Dr. Luca Pontiggia | antakalipa

Celestial bodies

At Joburg Theatre for Celestial bodies, a collaboration between Joburg Ballet and Universe on Stage. I was so excited for this.

The execution was stunning, better than in my imagination. I saw the Universe on Stage lecture earlier in the year, it was such an experience! Dr. Luca Pontiggia and Yasheen Modi simplified science, it lost its fear factor, it wasn’t intimidating. With the help of animation, immersive sound and curated narration, they told the story of the big bang, black holes, stars and existence itself. I really loved that lecture, I learned so much.

The Universe on Stage team is back again, this time with Joburg Ballet. The auditorium pitch black, huge screen at the back, the stage empty and Yasheen, the pianist is on the side. Dr. Luca Pontiggia comes in and out the stage.

Impossible to describe the beauty of the ballet dancers. They feel, they show vulnerability. So much poise, technique and beauty. Perfect bodies without a blemish. Stretching, 180 degrees splits in the air, skipping and spinning on their toes. So much elegance, discipline and strength and yet there is a stillness and serenity in the artform. It evokes awe and wonder, you get goosebumps, you gasp – so beautiful.

The costumes by Mari Robinson and Mario Gaglione are so gorgeous!

Lighting design by Simon King set the mood, engulfed by darkness. So minimal, effective and powerful. It concentrated all your energy and focus to the stage.

Darius Botha is the unsung hero with the awesome visuals and animation.

Yasheen Modi just might be the greatest Pianist of all time.

Dr. Luca Pontiggia is brilliant as the narrator. We learned about the big bang, stars and the beauty of the universe.

Thank you so much Di.

Congratulations Mario Gaglione and the whole team for a great show and a deserved standing ovation.

Hidden giants

If only schools taught physics like the “Hidden giants” lecture. An out the box lecture with live original score by composer Yasheen Modi who plays the piano and violinist Siobhan Lloyd-Jones. The sound is immersive and the visuals by Darius Botha cinematic and bold. That lecture is so cool, it is an experience, it has life, it has feeling, it’s the type of show that makes you fall in love with science. Science for me at school was never that cool, if it were, I’d have a PhD in Physics. That’s how good I feel about Physics and the Universe right now!

Dr. Luca Pontiggia serves at the lecturer for the show. He simplifies the Universe for the common man. He makes it fun and strips away all the fear factor. It’s not intimidating, the visuals on the screen paint a picture, they tell a story. We learned so much about the nature of the Universe, it’s inception, how old it is and how it expanded. We learned about Isaac Newton and the gravitational force. We learned about Albert Einstein and the theory of relativity. We learned about Black holes, spacetime and the singularity. Black holes are dead stars that are dense who pull in everything in their orbit and Supanovas are exploding stars! The lecture is divided into 3 acts: The object, the minds and the image.

Act 1 explores the cycle of stars and violent forces that give birth to black holes. Act 2 explores the great thinkers like Newton and Einstein who conceived of these mathematical formulas that enabled a better understanding of our Universe. Act 3 is proof, Einstein’s theory of relativity is just that – theory. We need tangible evidence of a black hole, E.H (Event Horizon), Accretion Disc, Photon Sphere and the Singularity. Unbelievably, we get proof, we have a picture, Albert Einstein was right. We get this proof with the of help from lasers, telescopes stationed strategically all over the world, a dedicated team and supercomputers. This picture is everything, it’s a scientific leap, proof of the Universe and existence, something to build on in our understanding of string-theory and perhaps the big bang itself.

This is such a cool lecture, something you can watch over and over again. Pity it has a limited run at Joburg Theatre, everyone should see it – it has a lot of enthusiasm, the theatre was filled to the brim, literally every seat was occupied. The teaching is world-class and the music – out of this world! You don’t want it to end, you just want to learn and learn and learn. They made Physics and the Universe really cool.