by A new method of cancer research combining choreographed movement with science is taking the floor at the University of Minnesota.
Carl Flink, a University dance professor and artistic director of the dance company Black Label Movement, and David Odde, a biochemical engineer, found a way to combine their separate skills and knowledge.
“I was going to choreograph his research,” Flink said. “So I was gonna listen to him talk about what he does in biomedical engineer modeling, and then I would respond with some type of dance.”
This collaboration eventually led to what they now call bodystorming. Flink said the term was coined by a friend who said it was almost like brainstorming with the body.
“We’re using humans in space with choreographic strategies to model that at a human scale rather than at a screen with a computer,” Flink said.
Noah Sinclair, a University graduate student at Provenzano Lab, said participants act as tumor cells, or T-cells and are given different prompts similar to how a scientist would operate a computer program model.
“What we can do here is we can make quick models,” Sinclair said. “We can give people instructions and people are a lot easier to tell what to do than computers are.”
The people can be anyone, from dancers to actors to even non-artistic individuals.
“I’m a dancer, so I come from the movement aspect of it,” said Olivia VanArk, a fourth-year dance major. “Learning to kind of see how our movement can bring in a scientific aspect to it is really awesome. I also love coming to these because I get to meet so many new people.”
Members from the UMN’s marching band joined the latest bodystorming session, which Flink said was the first time he has gotten to work with them. He said he is hoping to host a large-scale bodystorm with all of the members of the marching band as well as people from the community.
“It’s almost a community research approach where everybody in the room has the opportunity to talk to the scientist and say ‘I saw this,’” Flink said. “You laugh a lot.”
While the sessions allow the scientists to see their research from another perspective and even be a part of it, Flink said he also pulls choreographic ideas and incorporates them into his own art. He added that he does not choreograph dances anymore that does not include some sort of bodystorming.
“Does that mean we’re gonna cure cancer with bodystorming? I don’t know, but maybe this is a part of the process that leads to really effective responses to cancer,” Flink said.
