Thing is, the more I learned the more I started to use internally consistent vocabulary, so I no longer needed analogs, but would construct new moves from older simpler ones.

I don’t think though that this article captures the complexity of of social dance, maybe that’s why its so universally fun? Its not just arms, legs and body positions - there is weight transfer, musicality, disparity between partner’s skill levels, let alone all other dancers around you that you need to track so as not to have an accident. And thats before you start adding shines, styling and body movement.

There _is_ an underlying system of course - every move has a finite possible exits, if you dance “by the rules” but dance evolution is all about breaking those rules. And if you’re at that level, you can start mixing other dances into your move set … Its all incredibly hard to reason about.

Maybe thats why the gold standard is just to record your lessons and get back to them when you want to.