Fortunately, our show at TEDx Waterloo was a hit! The videos aren’t up yet, but will be soon. In the meantime, here’s the picture of our quantum leap. You can see some more pictures here.

It was definitely the largest crowd I’d ever performed for. Nerves were affecting our dress rehearsals the night before. At one point we were practicing the aerial (tossing the girls in a backflip) and the lights cut out! In the end it all came together, though.

If the response on twitter is any indication of success, we’re in luck. Searching twitter for some keywords you can find a slew of positive reactions. Some of my favorites are:

Jaw dropped when swing dancers explained quantum entanglement at #TEDxwaterloo. This cartoon on my fridge!yfrog.com/h4rfocnj

— Jane Mitchell (@janemitchell) March 22, 2012

Wishing my HS physics classes had featured Lindy Hop... amazing, Krister Shalm! #tedxwaterloo

— Taryn Graham (@gastronavigator) March 21, 2012

I think that was quite honestly my favourite part of #TEDxWaterloo yet!!! Awesome dance by #KristerShalm illustrating quantum entanglements

— Jacqui Laporte (@notrunningfast) March 21, 2012

Hopefully this will inspire people to look deeper into the physics of quantum mechanics. Maybe the image of dancers and magic will provide some sense of familiarity with these baffling ideas. Especially for those who feel more comfortable with dance than physics. Maybe we can get some domain cross-over… dancers learning physics… and physicists learning dance.

The past few months have been a buzz of excitement and exhaustion. I, along with several fellow swing dancers, have been working with physicist and swing dancer, Krister Shalm, on a project that mixes quantum mechanics and swing dancing! This project has been particularly exciting for me because, as some may know, I share Krister’s enthusiasm for science communication, physics and Lindy Hop. Being able to mix them together makes this really fun… and makes for some well caffeinated weekends.

The result of this project will involve dancing live on stage at TEDx Waterloo tomorrow. You can apparently watch it live here at 2:10pm (EST) on Wednesday March 21st. I can’t tell you what to expect, but perhaps I can say that Krister’s talk is one of the more difficult talks logistically… so I’ll let you draw your own predictions.

This talk is also the result of what has been dubbed “Project Q”. Which has enlisted help from swing dancers around the world to help illustrate some of the key concepts going into this TED talk.

Consequently, I’ve been able to apply some of my web development skills too! I built a little map that showcases the Project Q video submissions from around the globe. You can see that on the Project Q page too.

Nervous? A little bit. We’ll see how it goes.

Time to break out and dance…

For Science!