In a Dance&Physics class each lesson is focused on selected dance movements such as plié, arabesque, pirouette, fouetté, glissade, tombé, grand jeté, …
Each lesson has a title in order to resume the topics I’m going to introduce and explain.
The lesson includes a theoretical section, that explains what physics laws are involved in and how they affect the dance movement, and a practical section where ad hoc choreographies are proposed to the students as a sounding board.
A fun and conversable atmosphere is the environment I like to set up.
A lesson example. Title: Passé pose and Balance.
The goals of this lesson are to explain how dancers can regain balance while wobbling, to give effective balance training and to try out what discussed about with some exercises and a choreography.
A body is at rest when the gravity is balanced by the reaction force of the floor and it is in balance when its center of gravity is over the supporting area at the floor. It is easy to say but hard to get.
During a ballet class students try to keep balance en passé with hands off the barre and frequently they are unable to avoid toppling. Understanding of the physical principles can help them.
Usually dance’s students to control balance try to wobbling between forefoot and heel or try to stiffness the body. As last attempt to avoid the fall they make a step forward or try to counteract the loss of balance moving the body in the opposite direction of fall. Unfortunately these actions do not work properly in regaining balance.
The trick to regain balance lies in a counter-intuitive action whose effectiveness is explained by Physics.