ABSTRACT
The sense of freedom and mysterious order that on occasion reveals itself when we watch dancers improvising is no more entirely chance than the massed, aerial choreography of birds in flight. What prevents the individual birds in these groups constantly bumping into each other is a particular kind of awareness and an adherence to a set of embodied rules. The better these rules are incorporated, the greater the freedom of the individual to soar, to dive and to take part in the spectacle, and on certain delicious and unexpected occasions to lead the kaleidoscopic movement of the entire flock.
