<p>Imagine a dance form through which you can visualise the movement and interactions between particles in a human cell. Sounds absurd? Welcome to the world of bodystorming.<br /><br /></p>.<p>“Bodystorming is a way of using the body to understand the world around us. The body is not just a site of knowledge but also a medium of communication,” said Dr Darius Koester, biophysicist, contemporary dancer and a research fellow at the National Centre for Biological Studies (NCBS).<br /><br />The dynamics of the dance form help scientists or any average person visualise the movement and interactions between the particles in a cell, he added.<br /><br />Koester has worked with bodystorming artists from the Black Label Movement (BLM), a dance company led by Prof Carl Flink and Prof David Odde, a biophysicist from the University of Minnesota. He now wishes to give the science community in the City an opportunity to practise the dance form.<br /><br />NCBS has invited the BLM group, with the help of a grant from the Wellcome Trust, to conduct an intense bodystorming workshop that will bring the dance and science community together.<br /><br />Dancer Aparna U Banerjee who heads the Science and Society programme at NCBS, said: “As dancers, we have experienced through the body what the mind cannot. <br />Bodystorming is an attempt at experiencing such non-verbal knowledge and physically committing to an idea. The form lends itself to various subjects. If you are an architect, instead of visualising a space through a blueprint, you experience the space with your body.<br /><br /> It is an alternate way of imagining basic concepts and it throws light on things that you would have missed otherwise.”<br /><br />Workshop<br />As many as 25 professional dancers will work with artists from BLM as part of a two-day workshop that will be held on April 25 and 26. <br /><br />This will be followed by a 10-day residency programme for dancers and scientists at the NCBS.<br /><br />Further, two public presentations will also be organised. The first on April 26 at the National Gallery of Modern Art at 11 am before the workshop. A final public presentation and performance will be organised after the residency on May 2.<br /></p>
<p>Imagine a dance form through which you can visualise the movement and interactions between particles in a human cell. Sounds absurd? Welcome to the world of bodystorming.<br /><br /></p>.<p>“Bodystorming is a way of using the body to understand the world around us. The body is not just a site of knowledge but also a medium of communication,” said Dr Darius Koester, biophysicist, contemporary dancer and a research fellow at the National Centre for Biological Studies (NCBS).<br /><br />The dynamics of the dance form help scientists or any average person visualise the movement and interactions between the particles in a cell, he added.<br /><br />Koester has worked with bodystorming artists from the Black Label Movement (BLM), a dance company led by Prof Carl Flink and Prof David Odde, a biophysicist from the University of Minnesota. He now wishes to give the science community in the City an opportunity to practise the dance form.<br /><br />NCBS has invited the BLM group, with the help of a grant from the Wellcome Trust, to conduct an intense bodystorming workshop that will bring the dance and science community together.<br /><br />Dancer Aparna U Banerjee who heads the Science and Society programme at NCBS, said: “As dancers, we have experienced through the body what the mind cannot. <br />Bodystorming is an attempt at experiencing such non-verbal knowledge and physically committing to an idea. The form lends itself to various subjects. If you are an architect, instead of visualising a space through a blueprint, you experience the space with your body.<br /><br /> It is an alternate way of imagining basic concepts and it throws light on things that you would have missed otherwise.”<br /><br />Workshop<br />As many as 25 professional dancers will work with artists from BLM as part of a two-day workshop that will be held on April 25 and 26. <br /><br />This will be followed by a 10-day residency programme for dancers and scientists at the NCBS.<br /><br />Further, two public presentations will also be organised. The first on April 26 at the National Gallery of Modern Art at 11 am before the workshop. A final public presentation and performance will be organised after the residency on May 2.<br /></p>
