Newbie looking for: Dances, women's flats, Male skins and shapes

As the title says, I'm looking for a couple things.

The first thing I'm looking for, for myself, are some dances. I'd like to have a wide variety of dances available to me, which I can control myself. Is there a dance HUD that comes with dances you can load into it, set the timer on the dance and switch dances fairly easily? I'm looking for mostly club type dances but I also like the exotic dances too. Are there a few shops that you guys can recommend that have these? Expensive is ok, as long as it's not too expensive since I'm a newbie. Free/cheap is good as long as they look nice and work well. I went to Sine Wave (I think that's the name) and those dances were 250 each. To buy a lot of them would end up costing quite a bit of money. And, I didn't see a way to control them and control the amount of time dancing one dance. I like the dance balls in clubs but some of them leave a lot to be desired.

Shoes. I'm looking for shoes. But, I can find boots and I can find high heels. Aren't there any women's flats anywhere to be found? I found sneakers, slippers, clogs and platform shoes but no regular shoes with either no heel or a lower heel. They're all 3-4 inch heels. Are there no 1/2 inch or 1 inch heels anywhere in game?

Secondly, for a friend, who is also a newbie and male, I'm having a hard time finding shapes and skins for him. I went to Platinum Men's and got him a shape. But, skins seem hard to find. We found a good one at RAC for about 1450, I think. I don't mind spending that if it's the one he really wants. I just don't want him to settle because that's all there is. There's got to be more out there but I just don't know where to find them. A recommendation on a good men's hair store would be nice. I like Sirena's for women. I think she has men's hair too but I've never really looked.

Thank you for your recommendations. If you want to post them here, that's fine. If you want to IM me in game or send me landmarks in game, that's fine too.

Tamlee

For very nice flats you should try Shiny Things in Search....they have lovely sculpted flats in several designs that look so real that I keep thinking I'd want these in RL....

Ibizzare has some nice ballet like flats too (sans the ribbon winding up the leg). I don't have the lm cause I'm not in world, but you can do a search for Ibizzare and find it easily.

I have ALL sorts of flats at my store, She's So Unusual Shoes!

Ok, looks like I'm shoe shopping this weekend.

Anyone have any tips on the dances and male avatar question? My friend is, and I quote, "tired of looking like a dork." LOL

Sine Wave has the best dances, but Animazoo has some good ones too. In order to control them, you'd also need to buy some sort of dance chimera. I use HUDDLES myself.

Aphrodite Outlander has some nice flats.

My favorite male skin at the moment is from the Abyss, but FNKY and Body Politik have nice ones too. ETD has good hair, although there's considerably less for men than women. Naughty has some excellent male hair, although you shouldn't expect much in the way of customer service if you have a problem.

Thanks everyone.

Thanks Ann for the detailed post. If people have more suggestions, feel free to post them. I'm always looking for great stuff, good deals, fun things to do and more places to go and shop.

By the way, Rowan, I went to your store. I loved it and bought a few things and will definitely come back. Thank you.

Baby Monkey has tons of flats, low sandals, espadrille type, and dress shoes. Also a nice selection of hats and handbags. The owner is great. Join the group and she sends out TONS of freebies and has hunts on a regular basis.

I always thought "DFO, DragonFly Designs" had some pretty nice male skins/shapes etc - another store "Made for Men" had some decent things.

"Akeyo" is where I get my shoes, or "Pornstar" - those are normal shoes and adjustable by menu - pornstar shoes are pretty kick butt since you can customize so much of the shoe - but both are geared to high tops/vans type shoes. Both designers sculpt their shoes so they are pretty nice looking. "Shiny Things" has really nice shoes of all types, personally I dig their boho sandals

A great thing to make it easier is to surf the slexchange or the others like it, I have discovered a great many designers surfing through there, as I always go to visit the shops inworld of those I have seen. In those treks I have found other great places as well.

I don't know if this has changed at all, but a friend of mine had one of their skins and, up close, it wasn't so attractive...it basically looked like a low detail skin with some photoreal pieces slapped on the torso and arms.