Waste of the Day: Throwback Thursday – Astronomy Meets Postmodern Dance

Topline: The best way to learn about astronomy is probably not through interpretive dance, but that is how in 2010 the National Science Foundation decided to educate the public about the big bang theory.

Dance for science? Seriously?

The federal government sent $300,000 to the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange — $430,000 in today’s money — to fund the performance piece “The Matter of Origins,” which featured dancers playing scientists like Marie Curie.

That’s according to the “Wastebook” reporting published by the late U.S. Senator Dr. Tom Coburn. For years, these reports shined a white-hot spotlight on federal frauds and taxpayer abuses. 

Coburn, the legendary U.S. Senator from Oklahoma, earned the nickname “Dr. No” by stopping thousands of pork-barrel projects using the Senate rules. Projects that he couldn’t stop, Coburn included in his oversight reports.   

Coburn’s Wastebook 2011 included 100 examples of outrageous spending worth nearly $7 billion, including the cash spent on scientific dancing.

Key facts: The dance premiered in September 2010 at the University of Maryland’s Clarice Smith Center. The Washington Post’s Sarah Kaufman gave a glowing review, but her description leaves room to wonder why the show was funded with taxpayer dollars meant for science education

Kaufman mentions that the show begins by attempting to answer the question of how the universe was born, but that “line of inquiry fades as the more dramatic aspects of the piece take over.” Any time the show dwelled on discussing the “real world,” it quickly “steers back to poetic turf,” according to Kaufman.

Did anyone learn anything?

Act Two was half dance, half tea party, according to The New York Times’ review. Audience members went on stage to enjoy chocolate cake baked from Edith Werner’s recipe, a tea house owner who served scientists working on the Manhattan Project in the 1940s.

Participants were supposed to use the time to discuss what they learned from the dance, but the Times’ critic Claudia la Rocco said it was nothing more than “artificially induced conversation … studded with questions like, ‘So, origins, the origins of the universe — what do you know about that?’ “

Summary: The National Science Foundation’s budget would be better spent on research projects and classroom education than ballet.

The #WasteOfTheDay is brought to you by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com.

This article was originally published by RealClearInvestigations and made available via RealClearWire.