Saturday Matinee

Promoting conversation between science and the arts
Dance Your PhD
My first choreographic effort

It’s so great to start with an idea, and to actually devote a lot of time, energy, money, a lot of hoping and crossing fingers to get a studio, to ultimately see the project come to completion. I stumbled across this event “Choreograping Your PhD” earlier this year, and just thought it was hilarious as well as very fitting – science and dance is a novel yet symbiotic relationship that could lead to a greater understanding of both fields. After all, science has been a subject of dance for a while now, from Balanchine’s Four Temperaments (based on the subject of physiology) to the more recent work of Wayne McGregor’s groundbreaking work in artificial intelligence, cloning, and the heart. Add to that the quirkiness of scientists on display doing something out of the ordinary, and you end up with NY Times coverage.

So here I present my soul to the world, my first choreographic effort as someone clearly out of my own element. Bottom line – choreographing is SUPER HARD, and my respect for ALL choreographers just skyrocketed. Forget about any body issues that I have; I can’t even think about that without cringing. And I definitely need to go to ballet class more; I really need to work on keeping my torso upright (my technique seems to get worse every time I watch the video). But I’m forcing myself to get over it because after all this work, and I can’t not upload it now. Remember as you watch it that normally I am a geeky sedentary scientist and not a trained dancer by any means. My ultimate goal is to be able to choreograph as well as Balanchine or Wheeldon can do molecular biology.

The Stats: for the five of us in the studio filming this video:

• Collective education (earned and ongoing): one Masters in Computer Science, two PhD’s in Neuroscience, one PhD in Nutrition, one medical (MD) degree, one veterinary (DVM) degree.
• Collective dance experience: 17 years and three months of ballet, one quarter of Renaissance dance, a smattering of swing experience.

The Science:

How does a developing nervous system form connections (synapses)? It’s directed by a series of molecular cues, which is the basis for my PhD dissertation. Our lab studies synaptogenesis and the molecular cues involved in synapse formation and differentiation that is essential for the developing nervous system. Specifically, our lab studies agrin, a heparan sulfate proteoglycan that has been widely studied for its synaptogenic effects at the neuromuscular junction. My project studies agrin’s function in synaptogenesis in the peripheral nervous system.

The Dance:

I represent a motile growth cone, an immature neuron searching for its postsynaptic partner to form a synapse. It starts out as a slow awakening, as I explore my environment. I liked the breathing quality of the awakening process, waxing and waning, breathing with the music. The other dancers represent potential postsynaptic partners, where I dance with them to see if they have the correct synaptogenic cues that dictates my final destination. I ultimately find my final postsynaptic partner (who also happens to be the only one strong enough to hold me in a dip ) and synapse with it.

I was disappointed that the resolution of the video wasn’t good enough to capture my leotard. It’s nude colored to represent an unmyelinated neuron – with myelin, I would have worn white, but without myelin, I’m basically membrane colored. I also drew on these open geometric circles to represent presynaptic synaptic vesicles, which unfortunately you can’t see.

The Experience:

Everyone learned everything within the span of two and a half hours – teaching it and communicating what I wanted was harder than I thought, but everyone picked it up really quickly. I loved that I did this together with my friends; we’re definitely not the best dancers in the world, but I wouldn’t have had it any other way, all but one of them graduate students themselves. It was also amazing to be back in a dance studio for a few hours. Many special thanks to the UC Davis Theatre and Dance Department who were so welcome in letting me use the studio on a rainy Saturday on such short notice; Professor David Grenke (former principal dancer with the Paul Taylor Dance Company, founding member of Armitage Ballet) couldn’t have been nicer nor more encouraging.

Some photos we took for fun -

In short: It was a great time! Thanks to everyone who made my vision possible, including my friends who helped bounce ideas around. It definitely wouldn’t happened without everyone’s support. So with great humility, I hereby present to you my final product. Be sure to watch through til the end.

Check out the other entries, as well as last year’s (live) contest, here. Please submit a video, especially if you are a post doc or a professor, because there aren’t too many videos in those categories. The deadline is Nov 16.

P.S. Speaking of science and the arts, who’s excited for the next four years?? I am!

Updated: Very special and very kind blog endorsements! Thanks to everyone -

• Cocktail Party Physics
• Reverberate Hills
• Swan Lake Samba Girl
• Oberon’s Grove
• Thomasina’s Last Waltz
• Art.Cult at WNYC