Dancing mathematicians off to Kaiapoi
Published by Communications and Development
31 March 2005
Kaiapoi, get ready for a hoedown – mathematics-style!
Mathematical entertainers from the University of Canterbury are heading
there this Monday night with their dancing shoes on for a free family
barn dance.
The entertainers will be led by senior Mathematics and Statistics lecturer,
Dr Bill Baritompa, who received $22,000 from the Royal Society of New
Zealand Science and Technology Promotion Fund to make his "Dance
of Mathematics" project a reality.
The Kaiapoi barn dance will be the first in a series of maths dances
he plans to run in rural Canterbury towns in the coming months.
"Barn dancing is extremely mathematical, though most people don't
realise it. The patterns of the dance –'Join up hands and circle left;
take four steps in and four steps back' - are geometric, symmetric,
repetitive cyclic movements. These ideas are the stuff of mathematics!"
The community barn dances are primarily a social event but they will
carry an educational bonus.
Dr Baritompa believes that people are often put off, not by the mathematics
itself, but by their experiences of being taught in a boring and complex
manner.
"If something comes across as too heavily mathematical it will
put people off. We plan to offer these communities something fun and
not make a big deal about the mathematics. We will give the message
that maths relates to everyday life experience, rather than an isolated
activity involving only mathematicians."
The dance will run from 6.30pm to 9.30pm on Monday 4 April in the Kaiapoi
High School Hall.
For further information please contact:
Dr Bill Baritompa
03 364 2689
b.baritompa@math.canterbury.ac.nz