1. Everett: Company, stage & school
The Marriage of
Art and Science
To Be Used as a Resource Guide for Everett’s
Lecture Demonstration Performance

2. Everett: Company, Stage & School Principle #1:
The Marriage of Art and Science Conservation of Angular Momentum
Research and Development of the Piece and its Educational Components
As Rachael demonstrates the ballet step called a fouette, we see a live example of the conservation of
angular momentum. By drawing her leg and arms to the center of her body, she increases the speed
of her turn. It is the same for someone sitting in a chair, holding a book in each hand. He starts to spin
with his arms extended and then draws his arms (and the weights or books) towards his body. As he
draws the weights in, he increases his speed.
The scientific principle behind this is fairly simple. The further the weight is from the middle, the slower
you spin; the closer the weight is to the middle, the faster you spin. The spinning (rotational) speed is
inversely proportional to the distance of the weights (the books, or Rachael’s arms and leg) are from
the body, Their mass increases the further they get from the center, and their mass decreases the
closer they come to the center, making a higher rotational speed.
Everett’s The Marriage of Art and Science looks at the science inherent in art and uses movement
to explain some basic scientific principals.
When in the process of creating Flight, an evening length concert that investigates the early aviators,
Everett saw a correlation between their investigations as artists and the process that inventors and
scientists like the Wright Brothers go through as they develop their work. Research, experimentation,
trial and error, and problem solving are inherent in both fields. This train of thought lead the company
to become interested in developing a greater understanding of the parallels. Artistic Director, Dorothy
Jungels, assembled six top Rhode Island science teachers and four dancers and had them share
and compare methods. The following year the company worked with science teacher, Paul Mello and
his students at Middletown High. As a result students began to think more creatively and to be less
fearful of taking risks. Everett went on to develop their lecture demonstration, The Marriage of Art
and Science.
As they gathered material for their lecture demonstration Everett members used the research,
experimentation, trail and error, and problem solving processes. They read extensively on prominent
scientists such as Marie Curie, Galileo, and Oppenheimer; visited the science section of the children’s
library; and conducted weekly experiment days - each dancer would investigate some phenomena
and bring an experiment to share with the others. The company explored balanced forces using their
bodies as tools; used tracks and bodies as inclined planes; used bowling balls hung from the ceiling to
explore energy conservation - and more. In this manner, Everett translated the material they gathered
into a movement collage.
Experiment: You can demonstrate this yourself by sitting is a chair that spins and holding
something heavy, like books, in each hand. Now extend your arms and legs and have
Everett’s The Marriage of Art and Science allows the student to comprehend scientific thought in a
someone spin you in the chair. As you start spinning, draw your knees and arms in towards
kinetic fashion. This study guide is designed to help you build on some of the ideas presented in the
your chest. Your rate of speed as you turn in the chair should increase with this movement.
performance.

3. Principle #2: Principle #3:
The Center of Gravity The Fulcrum and Lever
Which is easier to balance on your chin? A broom, or a pencil? Marvin demonstrates that a broom is To give you another look at balance, we present a Herculean feat: Aaron, by himself, will balance
easier because it is taller, and therefore has more mass. Often, the more mass an object has, the easier Sokeo, Eddie, and Rachael. How is this possible? It has to do with the placement of the fulcrum (the
it is to find its center of gravity. We can also demonstrate this by what we call Balanced Forces. We link support point for the lever). We demonstrate the action of a lever, which resembles a see-saw, by
our bodies together by holding onto hands or legs, and then lean away from each other. As we move placing the support closer to one end. Three of us then stand on the shorter end, so that we have less
we need to find our combined center of gravity, or we will fall. Once we’ve found our balance point, we lever weight. Aaron, on the longer end, has greater lever weight, which combines with his own weight.
can move again and create new forms, with new balance points. This becomes a dance. This combined weight allows him to balance three people.
The center of gravity is the point where an object is held in balance by the force of gravity.
Experiment: Have two people -- one small person
and one tall person -- take hold of each other’s
wrists, and then place one foot against the
other’s. They can then begin to lean away from
each other to test for a balance point, or a center
of gravity. What they will find is that the smaller
person can be lower and stretched further out in
space as long as the bigger person stands tall.
This is because the farther you lean away from The principle of the lever is that the effort (the force needed to raise or balance an object) times its
the center, the greater the pull of gravity, and distance from the fulcrum equals the load (the object itself) times its distance from the fulcrum. In our
therefore the heavier you become. If the bigger example, Aaron is the “effort” which must raise and balance Sokeo, Eddie, and Rachael, who are the
person was lower, the combination of greater “load.” By this principle, it is possible for one person to move three if the effort is applied further from
weight and gravitational pull would be too much, the fulcrum.
and the two people would not be able to find a balance point and would fall.
You can also try having one person balance two people. You are now trying to find the center Experiment: Take a tongue depressor (the lever), a triangular block (the fulcrum) and two
of gravity for three people. Try it with a lot of people. Put on some soft music to help your balls of clay, one small (the effort) and one large (the load). Experiment with resting the
concentration. Turn the science lesson into a dance lesson and let everyone begin to focus tongue depressor on the block, and then setting the two balls on either end. Keep sliding
on the shapes their body can take in space. the fulcrum, or block, further away from the smaller ball until the lever is balanced.

