Early Development for 'The Nineteenth Step' - exploring mathematics in performance

This is a project to make research performances of The Nineteenth Step, a new work of music theatre that will engage the public in novel and bold ways with mathematical concepts around the shape of the universe and the nature of infinity. Through the performance, we will inhabit the Total Library imagined by Jorge Luis Borges: vast, exhilarating and overwhelming, where all possible languages - and all space - are sited. Our mathematician is our librarian-guide as we traverse the formidable sphere, decipher its codes and learn how to read its books. The project will be early development for a full production of 'The Nineteenth Step' in 2009 and will result in three performances and interactive feedback workshops, where schools and the wider public will be the audience. The work will be created by composer Dorothy Ker, choreographer Carol Brown, digital sculptor Kate Allen and mathematician Marcus du Sautoy. It will be performed by Professor du Sautoy with an ensemble of dancers and musicians. A continuation of the Gulbenkian-funded research project exploring Borges' short fiction 'The Library of Babel', The Nineteenth Step showcases a year-long investigation by four leading researchers. It is a bold foray into a new kind of performance, conceived as a multidimensional, evolving meeting place, where boundaries dissolve and striking synergies emerge.Alongside the performances a website, blog and DVD will be developed to demonstrate and document the research, facilitating wide-reaching public engagement internationally.