Dr. Merritt Moore’s residency was an investigation of choreographing a dance duet between a robot and a human. This residency included collaborators Alice Williamson and a UR10e robotic arm.
Merritt is a physicist and professional ballet dancer. Merritt graduated in physics from Harvard and with a PhD in Atomic and Laser Physics from the University of Oxford. She also danced professionally with the Zurich Ballet, Boston Ballet, English National Ballet, and, most recently, Norwegian National Ballet. Merritt was awarded Forbes 30 under 30, Michael von Clemm Fellowship from Harvard, and is featured in “Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls”, alongside Ada Lovelace and Oprah.
Whether in the physics lab or ballet studio, Merritt is an experimentalist driven by curiosity to push the boundaries of scientific research through art. Her current work at the ArtLab, with her collaborator Alice Williamson, investigates a dance duet between a robot and a human choreographed by Artificial Intelligence. Their aim is to create a duet between a human and a robot that can ignite new conversations around tech, champion a female voice, and speak to fresh audiences through the voice of dance.
Merritt’s work has been featured at the Barbican, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and Imagine Film Festival in NY. She has been invited to talk to, most recently, the Forbes Women’s Summit in NY, the U.S. Embassy’s Women in STEM Panel in London, the Princeton Physics Dept, TEDx Oxford, and the University of Oslo on the intersection of science and art. She was also one of the 12 selected astronaut candidates to undergo a rigorous selection process on BBC Two “Astronauts: Do you have what it takes?” under the guidance of Commander Chris Hadfield and continues to pursue that dream.
Alice Williamson is a multidisciplinary artist and performer from London, England, who has led creative research and visual production during this residency. Williamson has performed as a professional ballet dancer working with Staatsballett Berlin, Hong Kong Ballet, and Royal Opera House, London. Williamson is also the founder of Designed by Alice fashion for ballet dancers.
February 2020 ArtLab event associated with this residency: Merritt Moore: work-in-progress
ArtLab podcast Works in Progress Episode 2 features Dr. Merritt Moore speaking about this residency.
Read about Merritt’s project in this featured article by Universal Robots, “Dancing Through the Pandemic: How a Quantum Physicist Taught a Cobot to Dance.”
Upcoming May 2025 ArtsThursdays event at ArtLab: Merritt Moore: Performance