4. Principle #4: Principle #5:
Energy Conservation Cause and Effect: Potential Energy
We dare you to stand still while a bowling ball swings towards you. We guarantee you won’t get hit. to Kinetic Energy
What we’ve created with the bowling ball is a pendulum, and we can precisely determine the range of
the pendulum, so we know where it is safe to stand. Everett’s experiment of converting potential energy into kinetic energy can be explained as follows: a
member of the audience places a ball on the tracks (an inclined plane). The force of gravity pulls the
ball down the path of least resistance, where it collides with the block, overcoming the block’s inertia.
As the block’s potential energy decreases, it’s kinetic energy increases. Each block falls in turn. The
last block releases another ball at the top of another inclined plane. The second ball also follows the
path of least resistance, dropping onto a lever. On the other side of the fulcrum, there is an equal and
opposite reaction which throws another ball into the air to be caught in a net.
The principle is called energy conservation. It holds that you can only get as much energy out of an
object as you put into it. If a pendulum hanging straight to the center is pulled back two feet and is
then released without being pushed, it will swing back, past the center, until it reaches a distance of
two feet in the opposite direction. It will never go further than two feet because the energy required
to overcome gravity’s force when you pull the pendulum back is precisely the amount of energy the
pendulum will have for its swing in the opposite direction. So why doesn’t the pendulum keep swinging
for eternity? As it travels through the air it encounters resistance, or friction, which slows the pendulum
with each pass, until eventually it stops moving.
Experiment: Stretch a rubber band and hold it. The energy required to hold it is a
Experiment: Attach a string to a ball or an apple, and suspend it from the ceiling so reflection of the elastic’s potential energy. You can also explore potential and kinetic
that it hangs at chest level. Draw it towards you, holding it to your chin. Let it drop, like energy by creating table top cause & effect machines from everyday objects such as
a pendulum, without pushing it and without moving your chin. You will notice that it is straws, feathers, marbles, etc. These cause & effect machines can be translated into
physically impossible for the object to hit you when it swings back. movement sequences

5. Principle #6: Principle #7:
Distribution of Weight Acceleration of Gravity
You’d think that lying on a bed of nails would hurt. Yet Eddie can actually break wood with a karate The famous scientist Galileo inspired us to look at his experiments on the acceleration of gravity, and
chop on top of Aaron’s body, as he lies on nails. How is this possible? turn it into a dance using tracks and balls.
Over four hundred years ago, Galileo conducted an experiment that contradicted a theory two
thousand years old. He demonstrated that objects dropped at the same time would fall at the same
The impact to the wood is directed onto Aaron’s body, not onto the nails. Aaron’s body absorbs the rate, regardless of their weight. (Until then, it had been believed that a heavier object would fall to
impact, and it travels through him. Since his weight is evenly distributed over the nails, the impact the ground faster than a lighter one.) First Galileo dropped an iron cannon ball and a wooden ball
is evenly distributed. Each nail actually holds very little weight. Aaron therefore feels only a slight simultaneously from the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Both reached the bottom at exactly the same time. But
pressure across his entire body instead of an intense pressure in the center of his body where the they fell too fast for him to really examine the rate of their descent. So he began to use incline planes
karate-chopped board rested. This principle is called distribution of weight. so that the balls fell at a steady -- but slower -- rate, and gave him time to study the acceleration of
gravity.
Experiment: Have your class create a bed of nails by taking a piece of peg board 13 1/2”
x 21 1/2” x 3/4”, and fitting nails snugly into each hole. Then take a piece of plywood (the
same size), and screw it to the back of the peg board, to keep the nails in place. Now have Experiment: Stand on a chair and hold two objects of different weights in each hand,
a student lie down! As a separate experiment, drop a guitar pick into a glass of water. it will making sure to keep your hands level. Drop both objects simultaneously. You should hear
sink. Now try taking the same pick and place it gently on the surface of the water. It floats! one loud thump as they both land at the same time.

6. Principle #8:
Color Theory: White Light
NOTE: This experiement is only done on a professional stage.
Music and light are central to many dance performances. What makes our example different is that
our light source is made up of three primary colors: red, green and blue. We use a screen to create
shadows in the colored light. Something interesting happens as the dancers move both close to, and
away from the light. Their bodies block a particular color and separate the white ;light back into the
original three colors.
This is the principle of white light. Pure white light contains all of the colors of the rainbow. When the
three primary colors shining on a fixed point overlap, your brain interprets this as one color— white.
Experiment: A firsthand example of color theory with light in action involves projecting
three primary colors onto a screen. Take three sheets of acetate paper and place a
transparent blue gel on one piece, red on another, and green on the last. Then take three
flashlights and shine them through the acetate sheets onto the same spot on a white
backdrop. The end result should be a white light shone on the backdrop. For the reverse
effect, take a prism and shine a white light through it. The prism will separate the colors
into the colors of the spectrum.