13 May
2008
13 May
'08
11:18 a.m.
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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