The Quantum Ballerina Aiming to Dance in Space : Dr. Merritt Moore’s Story
Dr. Merritt Moore has forged a path as unique as it is jaw‑dropping. She’s a professional ballet dancer and a quantum physicist, now striving to be the first astronaut to dance in space.
Born in Los Angeles in 1988 to a Korean mother and American father, Merritt’s early childhood didn’t follow the typical script. She didn’t speak until she was three years old. Instead, solving puzzles and expressing herself through numbers, shapes, and logic were her native tongue.
It wasn’t until the age of 13 that she stepped into her first dance class. She fell in love instantly. The discipline, the beauty, the silent storytelling – it all clicked. But by then, she was already considered “too old” to become a professional ballerina. That however could not stop her.
At the same time, Merritt’s curiosity about the cosmos was growing. Math and science classes at school sparked the same joy she found in dance studios. She was intrigued by questions that had no easy answers – How does light behave? What is time? Can particles be in two places at once? For her, ballet and physics were not opposites, but complementary forces. She said,
“There are so many times that dancing really helped my physics.”
Honing Skills in Both Art and Physics
Dr. Merritt Moore’s academic and artistic journeys unfolded in parallel. She earned her undergraduate degree in Physics magna cum laude from Harvard University, all while rehearsing and performing with the Harvard Ballet Company. After Harvard, she pursued a PhD in Atomic and Laser Physics at the University of Oxford, focusing her research on quantum optics and entangled photons.
At the same time, she was also chasing her dream of becoming a professional ballerina, often against the odds. She faced multiple rejections, failing over 20 auditions in a single year. But instead of giving up, she persisted. Eventually, her resilience paid off when she was accepted into the Zurich Ballet, opening the door to a remarkable dance career that would take her to the Boston Ballet, English National Ballet, and Norwegian National Ballet..
Inventing A New Art Form During the Pandemic
Then came 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic shut down theaters, dance studios, and research labs. For many artists and scientists, it was a time of pause. But Merritt turned it into a time of reinvention. Alone in lockdown, she began dancing with robots.
Using a collaborative industrial robot arm, she choreographed intricate duets, teaching the machine to move not just mechanically, but expressively. These performances were captured through motion-tracking and shared virtually with global audiences, from the Harvard AI opening to the Forbes Women’s Summit. In the silence of the pandemic, her experiments gave birth to a whole new art form: robotic ballet.
“AI doesn’t take away the human element,” she said. “It enhances it. It allows us to learn and be more creative.”
A Role Model for Those Who Dare to Dream Bold
Merritt’s story has been featured in Forbes’ 30 Under 30, BBC’s Astronauts: Do You Have What It Takes?, and on stages around the world. She’s become a role model for young girls who are told they have to choose between STEM and the arts.
Now, she’s aiming higher than ever literally. Her next dream is to become an astronaut and perform ballet in microgravity. It’s not a metaphor. She’s already undergone astronaut training, testing her skills in isolation chambers and under high G-forces. For Merritt, the idea of dancing in space isn’t just poetic, it’s a challenge to imagine movement and beauty in a place that has never known either.
