Patterns & Metaphors

Dance

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Many dances are characterized by rhythmic movements of two separated partners in response to one being complemented by those of the other. In some dances all the dancers form into patterns with the two sexes facing each other and then moving so that the patterns interweave. The development of the dance may be such that each person of one sex dances successively with each of the other. Or possibly at some stage each of the original couples dances alone for a period, watched by the others who appreciate their relative merits.
Metaphor:
If the dancers are considered to represent issues or their advocacy groups, matched into opposing pairs, an interestingly stylized interaction between the issues (or their advocates) emerges. Each is given space for its development within the pattern as a whole, possibly ensuring that there is a relationship between each and all the others.
[Features] The explicit nature of the alternation between complements and patterns. The place of each within the whole balanced by a counteracting complement to focus and 'contain' its movements. Emphasis on elaborating the variety of possible relationships amongst the dancers. The possibility of switching at the end of each dance to a dance of a different pattern such that the dancers alternate between a range of possible patterns in which their possible relationships are articulated in different ways.
[Contrast] The metaphor is occasionally used to describe the relationships between social groups (e.g. 'pas de deux') but only in isolation. The ongoing dance of issues and their advocates has not been explored. This may be in part because some relationships are more realistically encoded by 'gutsy' tribal dances, folk dances, and rock, than by the somewhat effete classical ballroom dances. The challenge is to ensure the interrelationship of such patterns which may all be open to the dancers. Dance patterns may be usefully contrasted with military parade formations.
[Keys] Varieties of dancers and the patterns they encode. Transitions between dance forms. Development of dance.<