quantum choreographies
Role: Director, Producer
Work in progress excerpt created for Quantum World Congress - September 2025
Quantum Choreographies features Carl A. Miller, a National Institute of Standards and Technology mathematician and the Joint Center for Quantum Information and Computer Science co-director, and dancers from the University of Maryland School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies (TDPS). The performance explores how dance and the human body can serve as a visual metaphor to communicate the mathematical principles as well as the awe-inspiring phenomenon that makes quantum computing such an exciting frontier of science.
The University of Maryland recently launched the Maryland Institute for Quantum Applications, part of a larger statewide initiative to raise $1 billion in investment in the technology. While quantum computing is starting to become a more familiar term in popular discourse, the technology is generally poorly understood and the cutting edge research being conducted at the university, even less so. Quantum Choreographies seeks to translate the science behind quantum computing through dance.
Work in progress excerpt created for "Fearlessly Forward" fundraiser for Univ. of Maryland - October 2025
The project uses the human body as a metaphorical representation of the fundamental building blocks of digital computation, first bits and then quantum bits or "qubits." In parallel we are developing a design language integrating pre-recorded video content and animation to extend the metaphor of dancer as qubit. The integration of digital media allows us to extend the metaphor in ways that capture the strange quantum behavior of entanglement and superposition by twinning the dancers and Dr. Miller himself on screen and onstage simultaneously.
PROCESS
Quantum Choreographies began as an exploration of quantum computing research through dance. The multi-disciplinary creative team spent several months learning the fundamentals of quantum physics and quantum computing. Dr. Miller, as the subject matter expert, discussed various areas of research he has conducted, with each one striving to translate complicated mathematics into visuals and processes that could be understood and utilized by the artists and designers.
TRANSLATION: Our initial task was to build a choreographic vocabulary that described the behavior of bits and qubits inside classical and quantum computers, respectively.
Dr. Miller and choreographer, Adriane Fang, created an initial lexical document to itemize the various terms in the research and to find their corollary in human movement.
A central aspect of quantum computing that we focused on was the Bloch sphere. The Bloch sphere geometrically describes the possible range of states of a quantum bit (qubit) while in superposition with the north and south poles representing 1 and 0. When a qubit is measured, it's quantum state collapses to a fixed state of either 1 or 0. A Bloch sphere could then be represented by a dancer continually moving through space at the edge of their "kinesphere" or the sphere around the body that represents the fullest extension of their range of motion.
With that initial movement vocabulary established, we could then describe more complicated elements inside of a quantum computer, such as the quantum entanglement of two qubits.
VIDEO INTEGRATION: Our exploration of video began through the need to share the project when presenting the work as a live performance was not possible. I became intrigued by the conceptual and narrative possibilities that incorporating video content into the live performance might provide. Combining prerecorded footage of the performers in interactive ways with their performances live onstage offered an accessible metaphor for the strange quantum principles, especially entanglement, that operate in mysterious ways across space and time.
To prepare for filming the prerecorded segments of the live performance, I did extensive storyboarding to plan out how the prerecorded content on each screen would interact with the action onstage and with the other video screens.
The content for each screen had to be recorded separately and edited to mirror each other.
PRODUCTION HISTORY
-
APRIL 2025 - World Quantum Day (Work-in-progress video)
- SEPTEMBER 2025 - Q3 Conference (Work-in-progress mixed media performance)
- SEPTEMBER 2025 - Quantum World Congress (Video excerpt)
- OCTOBER 2025 - UMD Fearlessly Forward Campaign Launch (Mixed media performance excerpt)
CREDITS
Director: Jonathan David Martin
Choreographer: Adriane Fang
Text and Performance: Carl Miller
Composer and Sound Designer: Samuel Crawford
Media Designer: Tim Kelly
Cinematographer and Editor: Mark Sherwood
Costume Designers: Emil Mendoza and Katie Glenn
Creative Collaborator: Bill Kules
Dancers: Bree Breeden, Emilia Bruno, Kevin Carroll, Jamie Chen, Kevin Clark, Avital Dresin, Beatriz Moreira Leite, C Macko, Layla Nordrum, Peter Pattengill, Angela Smith,
Julie Zalalutdinov
Created through the generous support of an Arts for All Arts AMP Collaborative Faculty Grant, National Institute of Standards and Technology, the Joint Center for Quantum Information and Computer Science,UMD Immersive Media Design program, UMD School of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies, UMD Department of Art, and UMD School of Computer, Mathematical and Natural Sciences.