Dancing about the Universe

Interdiciplinarity has long been a buzzword in higher education - and all the while it's been much more than that. Bringing expertise from different disciplines together allows to researchers, scientists and artists to reach far deeper into wide-ranging questions and phenomena than they might alone. Just because a term gains currency doesn't disallow its essential truth.

Similarly, the departments of dance, physics and astronomy, and theatre and film studies have developed a collaboration that represents so much more than the sum of its extraordinary parts:

DAAP Stellar and the Dream Chasers! 2014 featuring performances by CORE Concert Dance Company, Wednesday through Saturday, Feb. 26-March 1, at 8 p.m. in the New Dance Theatre.

A large-scale collaboration by Franklin College units, the show will feature aerial, dance, film animation and spoken passages delivered by "morphed alien scientist" DAAP Stellar, a fictional composite based on UGA expertise. Ten UGA physics and astronomy professors will expound ideas reflecting leading-edge scientific research including astrophysics and black holes (Loris Magnani); elementary particles (Kanzo Nakayama); spin waves (Uwe Happek); galactic clouds (Robin Shelton); quantum levitation and superconductivity (Heinz-Bernd Schüttler); nanotechnology (Yiping Zhao); molecular dynamics (David Landau); electromagnetic spectrum (William Dennis); extra solar planets (Inseok Song); and "the search for truth in the universe" (Richard Meltzer).

Film, dance and science... a great example of working together by our very creative and motivated faculty. See you there. Tickets.