Dancing About String Theory

by Damon Gambuto     Department: Science & Society

The World Science Festival ended yesterday.  Was it the beginning of a mainstream acceptance of science, or was it just dancing about physics?

Okay, so I can be a little snarky when it comes to culture (especially capital "C" Culture) and I can be a little too forgiving of anything that tries to pass itself off as science-y.  So when I heard that the World Science Festival had a dance recital choreographed by Karole Armitage that was inspired by Briane Greene's THE ELEGANT UNIVERSE my head exploded a little bit.  I mean, it's a dance... about string theory!  Isn't that like talking about music?  Which, of course, is like dancing about architecture?  (Which is to say, a waste of a perfectly good Marley floor.)  Or was it an amazing confluence of rational and aesthetic expression?

Let me back up.  Why am I writing about one performance at the WSF (that ended yesterday) which I have barely acknowledged (not acknowledged) up until this point?  The WSF seemed like a great undertaking.  That said, some of my early involvement with the organizers left me a little suspicious of how it would come off so I've avoided blogging about it.  It seems my caution was unwarranted,  They successfully put together a huge program that tried to think creatively about how to present science to the public. 

One of the ways they proceeded was to make it a generalist's fair.  Much like The New Yorker Festival finds the literary across disciplines, the WSF made room for the audience to find science in places they were already looking.  Like the arts.  Enter the choreographers.

I was alerted to this particular performance by an old - and exquisitely dear - friend who has fashioned an amazing life as a scientist/doctor/dancer/choreographer.  I think the very first time I went to the ballet was to watch her perform in "The Nutcracker."  She also gave me an understanding of how a day spent pipetting can be as fulfilling as a night at the ballet.  I won't go into any more detail because to betray her identity would betray our friendship. (That is, until she relents and does a guest appearance here at Correlations - hint, hint.)   Suffice it to say, there are few people I know whom I admire as much (and fewer still with as many letters after their name).

She dropped me an email after reading my last post about Brian Greene's Op-Ed.  She was tickled by Stephen Colbert's wry take on Armitage's choice of Greene's book as her inspiration.  He described the undertaking as, "combining two of the most dangerous things in America: science and modern dance."

Okay, maybe not the most dangerous, but certainly not the most popular.  Most days the world too easily overlooks the beauty of science's rationality and the rationality of dance's beauty. 

I thought I'd take a moment today to acknowledge both.  And my friend.

Tags: Brian Greene, dance, Karole Armitage, string theory, World Science Festival