Learn to Teach Math with Dance Introductory Mini-Course

In lesson 1.1 we will focus on how to use creative movement and structured improvisations. This is a useful tool for choreographers and dancers alike. Especially for you, if you have no dance training because there is very little to teach. Improvisation is about exploring movement and you can do this with your students. Set the parameters for each specific session and away you go. Your students will learn to delve into the creative process while warming up and strengthening their bodies.

In my introductory book, I break up patterning into several different exercises, however, in this mini-course I want you to quickly be able to understand how much math you can teach with dance, because it’s a lot, and how easy it is for a non-dancer to implement, I’m going to do several simple exercises together.

This exercise is used in almost every ballet class and a tendu and degage warm-up exercise at the barre and once in the center. You can even break up these exercises into a musical note structure in order to see the movement as fractions.

All of these exercises can be made into more difficult lessons by changing the number patterns, adding in different turns, from quarters to half-turns to full-turns or doubles, and correlating them to angles. Additionally, by adding arm movements you can demonstrate ratios.  These exercises help train the dancer as well. You do not need fancy steps to train a dancer, enhance the counts, coordination, and creativity and you’re turning your students into performers.

In lesson 2 we will take a closer look at number patterns and fractions in dance. Breaking down movements and connecting them to musical phrases allows us to visualize fractions. Dance steps do not need to be complicated to show simple patterning or fractions.

In lesson 3 we will focus on functions. There are several ways to use functions in dance. In this exercise, we'll focus specifically on line functions where one side of the body will represent the numbers associated with (X) while the other side will correlate to (Y). In this way, we can generate a difficult coordination dance and dance challenge. *** Correction, the line equation is y=2/3x

In lesson 4 we will explore an activity called Find the Hidden Dance. Using a similar structure to pattern dances whereby steps represent digits and variables like direction relate to place value, we will create a dance based on a series of questions. This simple structure is fun to use because you can apply it to any math problem with one correct answer.

In lesson 5 we take a look at some possible math boards and math dance centers. Additionally, wrap it all up with a brief discussion about other connections between math and dance. However, it's time for you to come up with your own! Can you think of any other obvious math dance connections?