Act of Gravity

June 9, 2022Den Grå Hal Copenhagen
Aog 2 7 svagere grid
Doors open: 19:00
Start programme: 20:00
Den Grå Hal
Refshalevej 2
Copenhagen

A special series of events combining science talks with an original dance performance inspired by gravity. A collaboration between Science & Cocktails and the Recoil Performance Group.

Gravity pulls us towards the ground, pulls on our loose skin, attracts objects, and sets planets into orbit. It propels the big scientific minds of our time to develop theories that attempt to explain the behaviour of matter, space, and time. Who are we humans eternally falling while the laws of physics set everything into motion?

Act of Gravity is a large-scale dance performance about the most observable force in the universe. With the use of a huge trampoline, cutting-edge visuals, specially composed music, and alluring acrobatics, as well as in close dialogue with scientists from Niels Bohr Institute, KU Leuven and the University of Amsterdam, Act of Gravity is an immersive dance experience for the mind and for the senses.

The performance strides the line between art and science and is presented in the informal context of a cocktail bar. While you enjoy your chilled drink, every evening a renowned expert in physics will offer an introductory talk about the mind-boggling theories that have inspired the dance performance.

Programme

  • 20:00–   20:30
    Thomas Hertog– 
  • 21:00–   22:00
    Act of Gravity– 

Talk by

Thomas Hertog

Thomas Hertog is a Belgian cosmologist at KU Leuven university and a key collaborator of Professor Stephen Hawking. He received his master’s degree in physics from the KU Leuven and his doctorate from the University of Cambridge. He joined the University of California as a research fellow in 2002 and became fellow at CERN, Geneva, in 2005. In 2011 he returned to Belgium where he is currently professor at the Institute for Theoretical Physics of the KU Leuven. Hertog is also guest professor at the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, Santa Barbara, visiting senior fellow at Trinity College, Cambridge, and affiliate member of the International Solvay Institutes for Physics, Brussels.

At the KU Leuven Hertog leads a research team that investigates the physical nature of black holes and the big bang. In this context he has a longstanding interest in gravitational waves — ripples of spacetime once predicted by Einstein. Hertog leads Belgium’s participation in the European Space Agency’s first gravitational-wave mission and in Einstein Telescope, a future gravitational-wave observatory underground that may well be a game changer for Belgium.

He has recently wrote the book "On the Origin of Time" about his theory of the origin of the universe and his journey with Stephen Hawking.

TH LR

Dance performance

Act of Gravity

Act of Gravity is a large-scale dance performance about the most observable force in the universe developed by the Recoil Performance Group in collaboration with Science & Cocktails. With the use of a huge trampoline, cutting-edge visuals, specially composed music, and alluring acrobatics, as well as in close dialogue with scientists from Niels Bohr Institute, KU Leuven and the University of Amsterdam, Act of Gravity is an immersive dance experience for the mind and for the senses.

Aog 2 7 svagere grid
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