“In the third act of ‘Swan Lake’, the Black Swan pulls off a seemingly endless series of turns, bobbing up and down on one pointed foot and spinning around and around and around… thirty-two times. How is this move – which is called a fouetté – even possible?” Arleen Sugano, a highly distinguished dancer and teacher, unravels the physics of the supernatural-esque ballet move in this fascinating animated lesson.
What else you should know about Arleen
Arleen Sugano, who has her Masters in Dance Choreography, boasts quite an accomplished career. Among countless other achievements, she toured nationally and internationally with seven companies of A Chorus Line, was an instructor at the Joffrey Ballet School while also teaching at the Rod Rodgers Modern Dance Company, the American Academy of Dramatic Art, and the Gallatin Division of New York University.
In the course of researching her new dance technology (SuganoSystemBallet), Arleen has collaborated with dance physicist Dr. Kenneth Laws, constructing a special ballet barre rigged with sensors and a computer to measure the different forces a dancer uses while dancing the barre portion of class. Using data from this experiment and many others the two have presented their findings at the first National Dance Association pedagogy conference as well as lecturing for four consecutive years at the Performing Arts Medicine Conference.