As everyone knows, beauty is "in the eye of the beholder" and therefore it is difficult to discuss what is beautiful because each individual can have different opinions.  I found a quote which I think sums up the idea of beauty in movement, and I used this quote to find links on the Internet which would fit this subject.

"WHAT LIVES HAS CHANGE AND MOVEMENT; WHAT HAS CHANGE AND MOVEMENT HAS BEAUTY."
    --Jun Alday

The idea of beauty is a very profound concept with many possible definitions.  The following web site addresses the question: "What is Beauty?"
What Is Beauty? How Do You Study It?  (http://www.uiah.fi/tm/metodi/155.htm)

 
In my opinion, many athletic movements are beautiful.  I believe that just watching the body in motion, with grace, agility, and poise is a beautiful sight.  The following pages don't specifically address the topic of "beauty in movement" but rather they deal with movements which I consider to be beautiful.  These sites provide lots of information on their chosen movements, as well as pictures that display the beauty of these movements.

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater  (http://www.alvinailey.org/Ailey.html)
Modern dance is a form of movement which many people see as beautiful.  This site is the homepage for the Alvin Ailey dance company, a very famous modern dance company known around the world.  There are some absolutely beautiful pictures included in this site.

Kirov Ballet  (http://www.webcom.com/shownet/kirov/welcome.html)
Ballet is also a dance form which is beautiful.  This site is specifically about the Kirov ballet in St. Petersburg, Russia.  There is an abundance of information on this site, as well as two different photo galleries from performances.  Additionally, this site provides a list of numerous other web resources for ballet.

One of the many Olympic sports which has high aesthetic quality is rhythmic gymnastics. There are many web sites involving this graceful sport available on the web.  One of these, listed below, is The Rhythmic Resource which provide tons of information about the sport (including photos).
The Rhythmic Resource  (http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/3570/index.html)

Rhythmic Sports Gymnastics  (http://www.rsg.net/)
Another nice web site on rhythmic gymnastics is the RSG (Rhythmic Sports Gymnastics) page.  This is also a very information site with nice pictures.

SkateWeb: The Figure Skating Page  (http://frog.simplenet.com/skateweb/)
Figure skating, which has gotten much exposure with the recent Olympics, is another sport with many available resources on the Web.  This site is one of the nicer ones I found, it also provides many additional links to other figure skating sites.
 
A unique form of movement that has gotten a lot of exposure lately is the Pilates method of body conditioning.  The following site is from the original Pilates studio in New York City.  The pictures in this site really illustrate the beauty in this form of exercise.
Official Pilates Studio Home Page  (http://www.pilates-studio.com/)
 

Another popular sport which involves beautiful movement is diving.  There are a number of diving sites on the web, however, I wanted to include one with the best pictures.  The following site includes some of the best pictures I found even though it doesn't provide very much information on the sport.  Other diving links are listed, however.
Edmonton Kinsmen Diving Club   (http://homepage.oanet.com/crowe/ekdc.html)

Track & Field Online  (http://www.trackonline.com/)
I think that track and field is another sport that has beautiful aspects.  This site is one of the many comprehensive sites available on the sport.
 

The following sites are photos of movement which display the beauty of action.  These sites do not include any other information besides the pictures.  The first sites are photographs  taken at the Atlanta 1996 Summer Olympics.  And, they are definitely worth taking a look at.  The last site on this list is actually pictures of animals moving which is another form of beauty in movement.
 http://www.photodude.com/olympics/track1.htm
 http://www.photodude.com/olympics/rowing.htm
 http://www.photodude.com/olympics/water.htm
 http://www.photodude.com/olympics/cycling.htm

 http://www.eaglestock.com/be2f1.htm
 

Return to class readings page:  Kinesiology 493: Philosophy of Kinesiology