With precision and concentration, four performers master a targeted task of (selfinflicted) overexertion: “Relative Collider” is an experimental set up which combines dance, neuroscience and mathematics. Liz Santoro and Pierre Godard overlay and vary two different movement schemas – a sequence of sixty-four arm positions and two series of foot movements, each consisting of sixty-four beats – which over the course of the performance are joined together with increasing complexity. To this performance – which challenges every receptor and neuron – text is added as a third element: according to predetermined rhythmical patterns, quotations from world literature are selected at random from a pool and performed live to the draconian beat of the metronome. Sounds abstract? Sure, on paper; but on the stage, “Relative Collider” is a graceful experiment that calls to mind the era of postmodern dance. For their ‘performative machine,’ the dancer, choreographer and neuroscientist Liz Santoro, and dancer, engineer and computer linguist Pierre Godard borrow elements from physics: similar to the collisions in a particle accelerator, which generate knowledge about elementary particles and matter, they seek to bring about a “collision of watching,” and to find out more about the principles of attention. Audience members have the opportunity to observe the performance of a choreography which develops into an increasingly complex system, right before their eyes.

Pierre Godard and Liz Santoro have being collaborating closely for several years. Choreographer and dancer, Liz Santoro began her dance training at The Boston Ballet School, then went on to study neuroscience at Harvard University. She has worked with contemporary dance choreographers such as Alexandra Bachzetsis, Jack Ferver, Philipp Gehmacher, Trajal Harrell, Heather Kravas, David Wampach, and Ann Liv Young.

Originally educated as an engineer and after a career as a quantitative analyst, Pierre Godard has worked in the theater as a technician, an assistant lighting designer, a stage manager, an assistant director, and a director. After completing a masters in Natural Language Processing at the Sorbonne Nouvelle, he recently began a PhD at LIMSI-CNRS which focuses on probabilistic modeling for multi-level and cross-lingual alignments.

Their work has been presented by Danspace Project at St Marks Church, The Chocolate Factory Theater, Dance Theater Workshop, The Museum of Arts and Design in New York as well as at Usine C, Théâtre de Vanves, CDC Atelier de Paris Carolyn Carlson, Centre Pompidou-Metz, Théâtre de la Bastille, Hippodrome de Douai, in addition to festivals such as Impulstanz, Actoral, PuSh, Entre Cour et Jardins, Lublin Dance Festival, Brigittines International Festival, and American Realness. Their piece Watch It, in the version presented by The Museum of Arts and Design, received a Bessie Award in 2013. Their work has been supported by DRAC Ilede-France, FUSED, ADAMI, Arcadi, and The Jerome Foundation. Their company, Le principe d’incertitude, is currently in residency at CDC Atelier de Paris-Carolyn Carlson.