d.Lab

Illuminating Science Through Design, Language, and Ballet Illuminating Science Through Design, Language, and Ballet

BACKGROUND

PROJECT INFO

This project is an exciting new partnership and collaboration with Kenneth Tindall, Artistic Director of Digital and Choreographer in Residence at Northern Ballet. The work explores the parallels between crystallography (the study of crystal structure), geometry in design, and choreography, showing how both science and the body—through dance—create patterns and geometry. 

This project builds on collaborative ideas that emerged from a Leeds Creative Labs partnership that brought together Briony and Kenneth, supported by the Cultural Institute at the University of Leeds in 2020. 

Year

2020-2021  

Collaborators

Briony Thomas  

Kenneth Tindall

Funder

UKRI Higher Education Innovation Fund 

GALLERY

Ångström explores conceptual ideas of pattern and geometry, drawing inspiration from the diffraction patterns and lattice structures of x-ray crystallography. The performance captures moments where crystals fragment a beam of x-rays and expresses changing states of matter within an atomic world. 
“Patterns are an elegant connection between art and science. Repeating patterns in textiles are based on the same ideas of symmetry and groups that developed through the study of crystal structures. It was this connection between the artistic expression of pattern and the science behind it that inspired us to create ÅNGSTRØM. Visual references to diffraction patterns, lattices, and the changing states of matter, are interwoven throughout the piece.”
Dr Briony Thomas
Dr Briony Thomas
Image credits: Minju Kang, Kevin Poeung, Riku Ito and Lorenzo Trossello in ÅNGSTRØM. Photo: Emily Nuttall

Behind the Scenes

OUR TEAM

  • Kenneth Tindall
  • Briony Thomas 
  • Minju Kang
  • Riku Ito
  • Kevin Poeung
  • Lorenzo Trossello 
  • Emily Nuttall
  • Alastair West
  • Abbi Fearnley 
  • Sam Day 
  • Martin Smith 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This project was supported by Northern Ballet and Leeds Arts and Humanities Research Institute and the Cultural Institute, with funding from the UKRI Higher Education Innovation Fund.