The ‘Physics Around Campus’ project has opened my eyes and made me realize that physics is incorporated in many daily activities and normal occurrences. I am currently on the Gonzaga Dance Team and perform with the team at the Gonzaga Basketball games. I wanted to apply the physics concepts that we have covered to some of the choreography and dance moves that one would see in our routines. A very common dance move that we perform is a fouette turn. These turns are identified as a rotation where the dancer supports themself on one leg while the other leg is held in alternating positions of a retiré passe and an extended leg in the air within the frontal plane out to their side. The alternating leg positions create a whipping movement that propels the dancer around in a rotation.…show more content… The supporting leg then forcefully extends while the other leg transitions from a straight and to the side position to a retiré passe. This is the process which provides the ‘whipping’ action to propel the dancer during a turn set. The turns can be done turning counter-clockwise or clockwise, but this does determine which leg the dancer choses to turn with in the air. In the pictures provides, one shows the progressive steps to completing a fouette turn. The other image was captured during a Gonzaga Dance Team practice of two team members completing a turn combination simultaneously. This snap shot is shows only a small aspect of the turn. This is when the turn orients the dancer to the front. The hips and shoulders are both facing the audience while the leg is held out high to the side of the dancer. The step-by-step diagram is a helpful tool to fully understand the concept of the turns and how they may
