Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation

Do you like dancing? Are up to a challenge? Take part in this unique FREE dance and astrophysics project where you’ll need to choreograph a dance that interprets one of the Scientific topics we research at the Institute for Cosmology and Gravitation (ICG), University of Portsmouth:

How to participate:

If you have between 11 to 16 years old, you can choose to either take part in a FREE one day workshop or to enter into the online competition.

  1. ‘Dancing the Universe’ workshop. On Wednesday May 30th 2018 we will have a FREE one day workshop, in which we will facilitate the creation of dancing pieces by the participants inspired in the research carried out at the ICG. The participants will be invited to the sharing event to see the film of the day. Register here.
  2. ‘Dancing the Universe’ online competition. If you are between 11 and 16 years old, we invite you to take part on an online competitions with prizes, by registering your own dancing creation by the 1st July. There will be three winners based on both artistry and scientific content, decided by members of the ICG. The winners will be invited to come to the sharing event. Register here.
  3. ‘Dancing the Universe’ sharing. We will invite all the participants and their parents to the University to see the videos filmed during the workshop and those from the winners of the online competition.

Dancing the Universe WORKSHOP

Register to this FREE one day workshop, Wednesday May 30th 2018, in which we will facilitate the creation of dancing pieces by the participants inspired in the research carried out at the ICG. The participants will be invited to the sharing event to see the film of the day. We would document the process, through filming, to create a toolkit that can be used to have this kind of workshops in the future with different Science topics.

The workshop is aimed to a maximum of 20 people between 11 and 16 and it will take place at the Priory School, Portsmouth.

The workshop will be delivered by two professional dancers: Grace Hall, from the Neptune Girls group, and Roni Edwards from Padmozi Creatives. The science will be delivered by Dr Violeta Gonzalez-Perez from the University of Portsmouth.

Tentative schedule:

10-10.30 Introduction to Gravity, Galaxies and Dark Energy by Violeta.
10.30-11.25 Warm up and learn part of the core choreography.
11.25-11.35 Break
11.35-12.30 Introduction to dance creation by Roni and Grace and discussion in groups. Work in pairs
12.30-13.30 Lunch break
13.30-14.00 More on Gravity, Galaxies and Dark Energy by Violeta.
14.00 -14.55 Warm up with a speedy dance class and learn the core choreography and build up from that in groups.
14.55 – 15.05 Break
15.05 – 16.05 Continue creating with the help from Grace, Roni and Violeta.
15.30-15.45 Break
16.15-17.15 Sharing and filming the your creations! There will also be a Q&A session where you will have the opportunity to explain what you wanted to achieve with your choreography.

 

Dancing the Universe ONLINE COMPETITION

To participate in the online competition you need to be between 11 and 16 years old. In order to be able to participate in the competition, you will need to:

  1. Register your group before the deadline: 12pm, 1st July 2018.
  2. Each individual will need to register.

Rules: The dance piece has to be inspired in one of the Scientific topics researched at the ICG. The piece can last up to 5 minutes, including both the dancing itself and an optional explanation of what you wanted to express with it.

Types of dancing: Any! Ballet, tap, hip-hop, salsa, …, or a mixture of all the above.

Winners: There will be three winners based on both artistry and scientific content, based on votes from members of the ICG. The winners will be invited to the sharing day and receive prizes to be announce.

The winner videos will be shown sharing event.

Prizes

1st prize: £100 in vouchers.

2nd prize: £50 in vouchers.

3rd prize: £25 in vouchers.

UPLOADING YOUR VIDEOS

Once you are happy with your Science dance, fill in the registration form with the link to your video. You have different options:

  1. Upload your video to youtube. In this way, your video can be publicly available.
  2. Upload your video to either your google drive  or your dropbox, and share it only with the judges.

If you experience any difficulty or you need to send the file directly, please e-mail Violeta at: violeta.gonzalez-perez[at]port.ac.uk (changing the [at] by @).

For some physics related inspiration for dancing check ‘Physics on Pointe‘ and David Bintley‘s ‘E=mc2‘ for the Birmingham Royal Ballet and Alwxander Whitley’s piece ‘8 minutes‘.

Dancing the Universe SHARING

When: 16th July 2018 from 5 to 7 pm.

Where: The HUB, ground floor of the Sciama building, Burnaby Road, Portsmouth PO1 3FX.

We will invite all the participants and their parents to the University to see the videos filmed during the workshop and those from the winners of the online competition. We will also have an space related activity!

Thanks to

This project could not be possible without the sponsorship from the Royal Astronomical Society and the support from the Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation and the University of Portsmouth, in particular the time from Dr. Jen Gupta, Maricar Jagger, Emily Smith, Claudia Bradshaw, Georgia Heath and Julie Bower.

 

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