| Volume 37 #6 | May/June 2021 | |
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The Harvey Mudd College Alumni Association hosted a
Virtual Donut Run
event during April 2021 with the goal to complete 8.5 miles, the distance to
The Donut Man
from Harvey Mudd College – one way.
Liza and I have been leading online dancing meetings for three folk dance groups
during the past year of COVID-19 lockdown (Scottish country dancing, square dancing, international folk dancing) with collections of dances and music. I explored the goal to dance the distance in our dining room.
I generated a playlist of 22 dances and music for each folk dance form and danced over 9.5 miles, 20,600 pedometer steps, during sessions I danced consecutively on 18 April.
Each dancing session was designed to travel around
6,000 pedometer steps in 60 minutes, knowing that continuous walking equals 125 steps/minute and one mile equals 2,160 steps. The Scottish dancing format measured 95 steps/minute with playing music four times each dance without any recaps. I selected most dances that I already knew with a few memory lapses. I danced three-couple dances in a four-couple set as 1st couple, 1st couple,
3rd couple, 2nd couple, having optimal movement.
The square dancing session was a collection of square dancing for one couple, plus some line dances selected from international folk dances. The called square dance movements remind the dancer what's coming next. The international folk dancing session's music stimulates automatic muscle memory movement.
Scottish dancing is promoted as Fun, Fitness, Friendship. The Fitness benefit might be more accurately portrayed as Health and Well-being. I have measured Scottish dance classes averaging around 40 steps/minute with less movement while teaching every dance compared with practising learned dances. Zumba dancing has a greater fitness benefit with continuous movement measuring over 100 steps/minute. It would be intriguing to design a Scottish dancing format with greater movement that comes closer to the theoretical maximum 95 steps/minute for marketing a high-intensity Fitness program.
With effortless motivation ... Move to the Music!
Reference:
Teach + Practise Scottish Dancing = Greater Movement
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