How Social Distancing Led Merritt Moore To Find Dance Partners In Robots

During the COVID-19 pandemic, when human connection became rare, Oxford-trained quantum physicist and professional ballerina Merritt Moore found a unique way to keep her passion alive: by dancing with robots.

Speaking at the NDTV World Summit, Moore revealed how isolation forced her to rethink the boundaries of art and science.

"I couldn't dance with humans anymore," she said. "Dance is a form of communication, and I suddenly lost that connection. So I thought, robots don't get COVID. Maybe I can program one to dance with me."

It began as a practical experiment. Moore would spend long hours, from 7 am to midnight, in an empty theatre programming her robotic companion, whom she named Botney Spears. "Some days it's Fred AI-staire, other days it's Botman or Robot De Niro," she joked. The robot is designed to move fluidly with her choreography.

"It became my bizarre but constant companion throughout the pandemic," she said. "Some of my most vulnerable performances are with the robot because it allows me to explore memories and emotions I couldn't share with another human."

Moore, who splits her life between quantum computing labs and ballet studios, explained how the pandemic experience highlighted the synergy between art and science. "When I focus only on dance, I lose the joy of critical thinking. When I'm in the lab too long, I crave creative release. I need both to thrive," she said.

Her journey also reinforced a guiding principle in her life - "Why not?". Initially pushed to choose between physics and ballet, Moore now embraces both worlds fully.

The pandemic, she said, offered a way to combine technology with human expression in ways previously unimagined. "As humans it should be possible to hope and dream and to actually actively explore the technology and the artistic side of our brains," she said.