This Workshop focused on the creative opportunities and challenges that arise in arts-science collaborations, how “science can inform art” and the arguably more tricky direction of how “art informs science”. Our collaboration with Humanhood acted as the lens through which to explore these issues. Humanhood shared some choreographic sequences they have been developing during the early stages of the collaborative process, performed by the five company dancers. This gave attendees an opportunity to witness this close collaboration and to see how it translates to movement with a group of dancers. The performance was accompanied by combined talks from Professor Chaplin, and Co-Artistic Directors Rudi and Julia as well as an energetic discussion with the workshop attendees. The event provided insights into how we have communicated and collaborated in a way that has informed both our thinking and process.

Feedback and reflections from participants included:

“My own research is on the interface between performance and medicine, so there are/were resonances for me”

“I work on the body and am very interested in exploring how my work might aligned with the art form that uses the body as communication (dance). “

“I feel that artists have to move beyond the ‘I have been inspired by…and here is my response,’ and if possible move into more rigorous and specific points of contrast and comparison.”

“What would it mean to use dance in teaching methods in physics and astronomy, for instance? What about dance in the physics lab? I am interested in the space that can be opened up between the disciplines, and what that exchange might look like or do?”