[tntphlqn] Encoding data in a ring of people

Pairs of dance couples face each other (not their partners) in 4-person sets organized into a giant ring.  Adjacent sets have couples back to back.

Choreograph a dance such that everyone interacts with their partner, the other couple in the set, and the couple to their backs at the initial formation.

Vaguely inspired by contra dancing with partner, neighbor, and shadow.  But the couples do not progress.

Open each set into a line facing in and join hands to form a giant single ring.  This ring encodes information, a particular permutation among the many possible, a very memorable way for a group to memorize an arbitrary number.

For redundancy, everyone memorizes their partner, neighbors, and shadows, so five local people along the chain.  Maybe only 3 if the other sex, assuming traditional dance roles.  The brain is evolutionarily good at memorizing people you interact with, especially the opposite sex.

We also need a way of assigning numbers to each person.  Alphabetical order by name might be reasonable unless there are missing people.  Or a straightforward idea would be to repeat the dance twice with different initial arrangements, so the permutation between the two is where the data is encoded. Everyone needs to remember twice as many people. We do not specify an organized way of transitioning from the first to the second dance.

44 people (22 couples) for 128 bits, 21! * 22! = 135.4 bits. Two permutations: 28 people (14 couples), (14! * 13!)^2 = 137 bits. The extreme is 128 permutations among 4 people but difficult to memorize .

Dance steganography.