By Vignesh Panchanatham
Princeton University
Embrace your individuality and turn your quirks into your strengths, said Dr. Merritt Moore, a physicist with a PhD from Oxford and a professional ballerina, in a speech on Feb. 14 to over 200 members of the Princeton community.
“The thing about perfect is that perfect is sameness. Everyone being the same means that they are replaceable. Your only strength is being as unique and individual and different as you possibly can,” said Moore, reflecting on a piece of advice from her former teacher on overcoming perfectionism.
Moore started learning dance at the age of 13, later than most ballerinas aspiring to go professional. She started physics as a senior in high school. Others had doubts about her late start and caused her to feel discouraged at times. At times, she struggled with focus, perfectionism and disorganization.
“I think we forget that your potential is far more than you or anyone else can imagine. The trick is taking these flaws, quirks and twisting them to your advantage and to your strength,” said Moore.
She attended Harvard University for her undergraduate degree. While studying, Moore simultaneously pursued her ballet career. Moore was rejected at 24 auditions before she got her first opportunity to perform.
“We all have CVs of things we’ve succeeded in, but what I’m most proud of is my failure CV, which is a hundred times longer than the CV that I’ve got,” said Moore.
Moore explained that the quote “nothing is impossible, impossible just takes time” eliminated some of her doubts and reinforced her pursuit of her dreams. She added that a fear of regret also drove her.
“I don’t want to be further ahead looking back thinking, ‘Merritt, what if you had just pushed for three months more, what if you had just studied that one hour more, what if you had just done that extra audition?’” said Moore.
Now, Moore has performed for the Zurich Ballet, Boston Ballet, English National Ballet, and Norwegian National Ballet.
While at Harvard, she divided her time between studying physics and pursuing her passion for dance. The combination of two passions in distinct areas helped Moore focus better.
“Physics was mentally strenuous. Dance was physically strenuous,” she said. “Having these two things made me able to study longer. If I’m in the splits doing a problem set, I can stay there for hours.”
At the end of Moore’s talk, she gave a performance that she composed based on the work on light that she did for her PhD research.
The creativity of dance helps her remember to use her imagination in the lab, while the physical understanding from physics helps her maintain her dance level when not being able to practice constantly, she said.
Moore doesn’t describe herself as leaning towards either field. Instead, she explained that she considers herself a dancer when among physicists and a physicist when around dancers.
“I jump back and forth from being in a tutu to a lab coat, from pointe shoes to lab shoes,” Moore said.