In dance this form of theme and variation offers more visual diversity than a corps de ballet moving in unison. A choreographer can thus conjure up asymmetries out of perfect harmony, and vice versa, stage splashing waterfalls of movement, take formations apart and weave them together. Every movement can be cut into pieces, rearranged and transformed as one pleases. In collaboration with the dancers, he began to analyse his own material, split it into partial movements, invert sequences and spatial references, and transfer movements from one limb to another. Any body part can trace any observed or imaginary point, line or form.
Body parts can also describe letters or words.
More detailed specifications and restrictions can be given in terms of the number of body parts that come into action in succession or simultaneously, the spatial planes in which movement takes place, the maintenance of a certain volume. Each of the six planes has nine points, at the ends and in the center of each line. Hands, feet, or any other body part can move from point to point. Any gesture, manipulation or other action can be used in a dance. Forsythe's methods play on the dancers' capacity for imagination, their memories, associations, fantasy and language.