Dancing Euclidean Proofs Reflection

        One thing that made me stop and think was the idea of arts-based mathematics learning in such a “loud” fashion. Usually when we talk about creating art out of mathematics, it has something to do with using shapes to create a tangible object. We do not normally jump to the idea of creating a dance, music, or a play. This leads into the second thing that made me stop and think: the concept of embodying mathematics and the purpose it serves. My first thought when I watched the video was “how does anyone without mathematical knowledge of Euclidean geometry understand this?”. My second thought was that the dance was so impressive, and I wish I had watched it in my undergraduate Euclidean Geometry class. I learned through my own experience of dancing Euclidean proofs and reading the article that understanding the proof was not the main purpose of embodying mathematics. 

        When trying to create a dance in class, my group struggled with how to express the proof even though we all understood it. Although we came up with a dance, I noticed at the end how closed off we were compared to some of the other group’s dances. They had larger and more expressive movements. Reflecting on my in-class experience, I feel more connected with Euclid’s propositions than I did in my undergrad. In my undergrad, I viewed them as just proofs and propositions on a page. Now, I feel more connected as if they were brought to life off of the page. 

        This activity can be helpful for mathematics learning since it situates students in their environment and encourages place-based learning. As Milner and colleagues (2019) mentioned, this is a way of appreciating the land and incorporating First Peoples Principles into our teaching (Milner et al., 2019). It is easy to brush off history as being in the past and “dead” on the paper. By doing this type of activity in the class, students can experience it in a “live” form. However, some constraints are parents and the comfort level of students who do not want to participate in such an expressive activity. Both parents and students may think this is an activity that holds no value. 

Milner, S.J., Duque, C.A., & Gerofsky, S. (2019). Dancing Euclidean Proofs: Experiments and Observations in Embodied Mathematics Learning and Choreography.