Cellular Dance

multimedia ballets
revealing the motions of living cells through science, music, dance & immersive visuals

Cellular Dance is part of Multiverse’s mission to bring artists, scientists and musicians together in collaborative projects that shed light on the world from fundamentally new perspectives. We believe that the best creative teams incorporate all of the aspects of STEAM (adding Arts to the familiar acronym) and that by working together, we can share our insights with the widest possible audience.

How do our cells navigate their worlds? How do they know to form the intricate structures of the body - and what happens when their signaling processes go wrong? Explore these questions and more with Multiverse Concert Series as we take audiences on a journey from the heart of a single cell and its inner symbiosis, through its struggle to survive in a harsh microbial world, and the delicate dance of the tissues within a developing embryo.

Cellular Dance: Rosetta

In 2025, Multiverse began Phase Two of Cellular Dance, returning to the world of cells after the tumultuous time of the COVID-19 pandemic. Cellular Dance: Rosetta takes audiences on a journey to the heart of life: gaining a deep understanding of cell biology through the universal language of music. Our central character - Rosetta - is a cell who gains consciousness, and undertakes a journey of life and death in her microscopic world.

Through art, we seek to communicate:

1. The inner workings of our cells

2. How vaccines defend cells and communities

3. How cells differentiate to become the tissues of the body

4. How cell mutations lead to cancer and searches for treatments

Cellular Dance: The Fold

Phase One of Cellular Dance saw the Multiverse Team collaborate with cell biologist Alexey Veraksa of UMass Boston Biology, exploring the science of cell signaling in the embryo, leading to treatments for developmental conditions such as spina bifida. Cellular Dance: The Fold was premiered in 2019 and is now on tour.

The Team