🚀 go-pugleaf

Max <gazelle-81@lycos.de> wrote:

>Scaringly many dancers are scientists or even physicists!

Oh, my God! Scaringly? There are scientists who dance? :-)))

>Anyone got an idea why?
>
Sure, Max. Because it's a lot of fun. 

Dancing can be emotionally cathartic.

Dancing provides an artistic creative outlet that most scientists don't
normally get to enjoy. 

I'm no longer a practicing physicist, but I still enjoy analyzing moves
and body motion using the tools we learned studying physics. 

It's also a healthy humbling experience to realize "it doesn't take a
rocket scientist' to know how to dance. ;-)

For the most part I suggest that physicists and other scientists enjoy
dancing for the same reasons as everyone else.

A couple of dance quotations that fit my paradigm come to mind:

"I do not know what the spirit of a philosopher could more wish to
be than a good dancer. For the dance is his ideal, also his fine art,
finally also the only kind of piety he knows, his "divine service."
-- Friedrich Nietzsche

"While I dance I cannot judge, I cannot hate, I cannot separate myself
from life. I can only be joyful and whole. That is why I dance."
-- Hans Bos

Dr. Nicholson, Dr. Bass, Prof. Eijkhout: Your cues. ;-)

Ed Jay (remove M to respond)

Ed Jay wrote:
> Max <gazelle-81@lycos.de> wrote:
>
>> Scaringly many dancers are scientists or even physicists!
>
> Oh, my God! Scaringly? There are scientists who dance? :-)))

Reminds me of
a little ditty I wrote
that goes a-little-something-like-this:

Dance, Dance
Dance Anthropology
Dance, Dance
Dance Anthropology

It should be imagined with tall Brits dancing slowly and serenely in uniform
with pith helmets.  Unfortunately I never got farther than this 'hook'.

At any rate, anthropologists are statistically most likely to dance!

The ranks of anthropology undergrads were also noticeably populated by
ex-physics majors.  Same core impulse: to get to the bottom of things.
Atoms, humans, same difference.

-- 
Cheers,                     www.indiegamedesign.com
Brandon Van Every           Seattle, WA

20% of the world is real.
80% is gobbledygook we make up inside our own heads.

Ed Jay <Medbj@aes-intl.com> wrote:

> Dr. Nicholson, Dr. Bass, Prof. Eijkhout: Your cues. ;-)

Sorry, was on travel while this exchange happened.

I'm not a physicist: mathematician / computer scientist. But I haven't
noticed that many physicists in dance. I do get an impression that you
find comparatively many engineering types in folk (square / contra)
dancing. (rec.folk-dancing added) That seems to relate to appreciating
the pattern-weaving that goes on there. Of course, as a phd-carrying
scientist I could then relate the presence of a caller to a perceived
difference in creative sophistication between engineering and science,
but I'll leave that one open.

Another consideration is that in ballroom you're likely to find
well-educated types because to sustain a stream of private lessons takes
a solid income.
  
V. "my .5czk worth"

>Scaringly many dancers are scientists or even physicists!
>why?
> Max

As Victor noticed (my observation as well) there are many engineers
(don't exclude technicians and technologists) as well.
He postulated the *patterns* thing.  I won't argue there.

It may also be practical application of
force vectors, torque moments, center of gravity, angular momentum, (etc.)
--all the stuff you learned in class--and putting it to everyday use.

Never discount the *income* thing.


BTW--Scaringly ??

Max <gazelle-81@lycos.de> wrote in message news:<20040526181040.5d0efd2f.gazelle-81@lycos.de>...
> Scaringly many dancers are scientists or even physicists!
> Anyone got an idea why?
> 
> Max

My observation, based largely on myself (Ph.D. engineer), is that the
focus and analytical capabilities required to pursue
science/engineering, etc., are often accompanied (aided and abetted?)
by social uncertainty/discomfort. There's an analytical/pattern side
of dance that provides a good way in, for many of us, into rewarding
social interaction.

In article <f8b945bc.0406072200.1e5b4303@posting.google.com> jeffm_@email.com (JeffM) writes:

>>Scaringly many dancers are scientists or even physicists!
>>why?

>As Victor noticed (my observation as well) there are many engineers
>(don't exclude technicians and technologists) as well.
>He postulated the *patterns* thing.  I won't argue there.

I think I replied before.  And I agree, I think the logical structure
of dancing, having combinations built of figures built of specific steps,
is something that science and engineering types can go for.  And there's
always technique to analyze if you like that.

>It may also be practical application of
>force vectors, torque moments, center of gravity, angular momentum, (etc.)
>--all the stuff you learned in class--and putting it to everyday use.

Maybe, but I certainly don't consider any of that stuff while dancing.  :)

>Never discount the *income* thing.

As in they tend to make more money, enough to sustain series of classes,
private lessons, competitions, etc.?  I guess that's possible, too.
     I heard someone talking at the dance I went to last night and I
he said something like, "there are only two reasons straight men get
into dancing -- a woman or women."  :)  As was probably mentioned,
it's not unusual for science/engineering types to not be so good socially
and the logical structure of dancing helps give them a transition into
a social activity.  And it is nice to hold a woman in your arms and
dance around the floor with her for a few minutes.  :)

>BTW--Scaringly ??

I didn't quite get that either.  But the science/engineering fields tend
to be rather male dominated.  So if most dancers come from those general
fields, they're probably mostly men.  This could mean a shortage of
women at dances.

-- 
      .      .        .       .         -- James Marshall     (ORI)  *   ,
 ,.  -- )-- ,   , . -- )-- ,            marshall@astro.umd.edu
          '             '       http://www.astro.umd.edu/~marshall    ''' 
"Astronomy is a dyslexic's nightmare."                               ,   *

>it's not unusual for science/engineering types to not be so good socially
>and the logical structure of dancing helps give them a transition into
>a social activity.  And it is nice to hold a woman in your arms and
>dance around the floor with her for a few minutes.  :)
> James Marshall

Truer words were never spoken. (discot echoes this below.)
My only good line: "Wanna dance?"

marshall@astro.umd.edu (James Marshall) wrote:
>      I heard someone talking at the dance I went to last night and I
> he said something like, "there are only two reasons straight men get
> into dancing -- a woman or women."  :)

I started dancing so many decades ago that I don't remember why I
started but it's a fairly safe bet that the reasons above are
probable.

I've continued to dance because I enjoy it more than just about any
other thing. I also recognize that it's a healthful, low-impact, full
body exercise. And, of course, my partners whom I dearly love, each
and every one of the scores each week, hundreds per month, and
thousands every year.
________________________________________________________________
A San Franciscan who never says "No!" to an invitation to dance!
http://geocities.com/dancefest/     http://geocities.com/iconoc/
ICQ: http://wwp.mirabilis.com/19098103      IClast at SFbay Net

physicists dance because it leads to S(e)x = f(u)n.  In otherwords the
Intergal if E to the X power is a Function of U to the Nth power.

The number of dancers involved in science, specifically computer
technology, is growing rapidly. The field, known as Dance &
Technology, embraces the art of science and the science of art.

Perhaps the following sites will be of interest:

http://www.art.net/resources/dtz/
http://www.palindrome.de/
http://www.homepage.mac.com/samarat