Where Arts Meets Science
An amazing evening celebrating dance and its powerful potential to connect with science and wellbeing, kindly hosted by The National Physical Laboratory in Teddington.
Richmond Arts and Ideas Festival in partnership with N-Rich Dance has launched Smart Cells, a powerful dramatic dance inspired by ground breaking research in immunotherapy. Hosted by the National Physical Laboratory to an audience of academics and local residents, the performance left people moved and reaching for a tissue.
The dance was commissioned by Imperial College London and focuses on the research currently being undertaken by researchers working in the Hugh and Josseline Langmuir Centre for Myeloma Research. The centre specialises in researching how to treat patients with Myeloma (a type of blood cancer) under the leadership of Professor Tassos Karadimitris.
Their world leading research work involves genetically engineering a subcategory of T cells called an iNKT cell to have an increased capacity to recognise and destroy cancer cells.
The bespoke performance, designed by the award winning choreographer Matt Walker and Chloe Mead, has been inspired by the research, their tour of the lab and also a series of Myeloma patient stories, in particular, the words of an artist called Douglas who made a poem about his experience.
The dance is being shown at Imperial’s flagship event, the Great Exhibition Road Festival, on Saturday 17th and Sunday 18th June, and partners with The Science Museum and the Natural History Museum among many others and is in closed streets behind the Natural History Museum, so please go along to watch it and support the research. The professionals will be performing alongside schools and Westminster City Lions Youth Group so it will be very inclusive and a joy to watch. Here’s a preview clip of the performance.
Smart Cells is finally visiting the Richmond Arts and Ideas Festival at Murray Park on July 2nd as part of the Dance and Picnic in the Park event. This event is free and inclusive and will feature other community dancers including a ballet duo from Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance and Jamaal Burkmar, an award winning choreographer, will be showcasing an improvisational dance.
The evening ended with a fascinating discussion from a panel of specially invited guests about person centred care and how effective dance and the arts is at raising awareness for medical research.
The VIPS are:-
(Top Row L to R)
Kelley Ferreira, NPL; Matt Walker, Ombrascura Dance; Kelly Gleason, ICL; Chloe Mead; Anne-Marie Smalldon, Combination Dance Company; Professor Sara Houston, Roehampton University; Dr. Kanagaraju Ponnusamy, ICL; Callum Harvey, Ruils; Kath Morton-Smith, Combination Dance; Douglas
(Bottom Row L to R)
Synaet Nin; Kerri De Aguiar; Luca Cattogio; Amy Cook; Matt Biancheri; Angus Philips-Higham; Leigh Shaked; and other dancers not in the photo included Tilly Woodford, Owen McHugh.
Smart Cells has been produced by Creative Producer, Kath Morton-Smith and Artistic Director. The choreographers are Chloe Mead and Matt Walker, Ombrascura Dance Company.
To find out more about the Great Exhibition Road Festival and to book, go to https://www.greatexhibitionroadfestival.co.uk/event/smart-cells-awe-and-wonder/?backto=whats-on.
To find out more about the National Physical Laboratory, go to www.npl.co.uk
To find out more about the Richmond Arts and Ideas Festival
Click here to find out more about the Smart Cells project, go to the Smart Cells website
https://smart-cells.uk/
The following are the partners involved social handles
@combinationdance
@matteo_walker
@cjsmead
@imperialcollege
@NPL
@ExRdFestival
@_Extended_Play_
@LBRUT
@ombrascuradance
@exrdfestival
@aceagrams
@julesrphotography
@extendedplaydance
#ArtsandIdeasFestival