Is there a connection between Apollo, the Greek and Roman sun god, and the Higgs Boson, an elusive element or aspect of particle physics?
Most definitely in the view of dancer Emily Coates and physicist Sarah Demers who have for the past few years collaborated on connections between science and the arts, and are currently in the process of co-authoring a book on physics and dance.
Some of their ideas are currently on view at St. Mark's Church in the Bowery on New York's Lower East Side in an hour-long performance entitled "Incantations."
Some of the choreography is a riff on George Balancine's "Apollo" as created between 1927 and 1928 for a festival of contemporary music at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., and some of the remainder is derived from hand gestures particle physicists typically employ when attempting to describe and explain the Higgs Boson.
The result, intertwined with a brief description of how Newtonian physics applies to classical ballet, and a quirky depiction of Apollo in decay (particles bloom and then decay) by Yvonne Rainier, one of the founders of the Judson Dance Theater, is worth a look.
It's performed by "Danspace Project" to Coates' choreography and even Demers is put in motion from time to time.
"Not everything will be explained in this piece," Coates says in the program notes. "In reality, both art and science will always be haunted by not knowing."
The performance touched briefly on politics as well when, in Rainier's interpretation, then-president Barak Obama calls upon Apollo to come down and impart some wisdom to presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, who, as we later discovered, was greatly in need of help at that point. But, ironically, Apollo and his now creaky old chariot get incinerated as they enter the earth's atmosphere and he ends up a tiny particle (get it?). Although he still manages to contact Hillary, she doesn't listen, and the rest is history.
No comments:
Post a Comment