Dance Your Ph.D.--because all work and no play makes Dr. Jane a dull girl

Leslie Madsen Brooks — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 22:52:19 -0600

Forget Dancing with the Stars--there's a new phenomenon for the geeky set: Dance Your Ph.D..

I first learned of the contest thanks to Sara Lipka at the Chronicle of Higher Education. As explained on the contest's home page, "the human body is an excellent medium for communicating science--perhaps not as data-rich as a peer-reviewed article, but far more exciting."

The contest is open to anyone in science or a related field, including linguistics, bioethics, and the history of science. And you don't even need to be a recent Ph.D., or have stayed in academia; the contest is open to anyone who at some point suffered (or is suffering) through grad school in the sciences in pursuit of a doctorate in a science-related field. But hurry if you want to enter this year's contest: You only have until 11 p.m. EST Sunday, November 16 to upload a video to YouTube.

While there are some excellent performances in the contest, including a ballet-inspired number on the role of folate in epigenetic regulation of colon carcinogenesis and the more modern-dance-inspired Resolving Pathways of Functional Coupling in Human Hemoglobin Using Quantitative Low Temperature Isoelectric Focusing of Asymmetric Mutant Hybrids (AKA "A Molecular Dance in the Blood, Observed"), my favorite thus far has to be Hydrodynamic Trail Detection in Marine Organisms. Why? Because anything that combines someone dressed as a giant set of harbor seal whiskers, lobster dancers wearing fringed bell-bottoms, Cirque du Soleil-like feats of strength on a scarf by someone wearing a foam shark hat, and a dancer inside a flaming hula-hoop gets my vote.

I'm not the only one who is impressed. Says Unbalanced Reaction,

No, I'm impressed that these grad students, postdocs, and professors have the time to choreograph the "moves", design costumes, AND perform the pieces. What. The. Hell. This is truly impressive. When I was a grad student, I barely had time to eat (let's not talk about grad student hygiene, okay?) let alone create a dance about my thesis.

OmegaMom is reveling in the diversity of dances:

Go visit and watch the videos; there’s a tango about electrons and lattices, some mice sharing pheromones, marine animals being caught in nets and dying, insulin growth factors binding proteins, and more!

Go check out the videos. Which one is your favorite? And if you were asked to dance your work (Ph.D. or not), what genre would you choose?

Leslie Madsen-Brooks develops learning experiences for K-12, university, and museum clients. She blogs at The Clutter Museum, Museum Blogging, and The Multicultural Toybox.

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Dance Your Ph.D.--because all work and no play makes Dr. Jane a dull girl