Dialogue in Games, Art, and Life
A game of chess is a dialogue. Neither player can plan his moves in detail. Each move changes the conditions of the game and demands a fresh response, back and forth. Each game is the unique creation of two players, each striving to win.
Improv, by actors or jazz musicians, can be a dialogue, at first — spontaneous words and actions sparked by the words and actions of others in the group. But it can, with repetition, devolve into fixed, memorized performance, as can the interactions of a couple, that begin spontaneous and become habit.
Some forms of dance, performed by a couple, can be a dialogue, each responding to the other, back and forth. The relationship of a couple can be like a dance and can be not just a single performance, a single flirtatious episode, but rather a courtship dance that might last a lifetime.
(cf. “Courtship Dance” in Regarding Penelope by Nancy Felson).
