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 |
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2 | (16) |
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The Role of Physical Analysis |
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4 | (3) |
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7 | (3) |
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The Value of Analysis to Observers' |
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10 | (2) |
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The Value ofr Analysis to Dacers, Teachers, and health Professionals |
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12 | (4) |
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Communication: Words, Images, and Photographs |
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16 | (2) |
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18 | (18) |
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Condition for Static Balance |
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20 | (4) |
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24 | (6) |
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26 | (1) |
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26 | (22) |
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30 | (4) |
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34 | (2) |
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36 | (30) |
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38 | (4) |
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42 | (2) |
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Stopping Horizontal Motion |
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44 | (1) |
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45 | (7) |
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48 | (1) |
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48 | (4) |
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Connections between Horizontal and Vertical Motions |
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52 | (1) |
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The Grand Jete ``Floating Illusion'' |
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52 | (2) |
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Maximizing Traveling Leaps |
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54 | (6) |
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55 | (1) |
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56 | (4) |
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60 | (1) |
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Dance Floors: Elasticity and Friction |
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61 | (2) |
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63 | (3) |
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66 | (38) |
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Torque and Rotational Momentum in a Pirouette |
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70 | (1) |
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71 | (6) |
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73 | (1) |
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73 | (4) |
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Another View of Pirouettes en Debors |
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77 | (4) |
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Progression of Pirouettes en Debors |
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81 | (3) |
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81 | (2) |
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83 | (1) |
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84 | (4) |
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85 | (1) |
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86 | (2) |
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88 | (4) |
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88 | (1) |
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89 | (3) |
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92 | (1) |
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93 | (2) |
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95 | (4) |
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95 | (2) |
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97 | (2) |
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99 | (1) |
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100 | (4) |
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104 | (20) |
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106 | (3) |
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The Tour Jete (Grand Jete en Tournant) |
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109 | (3) |
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109 | (1) |
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109 | (3) |
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The Saut de Basque and the Turning Assemble |
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112 | (4) |
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113 | (2) |
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115 | (6) |
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116 | (105) |
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118 | (1) |
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118 | (3) |
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121 | (3) |
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124 | (22) |
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The History and Appeal of the Pas de Deux |
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126 | (6) |
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Who's Responsible for What? |
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132 | (2) |
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Physical Interactions between Partners |
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134 | (1) |
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135 | (6) |
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136 | (1) |
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136 | (5) |
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141 | (1) |
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142 | (3) |
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145 | (1) |
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The Mechanics of Partnered Turns |
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146 | (18) |
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Starting a Supported Pirouette |
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148 | (7) |
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148 | (1) |
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149 | (6) |
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Balacne during a Supported Pirouette |
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155 | (3) |
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158 | (1) |
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158 | (4) |
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159 | (1) |
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160 | (2) |
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162 | (2) |
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164 | (22) |
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167 | (6) |
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173 | (4) |
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174 | (1) |
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174 | (3) |
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177 | (4) |
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181 | (3) |
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184 | (1) |
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185 | (1) |
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186 | (14) |
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Height of a Vertical Jump |
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188 | (4) |
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192 | (2) |
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Horizontal Accelerations and Body Size |
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194 | (1) |
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194 | (1) |
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195 | (1) |
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Body Size ad Partnered Dance |
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196 | (1) |
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197 | (1) |
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197 | (3) |
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200 | (56) |
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Appendixe A: Linear Mechanics and Newton's Laws |
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207 | (7) |
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Appendixe B: Rotational Mechanics |
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214 | (5) |
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Appendixe C: Anatomical Data for Dacers |
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219 | (2) |
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Appendixe D: Rotational Inertia for Some Body Configurations |
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221 | (5) |
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Appendixe E: Acceleration Away from Balacne |
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226 | (5) |
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Appendixe F: Off-Balance Pirouettes |
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231 | (3) |
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Appendixe G: Arabesque Turn Analysis |
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234 | (5) |
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Appendixe H: Quantitative Analysis of the Grande Pirouette |
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239 | (4) |
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Appendixe I: Quantitative Analysis of the Fouette Turn |
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243 | (2) |
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Appendixe J: Quantitative Analysis of the Supported Fouette Turn |
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245 | (3) |
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Appendixe K: Lean, Don't Slip |
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248 | (6) |
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Appendixe L: Biomechanical Forces in a Dancer's Body |
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254 | (2) |
Glossary |
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256 | (5) |
Index |
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261 | |
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.