I love Strictly Come Dancing. It occurred to me that there are some similarities between dancing and writing. To start with there’s no telling in dancing. The story and emotion is all conveyed through showing, by movement and physical expression.
Strictly is all about the journey. When a celebrity dancer dances like a pro from the very beginning, I wonder how they’re going to show us the journey they’re on. When writing, our characters have to undergo a journey: physically, emotionally, intellectually, morally. They have to change. We have to see them change.
On strictly, we may be seduced by the grand flourishes, the impressive lifts, perhaps. But it’s most important to get the basic steps right, before you can move on to the flouncy steps. In writing we need to make our world authentic before adding the extraordinary elements of our story. In strictly the dance builds in pace and emotion to the grand denouement. It’s the same in a story.
Sometimes in a story it’s what is not happening that is most important. Who can possibly forget our Strictly champions of 2021, Giovanni Pernici and Rose Ayling-Ellis? Their dance to Clean Bandit’s Symphony, when the music faded away and we experienced their stunning dance, through Rose’s deaf world, was unforgettable.
On Strictly, as in writing, that unforgettable performance requires practice. Great books aren’t written, they’re re-written. I remember an advertisement from the 1980’s, I think. I seem to recall it was a BT advert, but I may be wrong. It was set in New York. There was a telephone engineer working in a telecomm manhole in the pavement as a little old lady passes by. She asks the engineer a question. “Can you tell me how to get to Carnegie Hall?” The engineer replies, “Lady, you gotta practice.” On Strictly, as in writing, we have to practice. Practice makes progress as Katya Jones says. I certainly feel that I’m making progress with the Sir Anthony Standen Adventures.