Dancing Euclidean proofs

One moment that stopped me during the reading was through the ‘ah-ha’ moment realized by Milner, Duque & Gerofsky. When dancing the proof of Euclid’s Proposition 2, Milner and Duque included the environment around them such as drawing in the sand and using points marked by rocks and shells. They referred to this as the mathematical necessity and constraints of the bodies, which opened a new dimension for the project (2019). The dance was symbolic and connected mathematics to nature and human. I also liked how Milner et. al describe including natural elements in Dance 2 stemming from the idea that mathematics is found as much in the body as in the natural world. I feel like the connection between math and the body is easily more forgotten than the connection between math and nature. When I think of the connection of the golden ratio to the real world for example, I immediately think of snail shells or fractals in tree branches instead of the golden-ratio proportions found in our bodies. I also appreciated how Milner et. al said that a vital aspect of embodied knowledge is to acknowledge the space that shapes their movements. When dancing outside, they realized how little in control they were of their surroundings; weather and other users of the space were things they could not control.

Another moment that I enjoyed in the paper was the perspectives and dimensions of ‘being in the proof.’ Deciding to film the dance in a top-down perspective allowed the viewer to witness the embodied movements in a two-dimensional plane rather than 3D perspective. This replicated the point of view of a geometric diagram. Milner et. al (2019) note that loss of perspective is not always negative and uses the example of musicians sometimes closing their eyes while playing to focus on the sound. Coming from a music background myself, this thought resonates with me. It is the performer listening intently to the music and allowing the rhythm to take control. It is like Csikszentmihalyi’s idea of flow, where the musician enters an effortless and spontaneous state and is completely immersed in the activity and has a sense of timelessness and inner clarity.

I was completely mesmerized by Miler and Duque’s bodily movements in the video produced by Gerofsky (2019). Watching that dancing video after the reading ties everything all together and gives the audience a stronger visualization and understanding of Euclid’s first three proposition in Elements.

 

References:

Milner, S., Duque, C.A., Gerofsky, S. 2019. Dancing Euclidean Proofs: Experiments and Observations in Embodied Mathematics Learning and Choreography. Bridges 2019 Conference Proceedings.

Gerofsky, S. 2019. Dancing Euclidean Proofs. Vimeo. Accessed November 9, 2020 from https://vimeo.com/330107264