PATTERN CHANGE
They also hit us with a new THUD pattern that is a subtle version of the merciless hammering pattern we’ll cover during the grand finale.
THUD-DA…
THUD-DA…
THUD (shh)
(shh) THUDDA
Zwoop! (shh, shh, shh)
Bwuh-huh-huh… (shh, shh)
The counts hit on:
One-and! (2)
Three-and! (4)
Five! (6)
(7) Eight-and
ONE! (234)
Five-and-six. (78)
With the music, a running start with our full AAAB pattern:
As you can see, this ending bit of suspense (the 3 counts of silence) is once again predictable in its downbeat. Although there is no percussion counting it out, you can count it like clockwork in your head so you can hit your stillness and movements just as the music suspends and then punches back in.
This silence is a particularly powerful one in the piece, and it needs to be given thoughtful attention in how we embody it.
Silence in music is…
Well, they put it in there for a reason.
To say something important. To make an impact. To remove stimulation so that what comes next hits even harder.4 As dancers, I can’t stress enough how important it is to pay attention to this and to utilize it in the energy of your piece.
One of the ways to do this is to utilize utter stillness.
To hover…
To inhale…
And then LAUNCH! Or HIT! Or FALL! Whatever the musical marionettists and your story demand.
For my dance-tale, see…if we didn’t know Rhysie better, we might get lulled into hope. At this point in the story, Feyre is only just barely starting to get a clue about what the bleep caliber of monster is looming over her, rifling through her most intimate thoughts and feelings like a pervy burglar pawing through a drawer of her little lacy unmentionables. So upon first listening to this song, you might be lured into thinking that we’re finally gonna get to breathe now.
Bwahahahahahaha!!!!!
Have you MET Rhysand?!
If not, did you miss what I told you about him earlier? He expresses delight over her crying out in terror. And, “Beg. Lower.” He can shatter human minds as easily as eggshells. Even my blood flowed where he willed it.
There is no reprieve here.
Silly mortal.
In that breathless silence at 1:37, he even laughs at us before he really latches in those mental talons.
Bwuh-huh-huh…
1:42 - 2:17 THE FEEDING FRENZY
When we launch again, the music is now higher. More intense. Seemingly faster, even though the tempo has not actually increased. It just feels that way. It’s all basically the same as before, just…more.
The chords are slightly different here, adding to that frenetic feel.
Mid (2,3) low (5,6,7,8)
High (2,3) mid (5,6,7,8)
Mid (2,3) low (5,6,7,8)
High (2,3) mid (5,6,7,8)
With this we have some new hits. Instead of our ole THUD-D-D, we now have a sharper, punchier WHAM-BA! to emphasize our ONE.
To me, thudding is…deeper. Lower. An ache. A gut-punch. Whereas this new attack is vicious. It’s clean and ruthless. It’s relentless. Like Rhys.
In that fourth “something different” 8-count at 1:53 - 1:58, we are driven and hammered brutally into the repetition:
ONE-AND! (2+3+4+)
FIVE-AND (6+) SEVEN-AND-EIGHT-AND!
You can feel it this like:
WHAM-BA! (yada, yada, yada)
WHAM-BA! (yada) WHAM-BA-WHAM-BA!
Bitch-slapping, I’m tellin’ ya.
Now listen to the change in the chords when we repeat all of that at 1:58. Did you hear those deep, dark, bowels-of-hell strings groan in there on the bottom? Did you hear the additional subtle hits on the FOUR and the SEVEN-AND?
USE that. Dig deeper. Fight nastier. Bellow louder. Break harder.
Because you will.
If you are dancing this dance of Rhysand and Feyre the first time she ever witnesses what his most lethal power is, it will break you. And you’ll hate him for it.
You will hate him as he drives you straight into the ground with that final 8-count of The Frenzy. Here at 2:09 - 2:13 we are being pulverized.
ONE-AND! (2+)
THREE-AND! (4+)
FIVE-AND-SIX!
SEVEN-AND-EIGHT-AND!
WOOOOOSH!
Or if you’d rather:
WHAM-BAM! (breathe and)
WHAM-BAM! (breathe and)
WHAM-BA-BAM! (sip!)
WHAM-BA-WHAM-BA!
WOOOOOSH!
A way easier way to chant at speed it is to just give yourself the 2-punch (or 3 or 4-punch) combos:
ONE-TWO…
ONE-TWO…
ONE-TWO-THREE…
ONE-TWO-THREE-FOUR
WOOOOOSH!
