Learning maths through Bharatnatyam

When people hear the word 'dance', they mostly think of it as an entertaining work of art or something that people take when they're not good academically, especially in maths or science. Well, what if I told you that dance can be useful beyond that? What if I told you that those who are good at math are better at classical dance?

Bana Shastri Ramanath, an Indian classical dancer and a teacher at the University of Texas says " I go to colleges for lecture demonstrations and people look at me with wide eyes when I talk about dance and math. They were never aware of this connection and are interested to take up the class." It is clearly evident how much people underestimate the power of dance and how it offers so much more than just an aesthetic experience.

If you've danced before, you must recall your teacher telling you to curve your hands in a certain way, turn your body at a certain angle, or told you to dance with the beat. When you hear her counting 5,6,7,8.. 1,2,3,4 and so on, aren't those numbers? Every step taught in a class is broken into counting intervals to facilitate the learner to grasp the speed and rhythm of the steps. Does that remind you of sequences and arithmetic progression in maths?

Let's understand this better with the help of Bharatnatyam poses. As you can see in the image, the dancer has struck a beautiful pose that requires a strong core for balance and equal distribution of weight so that she doesn't fall. You can tell from the line drawn that her body is absolutely symmetrical. Does that ring a bell of a maths concept you studied in school? Geometry! Bharatanatyam dancers often create basic geometric shapes – like the line, squares, rectangles, or triangles – with their bodies to tell their stories. They have been doing this for ages and it has helped them connect with their culture while also improving their math concepts. Another example of geometry can be seen in the standing pose of Bharatnatyam dancers. The dancer stands straight, feet together, and hands on the back of the waist. It demands equilibrium, thus the hands placed on the waist; with the elbow forming two isosceles triangles brings the centre of equilibrium at the navel level, enabling one to stand straight and firm.

So, how can we use dance to teach maths to students? And what age group is it most beneficial for? Bharatnatyam can best help students learn shapes, angles, basic geometry and related concepts. There is no age limit to this but the sooner you start, the better students will get at grasping the concepts and storing the information in the long-term memory. Another advantage of teaching this way is that students get exposed to their Indian culture early on and learn things visually which makes their memory stronger. So go ahead, try teaching your younger siblings or cousins math concepts using dance and see how well they understand!