Question: How is Dance linked to Maths and Science?

Alison Whitaker answered on 24 Jun 2015:

It’s linked in lots of different ways.

I started off studying biomechanics in dance which combines both maths and science to dance movement. Biomechanics studies forces like pressure and reactive forces in the joints of our bodies when we move. I then applied evidence from biomechanical measures to evidence relating to the ways in which dancers get injured. This allows both scientists, dance teachers, and dancers to understand a bit more about how and why they get injured and work out ways to prevent it.

I’m currently working on how people in an audience watching dance behave. By that I mean, what kind of dance do they come and watch, how often, what kind of variety they like and then cross reference this to other things we might know about them, like whether they have children, the areas they live in and what else they might do in their lives. This takes lots of data manipulation and analysis, and that is where the ‘data science’ part comes in.