The Scarlet Waltz

Chips and salsa is one of those iconic food duos, like peanut butter and chocolate, or pickles and bananas (seriously try it, it’ll change your life. This is not a throwaway joke, I am 100% serious.) More than a chunky, tomato-y treat that goes great with tacos and tortillas, and the national dance of Cuba, the salsa is the inspiration behind Megatorious‘ spicy, sassy, pas des deux The Scarlet Waltz.

“Like most of my builds, this one started as a vision in my head, something I thought would be cool to try,“ explains Megatorious. He favors organics in his builds, though he himself would say his style is hard to pin down.

“It's hard for me to say if I have a specific style or not,” Megatorious says. “I tend to build whatever I want, whether I’m good at it or not, because I like to challenge myself.” Much like dance, and a certain brand of shoes I am legally prevented from mentioning by name, with Minecraft building, you just do it.

Megatorious is not himself a dancer. He’s a 15-year-old Swedish high school student who builds for the Blockworks design team. So why use dance to convey emotions? Unless you’re Kevin Bacon in Footloose (or for you youngins, Zac Efron in High School Musical) ((or for you even younger youngins, someone dancing on, er, TikkityTok? I don’t know, I’m old)).  

“You can be more creative when building an organic versus a structure,” Megatorious explains. “It’s a great way to express emotions.” He’s not wrong! Look how much joy and movement he conveys with this build, all through some smart design choices. With flowing red blocks evoking the weightless twirl of a dancer’s skirt, Megatorious makes his waltzy salsa look effortless, despite the huge amount of work that went into it.

“The hardest part of this build was getting the shapes of the bodies right. I struggled with the male a lot, redoing his legs multiple times to get a more natural look.” That’s the thing with dancing, you never know where to put your feet that’s not on your partner’s feet. Sorry to every one of my prom dates.  

Crafting the plants surrounding the dancers turned out to be the easiest part of creating Scarlet Waltz. “They don’t require as much detail as some of the other aspects of the build and I was able to learn how to use my build tools in new ways – like rotating and reusing a leaf, for example. As I went on, I got more comfortable creating them and I even learned how to color the blocks better using masks and brushes.”

Special software and add-ons are the tools of the Minecraft building trade, but Megatorious’s number one trick to good building is having the confidence in his own abilities to ask others for feedback. “Don’t be afraid to ask friends or other builders for their opinion.”

Every creation tells a story, even if their creators don’t mean for them to. Megatorious isn’t a dancer, and didn’t have a story in mind when creating the Scarlet Waltz – it was something that just came to him. But, that doesn’t mean the creation itself is missing a meaning.  

“Since my original idea was to create something along the lines of a salsa, I had to make the iconic red dress. Then, in creating the backdrop for the dancers, I stuck to the Latin/South American theme and created Mayan ruins. In the end, I want the dancers to reflect the freedom and happiness we get from nature. It represents joy through free movement, while also serving as a reminder of what’s going on in the Amazon.”  

Salsa and social consciousness, I have to applaud. Now take a bow tiny, blocky dancers!

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