Mihika Bansal

I have been dancing for the past eight years, and if someone were to ask me last week to describe dance in two words, I would have said grace and effortlessness. Recently, I learned that dance has just been a math lesson all along, especially involving my favorite technique of turns and jumps. A triple pirouette is 1080 degrees of rotation in the span of a few seconds. A leap across the stage follows a parabola shaped entirely by gravity. 

As a dancer, I have spent years practicing and perfecting my turns without thinking about the science behind them. When my arms are extended in the turn, I rotate slowly. When I pull them close to my body, I spin faster. This happens because bringing my mass closer to my center increases my rotational speed. However, if I lean slightly forward or backward, my center of gravity shifts, which often causes me to lose balance. It had never occurred to me that every time I fell out of my turn, it was simply a small change in angles and alignment. 

Jumps also involve just as much mathematics. Every leap follows a parabola, the same curve that is formed when a ball is tossed in the air. Dancers also control the height of their jump through the force they apply when pushing off of the ground. Gravity constantly pulls downward, and at the top of the jump, the upward velocity reaches zero before the body begins to descend. This is known as the illusion of suspension, and it causes jumps to look graceful and airy.

It is most fascinating to me that dancers have never learned the math behind their sport. Through repetition and training, our bodies have learned to respond to the fundamental mathematical principles naturally.

Even though dance and math are often seen as opposites, they couldn’t be more correlated. Behind every soft landing and clean turn is geometry and physics working together to light up the dance floor.

Share

Mihika Bansal

Math appears everywhere! Try to spot where the math was used in this photo.

One of the most common sayings I hear in and out of math class is, “We’re never going to use this in the real world. What is the point of even learning this?” I used to think the same way too. Most of us will not be using every theorem and equation in real life. However, in my opinion, math class is less about the math content and more about learning how to think critically.

I like to think of math problems like puzzles because some information is given, there is a goal to reach, and the steps depend on the person solving it. Repeating that cycle over and over again builds a stronger brain, especially when the initial idea does not work. 

My teachers have always referred to math class like the gym for the brain. When you first go to the gym, it is difficult, tiring, and requires struggling to achieve success. When you lift weights, you do it to get stronger, not because you will carry dumbbells everywhere you go for the rest of your life. Math has the same mentality behind it because every hard problem that you solve builds the focus, patience, and strength in your brain to help in every life problem that comes your way, math related or not. 

To me, the struggle is the most important step because your brain is challenged the most, like moving up weights in any exercise at the gym. Staying calm, trying again and again, and pushing through confusion is how growth happens. My piece of advice for the struggling step would be to never skip it by searching up the problem or looking at the answer key, just like if you went to the gym and came out one minute later without working out. 

Therefore, even if you don’t use every equation in the future, you are still gaining critical thinking skills that will help you in every problem that comes your way for the rest of your life.

Share