Dance meets mathematics

On December 9th, Bocconi hosted a unique event. ‘Dynamic Equilibria’, created to make dance meet with mathematics, which saw ballet dancers of Corpo di Ballo of the Teatro alla Scala of Milan perform on the stage of the Aula Magna. The event was organized by the Department of Decision Sciences and was open to the entire Bocconi community.

“There is a strict link between music and mathematics”, said Professor Emanuele Borgonovo, director of the Department of Decision Sciences. “The link goes back to the ancient Greeks (Pythagoras) who uncovered the harmonic ratios at the basis of sound. These harmonic ratios are also at the basis of paintings and architecture especially in our Renaissance. Leonardo da Vinci in his “Trattato della Pittura” wrote: ‘No human investigation can be called real science if it cannot be demonstrated mathematically’. And mathematical calculations are at the basis of the choices that ballet dancers and choreographers make to carefully plan distances and trajectories.” 

One of the ballets performed, ‘Dynamic Equilibria’,was a choreography created on purpose for the Bocconi event by Gianluca Schiavoni, choreographer at Teatro alla Scala who also directed the whole event. “Mathematics - said professor Borgonovo - enters music through fractions, sums and distances that need to unite melody and harmony and to create polyphony. Moreover, music composition is a sequential decision process. And to create emotions, the composer needs to bring the piece through a series of ‘dynamic equilibria’ - which is what we discussed with the choreographer when devising the ballet piece.”