Dancing Euclidean Proofs - Blog Response #14

 Although I consider math as art, I never considered the medium of conveying it through dance and human body movements. I was surprised and enlightened to see that there is a cultural pursuit in mathematics that utilizes both body and mind. One of the statements posed in the article is that the body's natural symmetries can be used to make simple geometric shapes like circles and triangles. I find this interesting because its such an obvious and unobvious fact at the same time. Perhaps the beauty we were looking for in mathematics was always right in front of our very eyes, or body I should say. 

I appreciate the amount of visible effort that was put into the choreographs of the dances. When watching the video, the performances were very fluid and smooth in transitions, which makes excellent clarity of the proofs that they were depicting. As the article describes, the process of going through various iterations of dance moves, concern in maintaining mathematical integrity, and the deliberate choice of the environmental location and sounds. All these considerations brought harmony in the arts and math, making the final product visually and auditorily pleasing, without reducing the technical contents of Euclid's proofs. 

Incorporating such activities in a high school classroom will definitely spark interest in students. Physical activity is almost never seen in a math classroom, so this could be an excellent alternative for students. Availability of classroom or outdoor space may pose as a constraint, as well as funding for specialized camera equipment like drones if top view shots are desired.