Dancing to the Genome

by Dr. Hsien-Hsien Lei
Posted May 5, 2007 in DNA Fun

The genome has been set to music many times before and since 2006, the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange has been dancing to DNA. Ferocious Beauty: Genome encompasses the history of genetics from Gregor Mendel and his peas to modern day scientists.

From The Scientist:

The dancers’ intersection with science begins in a scene from a “laboratory,” where they spiral like the DNA helix, relate in groups of three like codons, and “fly” like . In a wry wink, the dancers unzip their costumes — like DNA, get it? — to reveal messages written on their bodies, such as “Knowledge is a Blessing.”

As the dancers perform, video, audio, and text of scientists talking about genetics are shown on stage. Choreographer Liz Lerman wanted to stimulate the audience to think more about genetics as a science and how it affects their lives. When the performance was in Washington, DC, Francis Collins, Director of the national Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) led a post-performance discussion.

Liz Lerman in GenomeLIFE:

I think right now an artist’s job is to give an audience a shred of hope. I don’t want people to walk out of the performance and say, ‘Now here’s one more thing that I don’t understand and that could ruin me.’ It was a wonderful challenge for us to figure out what, out of all of this, we could show people that would leave them thrilled.

Combining life, science, and art seems both foreign and familiar. It’s what we do every day whether we realize it or not.

Tags: liz lerman, ferocious beauty, genome, genomics, genetics, genes, dna, dance, arts, health, science

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Pingback by Eye on DNA Headlines for 27 September 2007

2007-09-27 18:57:56

[...] Read more about this performance in my previous post - Dancing to the Genome. [...]

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