Emergence

This piece was drafted in September 2016 and draws on correspondence with a friend.

I wasn't surprised to hear that the dance emerged for Frankie Manning.  Emergence comes naturally, often through play and interplay.

Dancing in the kitchen, my son does ganchos and other things he hasn't seen or if he had I doubt he'd remember.  When he used to be willing to come out to a tea dance the main attractions were play outside with his brother, friends and food.  Watching other dancers was of next to no interest to him so I don't think he has learned these things by watching.

Yet, he does all sorts of things that professionals and social dancers put in the dance, things I don't even know the names of - moving the foot, lifting the foot - things I will do with him but do not risk, not having the nerve, with girls.  I like them though with the few men who can pull them off.  But for my son it is play.  

A: It's a sort of play with risk and that seems to be part of the fun to him.  For him, the things he does have no names.  The ganchos he does are nothing like the class ganchos I dislike beyond all else,  For him the fun seems to be, I'm not sure, perhaps knowing either one of us could lose our balance any time. 

B: That's integral to the wellspring of creativity. One of the assets that gets eliminated bit by bit as learners in class receive a 'correction' each time they deviate from the teachers' step.

A:  I was telling someone how similar the things he does are to things dancers really do. I think it was M actually who suggested that perhaps he was echoing things that men had initiated when they started the dance.  This had not occurred to me.  The idea I suppose then is that if two people new to the dance and unexposed to the professional side of it were dancing to perhaps this sort of or similar music in that embrace or a more open version of it, then these are the sorts of things they might come up with.  

B:  Indeed. Naturally emergent behaviour.