We’ve got rhythm — but why? What science can explain about dance

In the basement studio of the New Ballet in San Jose, a single figure crouched in a low lunge lifts his head, unfolding upwards like a flower turning toward a rising sun. He traverses the space in a series of gentle, sweeping steps as others come to meet him on the dance floor. With a sequence of delicate spins and gravity-defying lifts, he and the growing company of dancers seem to float across the room to the triumphant brass of Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker” music.

Breathtaking as the movement is...