On the surface, when you watch ballet dancers gracefully move across an empty stage filling it with their passion and emotion, it almost gives the impression that dance is quite effortless. Even after hours of endless rehearsals and tiring performances, ballet dancers make everything look calm, collected, and strong. On the other hand, when you first set your eyes on the first Physics problem on your first year LonCapa assignment, it is almost as if Physics is a whole different language, impossible to understand.
Out of all the styles of dance in the world, why does physics relate with ballet the most? It is the foundation of most if not all dance forms with its origins in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th and 16th centuries (Laws and Harvey, 1994). The truth is, ballet is one of the most difficult types of dance to master in contrast to other dance styles such as jazz, contemporary, acrobatics or even hip-hop. The reason behind this intriguing reality is simple. Ballet is Physics in action. To become a great ballet dancer, you must learn to master a handful of main physical concepts namely, balance, inertia, torque, centripetal force, parabolic motion, angular velocity, angular momentum, and friction (Laws and Harvey, 1994) while actively applying these concepts to your flexibility and muscle memory. For advanced ballet dancers, these are all done using a pair of hard, boxed-shaped platforms measuring 5 centimeters in diameter called pointe shoes (refer to Figure 1 below).
The most popular dance move known by ballet dancers and even the world of non-dancers is called a “pirouette”. A pirouette is a French word meaning to “whirl or spin” and it is a complete turn of the body on one foot (Hep.uiuc.edu, 2000). This ballet movement is the perfect presentation of the physics concept, torque, which is defined by the equation:
where r is the distance between the front and the back leg when straddling or preparing for a pirouette (Laws, 2002). With this, the back leg pushes off of the floor and provides a magnitude force, F, which also corresponds as the axis of rotation, θ (usually 180°) .
In a pirouette (refer to Figure 2 above), a dancer has to keep in mind a variety of other forces acting on him or her. An example is the force of friction between the dance floor and his or her shoes and the centripetal force causing rotational inertia, which is affecting her overall turning velocity and stopping position. Overall, ballet dancers do not only develop and enhance their physical abilities but their mental strength as well, as proven through Physics. The reason for this is because dancers must think of their rotational inertia and velocity during a turn, their displacement in the air in the midst of a jump or ever the friction between their shoes and the textured stage. They may not look like it but dancers are acquired physicists in action as they make dance look effortless and picturesque. Ballet is indeed Physics in constant action.
References:
Hep.uiuc.edu, (2000). The Physics of Dance. [online] Available at: http://www.hep.uiuc.edu/home/g-gollin/dance/dance_physics.html [Accessed 26 Sep. 2014].
Laws, K. (2002). Physics and the Art of Dance. 1st ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Laws, K. and Harvey, C. (1994). Physics, dance, and the pas de deux. 1st ed. New York: Schirmer Books.
Comments
16 Responses to “The Physics of Ballet – It’s Harder Than LonCapa”
Hi Chimira,
I really liked how you related physics to dance, something that may not seem to go well together at first glance. I also thought that the moving image was a great and useful addition to your post.
I had only a few suggestions that I wanted to make.
First, although you have photos, I realized that you didn’t make references to them in the text. It would help the readers follow along, if you said “refer to Figure 1”, etc.
Also in the sentence “Ballet dancers do not only develop…”, I think that you should add a comma after “as well”.
Overall, it was a great post to read. Good luck with your editing!
-Christine Jo
Thanks Christine! I will definitely take your corrections/suggestions into account.
– Chimira
Hey Chimira,
I love your topic; physics really isn’t the first thing you would think of when you see ballet! The images you used are a great tool, which enhances your article as a whole, but just one thing to keep in mind is to refer your pictures/gifs in your text. One specific place that was missing a reference was in the last sentence of the second paragraph. Other than that, great article!
– Angela
Thank you Angela 🙂
– Chimira
Hi Chimira!
This was a really cool way to relate what we learn in physics to real life. In fact, I’ve never even thought of dance in terms of physics. Turns out it’s even harder than it looks, right?
I just have a few suggestions:
1) In “To become a great ballet dancer, you must learn to master a handful of main concepts namely, balance, inertia, torque, centripetal force, parabolic motion, angular velocity, angular momentum, and friction…”, I would change it to “learn to apply several integral physics concepts, namely, …” I feel like by saying handful, the connotation is that there’s not that much to master, even though that’s a bunch of really important concepts.
2) In paragraphs 3 and 4, I don’t think you need to be saying “pirouette” in quotation marks every time. The first time is usually enough.
3) I’d also suggest a little bit more of a transition between your second and third paragraphs, because right now, it seems a little choppy, switching between talking about the shoes and then switching to the pirouette concept. Maybe include something like “one of the most popular ballet moves is the “pirouette”, a move that can only be accomplished with pointe shoes” or something?
Anyway, this was great. I like that you got the reader to think of physics not in terms of just complicated LON-CAPA questions, but in terms of real life, too.
– Julia
Thanks everyone for the very helpful corrections! It was great hearing some feedback which were actually very beneficial to my first synopsis post.
Chimira,
I like your gif embedded in the post, it was a good call for people who do not have any previous knowledge of ballet terminology. I agree with the comments posted above, but would add that your conclusion needs to be elaborated on so that it has a smoother transition. Right now, you bring up a new point by mentioning how their mental strength is improved as well. This wasn’t mentioned previously in the post, and I would suggest that you do so as opposed to introducing a new concept within the conclusion so that the reader can have an understanding of the key points you are trying to get across.
