Art meets Science: “Dance of the Cilia” is an interdisciplinary dance performance that invites the audience to dive into the fascinating micro-world of cilia, the hair-like structures found in the human body. The first performance will take place at 7:00 PM on Friday, January 17, at the JKU Circus of Knowledge. There will be 17 scheduled performances, including free performances for school classes. Sign up to attend at: jku.at/zirkus.

Healthy bodies depend on cilia: they clean our lungs, transport ova, and ensure that microorganisms survive. But what if something goes wrong? How do cilia affect our health, disease, and evolution? Together with the audience, the performance explores these questions and more. Created in close collaboration with scholars, scientists, international dancers, and artists, “Dance of the Cilia” is a unique dance-based performance expressing just how complex pulmonary movement is. Professional dancers transform scientific findings into an aesthetically beautiful dance performance, accompanied by compositions of sound based on the actual sounds of cilia.

The performance is based on Doris Roth’s (Helmholtz Zentrum Munich) research on cilia and its pulmonary cleansing function: “Our partnership aims to help audiences experience science by means of artistic expression. We use dance, sound and the available space to make complex research more tangible and accessible to a broader audience.”

Participants:

• Movement – Research &Dance: LiLi Jung In Lee (KOR/AT), Seungju Lee (KOR), Valerio Iurato (IT/AT), Seojin Moon (KOR), Samer Alkurdi (SYR/AT)
• Sound: Lynn Mayya (SYR/AT)
• Scientific background, visuals & artistic research: Doris Roth (DE/AT)
• Direction: Ilona Roth (DE/AT)
• Set design: Michaela Becker (DE/UK)

Dates:
Performances open to the public (donation-based admission)

• Friday, January 17, 2025, 7:00 PM (premiere)
• Saturday, January 18, 2025, 3:00 PM
• Thursday, January 23, 2025, 7:00 PM
• Saturday, January 25, 2025, 3:00 PM
• Saturday, February 1, 2025, 3:00 PM

Seating is limited; kindly sign up in advance to attend by sending an e-mail to: www.jku.at/zirkus, opens an external URL in a new window.

Free performances for school classes between January 16 to 31, 2025 (weekdays, 10.00 AM - 11.00 AM). Performances on January 21, 22 and 28 are already full. Schools can reserve seats at no charge by sending an e-mail to: zirkusmachtschule(at)jku.at

The JKU Circus of Knowledge, Transitheart Productions, and RedSapata have partnered to create “Tanz der Zilien”; funding has been generously provided by Kulturland OÖ. See: Tanz der Zilien | Zirkus des Wissens to learn more.