Tag: 07.08.19

What Snowball The Dancing Parrot Is Teaching Neuroscientists About Why Humans Dance

These newly published observations cement the human-ness of Snowball’s dancing. His initial headbangs and foot-lifts are movements that parrots naturally make while walking or courting. But his newer set aren’t based on any standard, innate behaviors. He came up with them himself, and he uses them for different kinds of music. “This is what we would genuinely refer to as dance, both in the scientific community and in the dance profession,” says Nicola Clayton of the University of Cambridge, who studies bird cognition. “It’s amazing.” – The Atlantic

Same-Gender Couples Come To The Once-Rigidly Male-Female World Of Competitive Ballroom Dance

“Traditional ballroom dancing enacts a caricature of socially prescribed gender roles. The male partner is the leader; the female partner, the follower. The male partner’s movements are meant to be sharp and decisive, while the female dancer is meant to be flowy and expressive. … Same-gender ballroom dancing challenges these norms while also challenging the dancers themselves, who often learn to both lead and follow.” – The Washington Post

Museums In Britain Are Taking Out And Showing The LGBTQ-Themed Artworks And Objects They Used To Keep Hidden Away

“The [Victoria and Albert Museum LGBTQ] tour’s burgeoning popularity is part of a more general ‘queering’ of British museums that is gathering pace. Institutions across the UK are teasing out stories of same-sex desire and gender nonconformity in artefacts that have, until now, been left untold, or actively suppressed.” – The Guardian

Tania Bruguera, Cuban Artist-Activist, To Launch Investigative Journalism Project

“At the Manchester International Festival, … Bruguera revealed plans to establish an investigative journalism initiative that will award prizes and grants and offer workshops for Cuban writers at the Institute of Artivism Hannah Arendt, which she founded in Havana in 2015. The announcement comes amid a crackdown on freedom of expression in the country.” – Artforum

Improbable Intersection: When Joni Mitchell Met Charles Mingus

While Mitchell’s associations with jazz had been criticised in the mainstream rock press by writers who found her experimental, category-defying streak somewhat conceited, it was Mingus himself who instigated the project. Dying from ALS, Mingus was fixed on the idea of a final project, an epitaph of sorts, but he knew he needed a guiding light to see it through to fruition. – Jazz Journal

More Stars Say Hosting An Awards Show Just Isn’t Worth The Headaches

“According to insiders who spoke … on the condition of anonymity, there are plenty of reasons big-name celebrities are increasingly reluctant to join forces with awards shows. Some of these issues, like the time commitment a gig like this requires, have always been factors. Others — like the hazard of getting mercilessly roasted on Twitter over a bit gone wrong — are a bit newer.” – Vanity Fair

What Happens When We Lose The Capacity To Be Bored?

In the past, work was recognized for its colonizing power, expanding to fill and dominate time itself such that there might exist no clear line between work hours and nonwork hours. Our current condition is worse. The Interface, leveraging boredom, makes us all into unpaid workers for the advertisers who support those apparently cost-free platforms. We ought to recall that there is no such thing as a free transaction. In this species of transaction, you pay with your individuality, freedom, and happiness. – The Walrus

Annabelle Lopez Ochoa On The Challenge Of Creating New Story Ballets

“It’s actually very hard to keep the audience engaged in the development of a story. The struggle is figuring out how literal I can be, and how much I can use the abstract aesthetic of dance to enhance an emotion as opposed to just tell the story. … Storytelling is where ballet started, and then contemporary dance took over and it was all about movement and space and music. I want to revive it, and not feel it has to be an old-fashioned form.” – Pointe Magazine

Is Failure A New Literary Genre?

Karl Ove Knausgård devoted several autobiographical volumes to everyday failures in My Struggle, and since then there has been a deluge of ‘fail-lit’, both in fiction and non-fiction. Could failure be the new literary success? And if so, doesn’t that mean it’s not really failure at all? – BBC