All the best,
(man)keeran
Hi Chimera,
I didn’t even know you could embed gifs in blog posts! Here are a few comments:
-Although I don’t have experience with dance and ballet, I’d hesitate to call ballet the most difficult type of dance there is. Consider moderating this, maybe by calling it one of the most difficult
-In the future, try to use more scientific articles as your references.
-I feel like the commas you use in your first paragraph may impact some of its flow. Consider removing the commas after as “it is almost as if”. Similarly, when you introduce pointe shoes, I would remove the comma after “called”.
Overall, great job! All the best with your edits.
Alan
Hey Chimera,
I really enjoyed reading this article. I have always been obsessed with the presence of science, especially physics, in sports and other activities, so this one really hit home for me.
A couple notes…
1. The opening sentence in which you say that dancers fill the stage with their “passion, emotion and life” sounds a little ambiguous. It tables a lot of different sensations and words that are simultaneously very vague and oddly specific. I would consider revising this, perhaps only using the word “passion” as this is something all people can equally relate to.
2. The second paragraph sentence “why does physics coincide with ballet the most?” sounds a little strange. Coincide may not be the best word to use, but only if nothing else seems to fit.
3. When you first define “pirouette” for the readers, remember to include “to” (just prior to the quotations) within the quoted field. You define it as a verb, and thus the added context with “to” is very important.
4. Consider some more thought for your conclusion and closing sentence – I found that it snuck up on me and I didn’t realize the blog post was over. A gradual transition is always best, and avoid repeating yourself – your lines are very well thought out but could use some variety.
Aside from a few more grammatical and punctuation errors, the blog is well on its way 🙂 Look forward to seeing what’s next!
-David
HI Chimera!
I really enjoyed this blog post! Being a ballet dancer myself, I understand how physically and mentally difficult this style truly is and how closely physics relates to it. I just have a few minor things for you to consider. In your opening paragraph you use “it is almost as if” twice perhaps try to find a new way of constructing your second sentence. If you are concerned about how your audience will relate to your opening sentence maybe you could portray what the audience perceives as the dancer graces the stage (ex elegance, poise, passion, effortless etc.). Also, when you say that ballet “is the most difficult type of dance to master”, you might want to add in “physically difficult”(just a suggestion 🙂 ) One last thing, when you say torque applies to pirouettes you might want to state what happens if these concepts are not applied to give some perspective of their importance.
Overall, I really loved reading this and I look forward to reading your blog posts in the future!
Mary Kathryn
Chimira,
As a ballet dancer and amateur physicist, thank you for writing this. Seriously, mad props.
More mad props for embedding a gif because I have now posted 2 years worth of blogs but have not figured out how to do that yet.
Okay now for a few quick things I noticed about your blog.
– Your Hep.uiuc.edu, (2000) reference looks a bit odd. I noticed this site was from the University of Illinois so I would reference the author as the school instead of the URL (just because it looks cleaner)
– Your torque equation looks a little pixelated (I know I’m being picky) but maybe you could consider either just typing out the equation in a large bold font (to get the same effect) or using a higher quality photo
– The first time you use the word pirouette you used quotation marks but later used italics. I would stick with one of those methods instead of using both to keep consistency (I personally prefer the italics)
– The word physics should not be capitalized in the first paragraph
– I would agree with David that you could add a little more to the conclusion (one more sentence perhaps) to better wrap-up your blog post!
Overall, very well done! LOVED the topic and it was super easy and enjoyable to read! Keep up the good work!
Xoxo,
Lauren Smith
Hey Chimera,
Your title is actually hilarious, an was the reason I wanted to read your post! It was not disappointing what so ever. In fact it was really well-written. Here are some minor suggestions:
1) Be careful with capitalization. You chose to capitalize, then not capitalize the word physics in your first paragraph alone. I don’t think it needs to be capitalized, but you can make that call yourself as long as you are consistent!
2) I would also consider splitting your sentences into shorter sentences. You use a lot of commas and the sentences are a little long winded. The reader might benefit from short concise sentences. However, your sentences are not grammatically incorrect by any means.
3) I’m not too sure why you bolded the variables in your third paragraph, but I LIKED IT. Just wanted you to know that it was a good idea and really made it easy to refer to the term and relate it back to the equation.
ALSO COOL GIF!
Have a good week!
-Vincent
Hey Chimera, this was a very cool blog post. Great job combining science with something that you are obviously very interested in. You’ve gotten lots of good comments above, so I only have some minor things to add.
First of all, I agree with Alan that the difficulty of ballet is a bit of a bold statement standing on its own. You should try and find a reference for this or tone it down, since as a blog post reader its difficult to know if you are an authority on dance.
I don’t think that the “– it is physics” statement has the impact that you set it up for. You’ve already mentioned physics so many times at this point that it’s a bit anticlimactic.
Finally, you should cite your figures just like you cite in-text (i.e. Author, Date).
This was a very entertaining read, and I especially liked how well the gif showed off the concept you were talking about. Well done!
BW
Thank you everyone for your constructive criticisms! I really appreciate it. I will try to keep all your comments into account and apply them on my blog.
-Chimira 🙂
Hi Chimira,
Sorry I’m a bit late with the commenting. Anyway, I think I agree with everyone when I say that the GIF image was a stroke of genius. I think this may be a first for Synopsis.
I have a quick comment that you can fix quickly: website titles in references should be in sentence case, not title case.
Great work!
James Lai
Thanks James!!! I appreciate the quick correction 🙂