Hi Ken,

Speaking for myself as a dancer, and as a person with ADHD and consequent subtle memory challenges, I find myself constructing a mental map of the flow of the entire set during walkthrough and early repeats to help me navigate the remainder of the dance. The more specific and complete the information I receive is, the more complete the initial model, and the less I have to literally keep relearning it as the dance proceeds. Being specifically informed CCW vs CW is a nugget that saves me the work of inferring which general model to use. It’s all slowly falling apart and will soon enough be gone completely. Easier to be replacing bricks at the top of the wall than to be constantly relaying the first course.

I don’t have an autism diagnosis, but from my personal experience relating to those who do, I’d guess it may help at least some to be told explicitly what to expect at the whole-dance level. Going into a situation expecting one construct and ending up in a different one could be stressful.

Finally, as to why people prefer or are indifferent to a priori meta-information about the dance sequence, I liken it to what happens when the band gets lost, puts in an extra phrase, and gets out of phase with the choreography. Some dancers are unperturbed, others get driven right up the wall. I’m the latter sort, as you might have guessed :-). How are all these people just dancing around this huge hole in the wall? Or maybe a better comparison is teaching a non-32-bar dance built around such music. Tell me ahead of time and it’ll save me some necessary mental steps. If not, I’ll notice and incorporate it soon enough. I’ll be fine, but depending on the night it could cost me disproportionate cognitive resources that I’m having to manage carefully. 

Thanks for asking the question - I appreciate your curiosity. It gave me a chance to examine for myself why things like that help me. 

-Joseph