The Physics of Dance

Mo O’Hara 

Forces opposing, my movement is bound,
By Newtonian laws as my foot leaves the ground. 
Parabolic trajectory, carving a line,
Through air as I turn and the forces align.

Perpetual motion, my orbit expands,
My body is constantly making demands.
The music engulfs me, it’s like a black hole
Of darkness and nothing. It stretches my soul. 

Spaghettified sinew, centrifugal force,
I spot as I spin now to lock me on course. 
Rotational motion towards no destination,
A vision of fission in acceleration. 

Feeling faster than light as I’m spinning through air,
I outstretch my galaxy arms like a prayer.
It slows me (momentum is always conserved). 
Each moment of movement is closely observed. 

Momentum decreases. I subtly slow, 
With tension releasing I breathe in the flow. 
Impending inertia envelopes once more. 
I sigh as I stop and my foot hits the floor. 

Yet the dance still continues without and within.
Both celestial bodies and atoms still spin. 
Particles pulsate creating commotion.
The physics of dance means there is constant motion. 

The Science

I wanted to explore the spiritual and physical forces at work on a dancer’s body as they move.

Newton’s third law (that every action has an equal and opposite reaction) was my starting point, but I wanted to explore centrifugal force and also the conservation of angular momentum.

I also wanted to look at the dynamics in a spin. A dancer controls their velocity by the distribution of the mass of their body and they also use the technique of spotting (re-acquiring the focus of a single point) to keep them from getting dizzy. This echoes the rotation of planets and galaxies and, on a molecular level, the quantum spin and orbital momentum of atoms.

The Poet

Mo O’Hara, originally from Pennsylvania in the USA, came to London over 25 years ago and made her home there. She has worked as an actor and storyteller, wrote for Radio Four sketch shows and performed in comedy clubs in Edinburgh and London. Mo’s New York Times Bestselling series, My Big Fat Zombie Goldfish has sold over a million copies worldwide. Mo also writes Picture Books and poems and has had poems published in The Caterpillar Magazine and in an anthology with Bloomsbury. She currently writes and tours, performing at schools and festivals all over the world.

Next poem: The Visitor by Amber Hafeez