Susan Gerofsky
Acclaimed Canadian modern dancer Sarah Chase uses combinatorics to
create choreographies, and uses combinatoric choreographies to
explore (and teach) phasing phenomena in nature and human
relationships via the body moving in time and space. The setting of
the film is the idyllic Tribune Bay on Hornby Island, BC, Canada,
where Chase develops her dances inspired by tides, seasons and her
community. This film accompanies Paper #59 in the Bridges 2013
program, Learning Mathematics Through Dance, which discusses Sarah
Chase's work.
This short film follows up on a live workshop on the geometry of
longsword locks from Bridges 2009. In traditional English longsword
dancing, a team of dancers makes intricate moves while joined
together by their wooden or metal 'swords'. An impressive element of
the dance is the variety of traditional geometric, symmetrical sword
locks (often stars) created through the movements of all the
dancers. The film showcases a longsword dance and the locks created
by the physical algorithms of the conjoined dancers' movement. After
showing the dance, questions are offered to spark mathematical
explorations by secondary or post-secondary students. These
questions include topological and geometric ideas about crossings,
angles and edges, and logic-related questions about categorizing
lock types and discovering whether new locks could be created
through analysis of the physical algorithms that create them.
Slow-motion and repeated views help learners explore this rich
source of geometry.