Yesterday I watched the first hour of Pacific Northwest Ballet’s livestream of a conversation and rehearsal with William Forsythe.

At one point a dancer, going through his paces, found himself in the wrong spacing, too far away from his partner. He had only a few steps to get back. He was smiling, laughing at himself, and Forsythe laughed too as he flew across the stage and made it back right on time.

Mr. Forsythe then explained to the audience that the dancer had found himself flying, pulled away by physics, but he’d recovered, that he’d just figured out how to do it in a split second, unconsciously.  His body knew what to do, and took over.

He “unleashed his unconscious competence.”

And anyway, I like to do that too sometimes.