Supporting creativity Pt. 4

Uncertainty. That is an excellent word to describe the research inspired by particle accelerators. Particles. Fast particles. 50 drummers. 25 dancers. 2 video artists. Chaos? Maybe. Until you start to see the patterns emerge. The relationships evolve. Suddenly a tragic story or exciting invitation. Audience members at the public performance were compelled, almost spiritually, to leap into the fray. We sat in the center. Another educator and I. It was a spectacle. Rhythmic. Terrifying. Cultish. Moving.

When Amanda and Tobin returned from Fermilab they were filled with stories. Mostly they talked about the noise. And the scientists who really connected to them as artists. They were asked to write an article for the Fermilab quarterly. They were invited back. Physicists became their friends here and afar. Entanglement. Relationships at any distance. Physicists near and physicists far. They were drawn, compelled even, to leap into the fray. The performance left a lasting scar. Not so much a wound as a surgery. A healing. There was little informal talk of it. Like a strange relationship.

The students understood the concepts and anticipated their influence on movement. They enjoyed near and long distance manipulation. Entanglement. It seemed a theme for the year and it persists. Students who started in the program many years ago are connected. They are tall. Wonderful near-adults. City kids. Tough. Until they see Tobin and Amanda. Busted. See their souls? Expressive and wanting to express. Friendship does not begin to explain it. Open. Wonderful. Artists. What’s been shared on the marley is the confession that we move and we dance because we need to tell the story without words. There is nothing to say that could not be better said with a turn, a reach. Deliberate look to the horizon, the ceiling. A hand. A noise made because of movement. Not accidental but impossible to replicate without that effort.

Like that audience member who was driven by the movement and drums and joined the dance. The students took that invitation to express themselves newly. One more language.

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