The dancer

In soft blue light, the ballerina glides across the stage and takes to the air, her toes touching Earth imperceptibly. The ballerina assumes one pose after another, each fragile and symmetrical. In the physics of solids, crystal structures can be found that appear identical after rotations by one-half, one-third, one-quarter and one-sixth of a circle. Crystals with one-fifth and one-seventh symmetries do not exist because space cannot be filled with touching pentagons or septagons. The ballerina reflects a series of natural forms. She is first ethereal, then lyrical. She has struggled for years to develop a personal style, embellished with fragments from the great dancers. As she dances, Nature, in the mirror, pursues it's own style effortlessly. It is the ultimate in classic technique, unaltered since the universe began.

For an ending, the ballerina does a demi-plié and jumps two feet into the air. The Earth, balancing her momentum, responds with its own sauté and changes orbit by one ten-trillionth of an atom's width. No one notices, but it's exactly right.

An excerpt from Alan Lightman's Pas de Deux:
http://www.amazon.com/Dance-Two-Essays-Alan-Lightman/dp/0679758771 

Learn more about smoke photography:
http://www.adorama.com/alc/7683/article/create-amazing-backgrounds-smoke-take-and-make-great-photography-gavin-hoey