Susan Gerofsky

Euclid’s Elements (c. 300 BCE) has long been held to be an example of minimalist mathematical beauty. As mathematics educators interested in embodied learning, we want to share that beauty with our students (and perhaps mainstream dance audiences), to promote understanding and appreciation of Euclidean proofs in visceral, movement-oriented ways. The three protagonists for this film (Sam Milner, Carolina Azul Duque and their professor, Susan Gerofsky) met in a Math History for Teachers class at the University of British Columbia in 2018, and took up the challenge of choreographing and dancing the first three propositions in Book 1 of Euclid's Elements. This short film documents our experiment in dancing Euclidean proofs in the context of a university mathematics education class, and explores philosophical, mathematical, and pedagogical dimensions of the process of dancing geometric proofs on the beach.