Uploaded April 2026 | Updated September 2026, 3 hours ago
pretalx.northbaypython.org/nbpy-2026/talk/UPQLCX
With twenty some-odd bits of state and several hundred instructions, Modern Western Square Dancing is a pipelined architecture that executes on groups of humans and provides challenging programming puzzles, in a context that brings people together and builds real-life in-person bonds.
From its origins in Black slave culture in the early United States, to something inflicted on us in grade school, square dancing as it is performed around the world has been described as "uniquely American". We'll talk about lessons from "group theory performed as a team sport, set to music", or "dancing for math nerds", from the propaganda of Henry Ford, to post WWII American expansion, to how gay culture has struggled with assimilating straight dancers. And maybe offer some lessons we can take into our own communities.
pretalx.northbaypython.org/nbpy-2026/talk/UPQLCX
With twenty some-odd bits of state and several hundred instructions, Modern Western Square Dancing is a pipelined architecture that executes on groups of humans and provides challenging programming puzzles, in a context that brings people together and builds real-life in-person bonds.
From its origins in Black slave culture in the early United States, to something inflicted on us in grade school, square dancing as it is performed around the world has been described as "uniquely American". We'll talk about lessons from "group theory performed as a team sport, set to music", or "dancing for math nerds", from the propaganda of Henry Ford, to post WWII American expansion, to how gay culture has struggled with assimilating straight dancers. And maybe offer some lessons we can take into our own communities.
