I’m a lawyer, and incidently, a private pilot as well. I got the audio version of her book (thanks to learning about her on Anthony Metevier’s podcast). For me, creating oralities around my daily life was a game changer for my ability to use loci effectively and it has made life so interesting and enriching.
I’ll give you an example. I live in San Diego but say I’ve made an appointment to meet with a client in San Jose. It’s 8am in San Diego and I need to leave my office to meet my client in San Jose at around 1pm. To most people, I’d just describe my plan as: “I’m going to leave my office, take the elevator down to the parking garage, get in my car, drive to the airport, pre-flight the plane, take off and fly over LA to San Jose for about a 2.8 hour flight, where I land and meet with my client. Along the way, I’ll communicate with air traffic control since it would be more convenient to fly on an instrument flight plan.”
But using a legendary story, my plan is more like this: “I step outside the safety of my den, only to be captured and thrown into a cage lowered into a dark cave, I escape the cage to find my horse, waiting patiently for me by the cave’s mouth, I ride my horse to the cliffs, where I find my dragon waiting for me in its cave. I wake it gently, feed it, take a moment to feel its scales and wings, rub its belly before I climb up to the saddle on its back. We wait for an all clear, and then we burst out, passing through the clouds. I note land marks where battles took place below us, pass over dangerous lands filled with horse warriors, over mountains that tend to jump up and reach for you–especially if you’re already too close, and over large stretches of flat lands of small villages and farmers. Each one familiar to me carries it’s own particular story. I communicate with various spirits along the way, each who guide me in my journey, warn me about other potentially dangerous dragons near me, and pass me along to other friendly spirits. My dragon finally touches down in the land of sharks and I meet with the local tribe.”
I use the landmarks as place holders for various things I need to remember particular to whatever case or law that I’m reviewing. So, as I fly over LA and look down at all of the horses (cars) moving or stuck in traffic, for this case in San Jose I might consider the horses have shark-like skin, which feels almost like sand paper, and perhaps shark teeth in the mouths. Why sharks? B/c my client resides in San Jose, home of the NHL’s San Jose Sharks hockey team. It also makes that story unique to that case, so associations for the unique laws and facts applicable to that case aren’t confused with other cases in the same area that for the most part would take me a long the same path, such as to San Carlos, just a few miles north of San Jose.
As for dance, I so something similar. More like a random and disjointed walk. I may do this exact same trip from San Diego to San Jose in the space of my office–kinda like how a bee does a short dance to demonstrate a location to other bees. To people who don’t know what I’m doing, it just looks like some kind of random/weird pacing. And, it can be done anywhere. It’s a lot of fun and very enriching.