Here’s what all three sound like:
In this echoing silence after the WOOOSH, we can imagine ole Rhysie stuffing his hands in his pockets (dick) and tossing off a casual, gloating smirk (jerk). He can afford to remain predictable in this 8-count of looming silence as we lay shuddering on the ground, unable to breathe, much less retaliate before he hands us his departing sentiments:
2:18 - THE END
All right, mortal. Now you may breathe.
But only because I allow it.
Well, Tam-Tam. This has been entertaining. I haven’t yet decided what I’m gonna tell my big, bad boss about your cute little human pet. But keep an eye on your clock. Asshat. Because I’ll see all three of you very, very soon. Annnnnd…SHWOOOSH!
Gone.
We accomplish this by returning to our old pals: the subtly ticking clock, and THUD-D-D followed by a few last ominous, stalky chords. We’re on the ground by now. Don’t ask me when, exactly in this dance, I’ll be getting there, or even how. We’re not to choreographing moves yet. We’re still just analyzing WHAT the music says, and WHEN, then matching it with WHICH feelings it evokes, within the context of this story.
During that final breath, will I be held in suspension on my tip-toes…and then dumped? Or have I already been ground down there, and that final THUD-D-D is me falling forward on my hands, almost on my face?
I’m not sure yet. It’ll depend on which moves I choose for The Frenzy.
Needless to say, after all that, my musical outline now looks like this:
It is upon these code words and counts that I will paint my moves. Which is such a different mode that it requires a totally different post.
Annnnd now, after all that left-brained, mind-raking intensity, let’s have some of Brand X’s (and Rhysie’s) playful side, shall we? Whuff.
(And yes. This song makes me envision being on my hands and knees, frantically trying to scrub a floor clean with ever-worsening muck. Also. Desperately picking lentils out of ash. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, just…go with it. It’ll be super funny. Or at least…it’ll be fun for me.)
(Then again, I also love to play snarky finger cymbals to it so…we’ll see what I actually do.)
(Bwu-huh-huh.)
Have I melted your brains? If so, ASK. I’ll give a clarification. I’ll try to explain it in a different way.
Hey. Y’all have asked me for decades, “How do you DO what you do?” Now you begin to understand why it is so difficult for me give you a simple answer. For me, this stuff is just…what I do instinctually. How I break down a complicated song into a complex, multilayered choreography that requires split-second precision married to deep emotional nuance.
I mean, yes. I can create a choreography this complicated and teach it to people. (When my damaged brains and body will allow me to.) But that doesn’t help you learn how to fish at this level for yourself. This is what goes into one of my complex choreographies.
Now you understand why I also can’t very often pull these types of dances out of my butt anymore - not on 6 brain traumas.
But it’s all still in there.
Bit by bit, I chip away at bringing it out here so I can share it with you. MUAH!
© Hartebeast 2025
“It’s just one little book…okay fine, one little book series…” - A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
Ohhhhh, glorious Brand X Music… “It’s just one little musical duo.” These Neoclassical albums have stalked and seeped and tiptoed a-leering into this project for so many of the moments with our delicious Night Court assholes. Whereas the butt-whupping and horror albums have bashed, smashed and booted their way into other moments.
Le-swoon…
So many dances, so much intricate memorization. I gotta haul out my sickest drum solo skillz to pull these songs off, man. So many of them make Devious Waltz look simple in comparison. But I use this exact same musical analysis no matter how thick and complicated the song is.
It’s just that…well…the others wind up with waaaaay more complicated “chants.” You know. Little things like:
La-da-da-da-dee-da-da…BrrrrUPT! Click. Clack. CLUNK. (8)
1ea+2ea+3ea+4! 5ea+ tweelie-BRRRR.
BOOM. (23456) Ticky-ticky. Brwooow-wow BLAM. (678)
Digga-da-da. X3 Digga-da-dadala-DOOM. (234) BOOM. (678)
🤣😈🤩 FFS. May I present:
Our awesome STEEZY duo who have all sorts of instructional videos about this geek-licious left-brained aspect of combining music with movement and turning it into chants an instructor or choreographer or your own internal butt-whupper can use as a cracking whip and memorization tool.
They do it in filmmaking, too. Seek out the behind-the-scenes explanation of what they did with the sound—and the tiny moment of silence—just before that big tower of light shoots up from Minas Morgul in Return of the King.
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