Suqin Duan
Dance Our Earth
I am a scientist studying Earth's climate. I also practice Chinese classical dance and ballet. I’ve long been interested in weaving together the worlds of science and dance, and making each more accessible to the other.
Temperature Anomaly
— A Heatwave Dance
(Ongoing 2026)
In this project, I combine ballet and Chinese classical dance to express the mechanisms and impacts of a typical heatwave.
Together with a dancer from the Los Angeles Ballet and adult ballet learners at the Westside School of Ballet, we workshopped Act I of the Heatwave Dance. I look forward to further developing the piece and bringing it to the stage next year. If you're interested, you're very welcome to join us, for both dance and scientific visualization 😊
Ink Clouds
— Dance the Atmospheric Water Cycle
During my PhD, I practiced a Chinese classical dance piece featuring water sleeves. I noticed that many of the movements resonated with the physical processes I frequently encounter in my research life: the rotation of vortices, the propagation of waves, the formation and evolution of clouds, and the continuous transformation of water in the Earth's hydrological cycle.
Dance My PhD
I participated in Dance Your Ph.D. in 2016, trying to dance my research at the time: using stable water isotopes to constrain atmospheric convective processes. It was a fun process; though I have some reflections on how I could do better in either research, dance, or dance my research 😝
