I was nervous, my head a stick of cotton candy. I did not want to be performing in front of an audience. What if I didn’t know the movement and messed up? How was this going to work anyway, with so many of us in the room?
Mick faced us as we arranged ourselves in rows of six files then moved off to the side. Mr. Bennett stood, tall and straight in front of us, commanding our attention with his own. He did not turn and address our visitors. Instead, he trumpeted, “Number 17.”
The first gesture for my file swam into focus in my mind’s eye, calming me. I settled, became still, aware of the sensation of my body.
DUM—dum, dum, dum. DUM—dum, dum, dum. Piano strings rang, the rhythm pounded; ninety bodies jumped into action. Arms went up, hands vibrated, legs went step, tap, jump, or circled in an arc as each file took its own gesture for eight measures then moved to new positions on the floor. Heads turned sharp right, sharp left, every other measure.
Mr. Bennett walked over to stand by Mick in the corner of the room, his gimlet gaze upon us.
My gestures were the same as those in front and behind me in file five. But I moved on the floor within the context of the students to my right and left who comprised my row.
RIGHT, left toe, heel; RIGHT… I take a step forward at a diagonal. My row has split apart. Files one and two move in rhythm behind and to the left. On the eighth measure my row connects again, but now I am in the third file instead of the fifth. The music does not falter DUM—dum, dum, dum, and I take the arm gestures and foot pattern of the third file. The rows begin to move backwards diagonally. Fifteen rows split and reconnect. The ballroom shakes, hands vibrate, heads turn in unison.
My body assumes its gestures as flesh and bone, muscle and tendon move across the floor. A stillness enters me, there’s room to focus, to connect with my row as we multiply:
142857 x2 configuring 285714;
142857 x3 configuring 428571;
142857 x4 configuring 571428;
On the fourth multiplication, 571428, file five leads the split. I move forward behind Rachel, toward file one’s place, leading my row to take our new positions and gestures symbolizing the initiating number, 142857.
The piano’s momentum continues. My arms, legs and head need no coaching. They know their gestures and take them for the eight counts in place after each new configuration. Counting the measures, listening for cues in the music, I begin the slow diagonal move back home and resume the head, arm, and foot pattern for file five.
Sweat beads under my arms, runs down my back, exhilaration expands my heart keeping the wine-induced fuzz in my head at bay. We rock the room filling it with attuned attention zinging between us, connecting us; we form and re-form completing the multiplication to the sixth place. We are a moving representation of multiplying an esoteric number that holds more secrets than we can know.
142857
Well! How did we ever keep our heads? And what secrets were revealed, I wonder? I know I learned a new word: gimlet. Never saw it before! So — thank you!
Thank you Roberta Chromey! Congrats on sweating through the pattern! At a Bleaklow semimar in 1986, Vivien E put me in the front row for number 17 when I had not practiced or performed it for some years. I ate humble pie and requested a move to row 2, column 5. After dinner our friend (RIP) Sam N gave me the cheat sheet pattern, which I still keep for a rainy day!
Showing the multiplied equations listed made it clear how the number sequence is the same but where it begins shifts (much as the movements are described). Especially confirmed by tracing the diagram of the enneagram to see the connected lines in the 142857 and that they go around the triangle 936, which is stable in the middle. Buckminster Fuller says that the triangle is the most stable structure in the universe. Thanks for including the visuals.