Dances with magpies

Listening to scientist Nicola Clayton, Professor of Comparative Cognition at the University of Cambridge, and choreographer Mark Baldwin, Artistic Director at Rambert Dance Company, finishing each other’s sentences, one could get the impression that the notorious divide between the two cultures never existed. Science and dance are twins separated at birth, it appears. Both work with ideas without knowing what the outcome will be, and both follow similar procedures and timescales. “Lots of things in the processes are remarkably similar,” Clayton says. For instance, as Baldwin explains, it takes ten years to become a good dancer, and another ten to become an accomplished choreographer. One could almost read that as a metaphor for career development in science, where similar timescales apply for researchers and group leaders, too. Both areas also appear to experience a concerted surge in interest. “People seem much more open to science these days, and they are also more interested in dance”, Clayton says, “just look at Strictly Come Dancing, which has become more popular than X Factor.” Baldwin agrees (needless to say) that “science and dance are becoming more popular in parallel trajectories.” Even the connections between the two fields are getting more common, witness the annual competition Dance your PhD, launched by Science magazine in 2008, where prizes are awarded on the basis of videos submitted. Wayne McGregor and his company Random Dance, based at London’s Sadler’s Wells, also seek inspiration in science and technology. Clayton and Baldwin started their collaboration with the The Comedy of Change project, commissioned to celebrate the bicentenary of Darwin’s birth in 2009 (see Curr. Biol. (2009), 19, R725). However, each of them has had previous involvement with the other’s culture. Baldwin has created a dance programme inspired by Einstein, Constant Speed, in 2005, but, he says, “working with Nicky lifted the game”. Clayton has always been an avid dancer and still spends 20 hours per week whirling around on her toes, teaching Cuban salsa and Argentine tango. In May 2011, Clayton was officially named the ‘Scientist in Residence’ at Rambert Dance Company’s home in West London.