Deep glow
The dance began with darkness, and a voice: “The ocean is alive.” Green lights in the shape of human bodies flicked on and off from both sides of the auditorium. Living lights. “Imagine a world where light is the main form of communication,” the voice of oceanographer Sylvia Earle continued, as the dancers “swam” down stairs onto the stage. Their limbs flashed in time to music; slowly they breathed in and out, like swimmers in the sea. The dancers were a troupe from New York’s Kristin McArdle Dance, at Harvard’s Science Center Tuesday to perform “Aqua Borealis,” a dance “inspired by deep-sea exploration and marine organisms that use light and movement to communicate in the oceans.” The dance was the climax of “Living Light: The Art and Science of Bioluminescence.” “Too often we try to inspire people’s feelings by logic,” said Kathleen Frith, managing director of Harvard Medical School’s Center for Health...