A one-dimensional local bend model is used to describe the variation of electronic properties of acetylene in vibrational levels that embody large amplitude local motions on the S-0 potential energy surface. Calculations performed at the CCSD(T) and MR-AQCC levels of theory predict an approximately linear dependence of the dipole moment on the number of quanta in either the local bending or local stretching excitation. In the local mode limit, one quantum of stretching excitation in one CH bond leads to an increase of 0.025 D in the dipole moment, and one quantum of bending vibration in the CCH angle leads to an increase of 0.068 D. The use of a one-dimensional model for the local bend is justified by comparison to the well-established polyad model which reveals a decoupling of the large amplitude bending from other degrees of freedom in the range of N-bend = 14-22. We find that the same one-dimensional large amplitude bending motion emerges from two profoundly different representations, a one-dimensional cut through an ab initio, seven-dimensional Hamiltonian and the three-dimensional (l = 0) pure-bending experimentally parametrized spectroscopic Hamiltonian.