Physics and the Art of Dance: Understanding Movement » (2nd Edition)

Kenneth Laws is Professor Emeritus of Physics, Dickinson College, and author of The Physics of Dance (Schirmer, 1984), Physics, Dance, and the Pas de Deux (Schirmer, 1994), and Physics and the Art of Dance: Understanding Movement (OUP, 2002)

Arleen Sugano is Independent Dance Instructor, former instructor of Dance, New York University, University of North Texas, Joffrey Ballet School, Rod Rodgers Dance Company, and Lula Washington Dance Company, amongst many others.

Physics and the Art of Dance gives all who enjoy dance - whether as dancers, students, teachers, or fans - an opportunity to understand what happens when human bodies move in the remarkable ways we call dance. How, for instance, do dancers create the illusion of defying gravity? Or of starting to spin when in the air with no source of force to act on their bodies? You may observe some dancers using their arms in a way that allows some to jump higher than others. What is that technique, and why does it work?

In this second edition, author Ken Laws - a physicist with years of professional dance training - teams with veteran dance instructor Arleen Sugano to provide new step-by-step experiments for dancers. "What you see" sections describe the way physical principles form the framework within which some movements exist. The complementary "What you do" sections allow dancers to experience how those physical analyses can provide them a more efficient means of learning how to carry out those movements. Throughout, the book shows how movements are first artistic expressions, and secondly movements of the body within the framework of easy-to-understand physical principles.

Dancers and dance instructors will find in this book an efficient means of improving technical proficiency and growing professional and aesthetic development. For physics and science teachers, the book provides a new and compelling way to draw people into the world of science. And observers and fans of dance will marvel over the beautiful time-stop photography by renowned dance photographers Martha Swope and Gene Schiavone.

Foreword Martha Swope Swope, Martha

1 Introduction 2

2 Balance 18

3 Motions without Turns 36

4 Pirouettes 66

5 Turns in the Air 104

6 The Pas de Deux 124

7 The Mechanics of Partnered Turns 146

8 The Mechanics of Lifts 164

9 The Effects of Body Size 186

10 A Step into the Future 200

App. A Linear Mechanics and Newton's Laws 207

App. B Rotational Mechanics 214

App. C Anatomical Data for Dancers 219

App. D Rotational Inertia for Some Body Configurations 221

App. E Acceleration Away from Balance 226

App. F Off-Balance Pirouettes 231

App. G Arabesque Turn Analysis 234

App. H Quantitative Analysis of the Grande Pirouette 239

App. I Quantitative Analysis of the Fouette Turn 243

App. J Quantitative Analysis of the Supported Fouette Turn 245

App. K Lean, Don't Slip 248

App. L Biomechanical Forces in a Dancer's Body 254

Glossary 256

Index 261