ABSTRACT
There is a theatrical manoeuvre much loved by choreographers in charge of well disciplined chorus lines. On the stage of the Folies Berge`res or the Radio City Music Hall, or in the studios of a Busby Berkeley musical, the dancers arrange themselves in a long straight row. The one on the end starts off by performing some action-kicking her leg or dofng his top hat, it doesn’t matter what. A fraction of a beat later the next one repeats the action, and after exactly the same time the next one does it. And the next, and the next, right to the end of the line. To the audience, a wave of legs (or top hats or whatever) seems to travel across the stage, even though it is perfectly obvious that the dancers stay exactly where they are.
