Research
The goal of Zack's Dance Lab is to discover the fundamental laws that govern social dancing and to work with them further. These laws represent the mathematical and structural foundations that underlie all social dance forms.
Through rigorous research and analysis, we identify patterns and principles that apply universally across dance styles. Once discovered, we explore how these laws can be applied, extended, and used to better understand and teach social dancing.
Discovered Laws
Zeroth Law: Social Dancing Has A Logic
Before anything else, we assume that there is a logic underlying social dancing and that it can be examined and reasoned about in an abstract way. This is an assumption that we cannot prove, but we take as a truth. We don't think that social dancing is pure emotion or instinct and that there is a structured system underneath it that can be discovered and analyzed. That is why it's the Zeroth Law, on which the rest of this builds.
First Law: There Are Only 15 Ways to Hold Hands*
There are exactly 15 ways that two dancers can connect through only their hands. This is a mathematical certainty based on the partitions of a set.
Second Law: Social Dancing Has A Sign System
Social dancing has its own sign system, and each social dance form has its own sets of signs and meanings. Learning to dance is learning the signs, the movements, and the mapping between the two.
More Laws to Come
As our research continues, we will document additional laws that reveal the mathematical and structural foundations of dance. Each law provides new insights into how social dancing works at its most fundamental level.