About our work:
A B O U T O U R W O R K
Math Dance with Dr. Schaffer and Mr. Stern, published
in October, 2001, was written by Karl Schaffer, Erik Stern, and Scott Kim,
of the The Dr. Schaffer &
Mr. Stern Dance Ensemble.
Several sections from the book will be made available here. They are protected by copyright and may not be distributed, altered, copied or used for commercial purposes:
- Front Cover
- Dedication
- Table of Contents
- Preface
- Introduction
- Mathematics and Dance Bibliography
- About the Authors
- Back Cover intro by David
Masunaga
The book may be purchased from our Book Shop
Karl Schaffer teaches mathematics at DeAnza College in Cupertino,
California and dance independently. Erik Stern teaches dance at Weber State University in Ogden
Utah. Scott Kim designs educational games from his home in El Granada, California.
Our math dance work grew from two seeds. As choreographers, much of our work springs from play with ideas from the world of mathematics. As teachers, we have found that mathematical ideas become more exciting, tangible and memorable when you act them out with your whole body. So for the past twenty-five years we have developed a series of performances and workshops on math dance, which we have given hundreds of times in schools and conferences.
This site presents excerpts of some of our favorite math dance activities for you to use in your classroom, in a form suitable for the web. (Our book expands greatly on the activities.) The activities are intended for both mathematics teachers and movement teachers. You will find that these activities treat math and dance as a single creative activity, not as two separate disciplines.
We welcome your comments and suggestions. We are especially interested in hearing about how you have used these activities in your classroom, and what we can do to make them more useful to you. You can email your comments to us at the addresses below.
See http://www.schafferstern.org also for more information on our performances or Contact us if you are interested in inviting us to perform at a theater, event or conference, or to present a workshop or talk.