Dance and science may seem like very different disciplines but the DANscienCE Festival 2015 will reveal that the two areas have much to say to one another.
Held at Queensland University of Technology between 21 and 23 August, DANscienCE Festival 2015 will explore topics such as the role of dance in the treatment of Parkinson’s Disease and dementia, dance as a tool for teaching, dance and the brain, space and astronomy, and the prevention of dance injuries.
In addition, New York dancer and choreographer Jody Sperling will present on her participation in a science mission to the Chukchi Sea in the Arctic in 2014. “Jody Sperling became the first ever choreographer-in-residence aboard the US Coast Guard Cutter Healy,” says Associate Professor Gene Moyle, festival co-director and QUT Creative Industries faculty head of discipline – Dance. “She danced on polar sea ice at a dozen research deployments and a short film of her dancing on ice won second place in Human Impact Institute’s Creative Climate Awards.”
Sperling is just one of a range of speakers which includes Australian and international artists, practitioners, researchers and scientists, says Moyle. “One of our keynote speakers is Professor Kate Stevens, director of research and engagement, and leader of the music cognition and action research program in the MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development at the University of Western Sydney. Another keynote speaker is Professor Kim Vincs, Director of the Deakin Motion.Lab, Deakin University’s motion capture studio and performance technology research centre. She has commercial motion capture credits for computer games, television commercials and film, including the Cannes Silver Lion winning Nocturnal Migration.”
Amongst the other speakers are Kavitha Krishnan, artistic director of Singapore’s Maya Dance Theatre, who will cover the subject of dance with dementia and Down syndrome, and Janet Karin OAM, former principal dancer of the Australian Ballet and now the kinetic educator at the Australian Ballet School, focusing on the application of neuroscience principles to elite ballet training. “Matthew Lawrence, another former principal artist with the Australian Ballet and now a sessional lecturer at QUT, freelance teacher, choreographer and writer, will present “A Short History of Life – The Big Bang and Ballet” while QUT PhD candidate Erica Rose Jeffrey will chair a forum on dance for Parkinson’s disease,” adds Moyle. “Presentations and performances will run over two days while on Day Three, attendees will be able to experience QUT’s Robotronica spectacular at Garden’s Point.”
DANscienCE Festival 2015 is open to the public. For more info and to purchase tickets head to www.danscience.com.au