The Science Of Swing Dancing
On more than one occasion I have heard the comment about how there seems to be a lot of engineering and math types in the swing dance scene. I am not sure if that is particular to Southern California or not, but in my experience I have seen evidence of that.

Heck. I am one of them. And a lot of my alum are also in the Lindy Hop scene (Go Harvey Mudd College!).

At first thought, it seems counter intuitive that geeky types like us would be doing something as artistic and creative as dancing. But when you look at some of the elements of swing dancing (and even just social partner dancing) you'll see that swing dancing can be very much a mathematical process.

With that, I lead you into one of my favorite jokes. I tell it often, very often, especially when we are teaching. (And every time I tell it Sheri rolls her eyes ... which really is just more fuel to keep telling it...). Many people don't find it funny, or else just don't laugh, but in every class there are always the handful of math/science-y types like myself that laugh (woohoo! power!).

So here ya go:

This mathematician comes home one day to his new house. But oh no!! Something is wrong! His bed is on fire!!! Whatever will he do? The cool-headed mathematician gets a bucket out of the closet and fills it up with water. He then takes the bucket of water and douses the flames. *PHEW* We're safe.

The next day, the mathematician comes home again. And this time, his bed is not on fire. So what does he do next ?

He sets his bed on fire thereby reducing the problem to a previously solved system!!

ha ha ha ha !!!

*whew boy, that was good..that was a good one...*

Okay, moving on ...

Now take that joke and transfer that process to how some beginning/intermediate leads are able to piece together moves to form their own combinations and patterns!

"Okay... I'm currently in position 1. I know move 1A, move 1B, and move 1C. Let's do move 1A"

"After move 1A, I end up in position 2. Oh cool! This is a previously solved system because I know how to do moves 2E, 2F, and 2G from position 2! Let's do 2E!"

"Okay, 2E leads me to position 3, and from here I know 3X and 3Y."

And so on...

Sure sure.. I can see what you're thinking.

"But who in the heck dances like that? You just dance! Who keeps thinking 'A1', 'B2', 'G5'?"

(You Sank My Battleship!!)

*err.. ahem*

Even if we don't super-consciously think of it that mechanically, I think deep down subconsciously that's what a lot of leads do. The more advanced the lead is, the more subconscious this technique is. (Unless you are a techno-geek like me in which case you do all you can to bring it to the forefront of your conscious mind because ..hey.. it makes for inventing some very cool patterns!!)

In fact, reliable sources have let it be known to me that programmers are indeed the "inventors" of many swing moves we do today! Although this can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on how you look at it.

For example, there is one programmer that unfortunately never bothered to learn more than one move out of each position. That's right. Each position .. just one move. It was inevitable that he would one day find himself in an infinite loop pattern (and thus came into existence "The Pretzel").

(As an aside, Sheri's solution when I pull this infinite-loop-move on her is to Ctrl-Alt-Delete me if you know what I'm sayin'.)

Anyhow, this brings me to the moral of my story:

You can never ....

no wait ... ummm.....

You must always ...

no no wait ... err...



Oh hey!! Have you heard the one about the trainful of chemists?