Fantastic New Blog: Dave Tries Ballet

I have just added "Dave Tries Ballet" to my blogroll.

Dave describes himself as "a 23 year old graduate student in New Jersey, studying for a PhD in Mathematics" originally from the UK but in the USA for graduate School. He doesn't say which graduate school he attends but both Princeton and Rutgers are in New Jersey and they are outstanding universities. Like me he claims to be uncoordinated and was a portly 270 pounds (19 stone 4 lbs or 122.4 kg) at age 17. Remarkably he shed over 6 stones by giving up chocolates, sweets and crisps and taking up rowing. He rowed in the First VIII for his "college" which suggests that he was at a collegiate university here. As there are only a handful of collegiate universities here and they are all good I would venture to suggest that Dave has a pretty powerful intellect. His posts "Pythagoras and Pliés" reinforce that impression. I really love his Mathematical Beauty (5 March 2011) where he shows a connection between a sequence of numbers and choreography.

Dave reminds me of myself 40 years ago. I had my first ballet lesson at about the same age when I was an undergraduate. I also went to graduate school in the United States (UCLA in my case). And I got into ballet for very similar reasons to Dave (see "Why I'm Trying Ballet" 4 Aug 2011).

So I wish Dave every success in his research and lots of fun with his ballet.  If he ever comes back to Blighty I should very much like to meet him.