chrissy fowler wrote;ah, which brings me to another association - many callers
are prone to observing, noticing patterns and making guesses about why those
patterns might be occurring. hah! :-) To All;
You can count me in on that. For many years in a previous life I was an active
tournament chess player, eventually reaching a master rating. All successful
chess players use pattern recognition skills each time they play to evaluate
their position, compare it to other positions, and decide which course of
action to pursue among many choices. I was fortunate to develop these skills
early on, and use these skills in several walks of life since. They have been
particularly helpful to me in evaluating and writing dances.
There are several similarities between solving a chess problem and figuring out
the best possible dance;
1. Both use the number 64 as a boundary - the same number of squares on a
chessboard is the same number of beats in a dance.
2. If you think of each chess move as a tick on a clock, both are
four-dimensional art forms.
3. When the "pieces" flow together, the whole becomes greater than the sum of
the parts. Very often the beauty of chess is to find ways where two or more
weaker pieces can work together to defeat a more powerful force. In a dance, I
look for combinations of figures or a particular order of figures to give us
something new, whether it be to set up a swing, a different progression, or the
sheer fun of good flow.
4. There is a give-and-take between opposing forces. You may not think of
neighbors as opponents, but it does require an effort for each partnership to
progress. Of course, unlike chess, those dancing opponents generally do so
with a helping hand and a smile.
5. In chess, if you don't find the best move, your opponent can find a way to
take advantage. Even if neither of you do, it's possible another master will
study the game, find the best continuation, and prepare an unpleasant surprise
for you. If a dance isn't the best, the dancers very often will let you know
(sometimes loudly). Even if they don't, another choreographer may find the
best path, rending your effort as a footnote. Both disciplines use the folk
process to ensure only the best efforts are rewarded.
There are some differences;
1. In chess, only one piece moves at a time; in a dance most or all of the
dancers move all the time (at least the ones I try to write).
2. In chess, once captured, pieces leave the battlefield; dancers rarely leave
the set unless they are dizzy newcomers.
3. If the "pieces" at a dance smile back, you're having a good gig; if the
chess pieces smile back, you're either hung over and/or having a very bad
tournament.
It would be interesting to hear if others have applied pattern recognition
learned from other fields towards calling and dance writing -
Bob Isaacs
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