Uma J Nagendra
Outreach/Education
Art + Science
Photosynthesis Contra Dance
Athens Folk Muisc and Dance Society. Spring 2016
Folk dance provides an enticing platform for science communication. In a contra dance, as in other folk dances, steps are relatively simple to learn, and they are repeated over and over again to music. This allows for interactive participation as well as repetitive reinforcement of concepts. I developed a contra dance to illustrate key concepts in photosynthesis. Folk dancers at the Athens Folk Music and Dance Society welcomed me to present the dance at their monthly gathering.
To the left you watch both the walkthrough and the full dance.
The current dance covers the light reactions. A full workshop at the Ecological Society of America Meeting, will include contras for light-independent reactions as well.
Dance-Your-PhD Contest
Canopy Studios, aerial dance trapeze. Fall 2014
Sometimes complex phenomena are more easily described through visuals, movement, and humor. Students and instructors at Canopy Aerial Studios joined me in choreographing a dance trapeze performance about plant-soil interactions after tornado damage. We submitted our final performance video to the Dance-Your-PhD contest.
Update Nov 3, 2014: Our aerial science blew them away! We've recieved the grand prize for our trapeze-tornado collaboration. See online press for the contest in Science and UGA
Atlanta Science Festival
Emergence in Motion: Dancing with Evolution
The Space Atlanta, aerial dance trapeze. March 21-22, 2015
Coded Life: Motions of Change
The Space Atlanta, aerial dance trapeze. March 19, 2016
Our aerial science dance troupe participated in two unique science-dance events hosted by The Space and The Center for Chemical Evolution. In 2015, our piece "changing winds, shifting soils" included a live aerial dance supplemented by projected images and narration. In 2016, our piece "polarity: a dance of the water molecules" focused on the importance of water's cohesive properties. Each dance piece was followed by a panel with scientists, choreographers, and dancers.