Snowdance

Snowdance


Created by Aubrey Lieberman in collaboration with ChatGPT 5.2 turbo


February 2026

⸻


Olympic mogul skiing is magnificent

But certainly unnatural

The bumps are machined

The spacing is precise

The fall line is straight

Rhythm is controlled, rehearsed, exact


The skier moves like a piston in a cylinder

Compression, extension, compression

Astounding choreographed aerials

Occur at predetermined intervals

From predetermined launch geometry


The symmetry is imposed

The geometry repeats

The terrain is periodic

The performance is measured

Flawless consistency wins gold


When this became an Olympic sport

Thirty-five years ago

It was called Freestyle

At that time it seemed

That the athletes were

Simply jumping for joy

Because the skiing was so much fun


But freestyle skiing lives on

At ski resorts

With steep ungroomed terrain

Open or gladed

Plenty of snow

And many skiers

And many passages


The moguls are unnatural

A consequence

Of the passage of humans

Unlike sand dunes

Shaped by the wind


They grow organically

They are not identical

They drift spatially

Their size and shape shift


They are sculpted by gravity

The character of the snow

And the character of the skiers

The weather and temperatures


The patterns that emerge

Are structured but non-periodic


Each bump is unique

As is each skier

And the lines taken

Down the slope

Are never identical


This is not chaos

It is self-organizing geometry

That comes and goes

With the seasons

But is stored permanently

In the minds

Of those of us

Who play in the snow


Attribution: A child on the chairlift at Vail asking her mother whether the wind made the moguls, and her mother turning to me for an answer. Perhaps I’ll see them again sometime.

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