Skip to main content

Dance vs. PowerPoint, a modest proposal - John Bohannon and Black Label Movement

84,010 Views

943 Questions Answered

TED Talk

Let’s Begin…

Use dancers instead of PowerPoint. That's science writer John Bohannon's "modest proposal." In this spellbinding choreographed talk he makes his case by example, aided by dancers from Black Label Movement.

Additional Resources for you to Explore

Bohannon is a biologist, science journalist, and dancer based at Harvard University. He writes for Science Magazine, Discover Magazine, and Wired Magazine and frequently reports on the intersections of science and war. http://www.johnbohannon.org/Black Label Movement (BLM) is a Twin Cities based dance theater dedicated to creating wildly physical, naturally virtuosic, and intellectually and emotionally engaging art. Led by Carl Flink, this collective of dance artists seeks to push the mind, body, and heart to the edge of what is possible and beyond. http://www.blacklabelmovement.com/Strange quantum fluids that love to sneak out of cups have been found trapped inside the core of a dead neutron star. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fb6zWYCYGfEHelium becomes superfluid and displays amazing properties. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Z6UJbwxBZISuperfluidity is a state of matter in which the matter behaves like a fluid with zeroviscosity. While originally this phenomenon was discovered in liquid helium, it has found applications not only in the theory of liquid helium but also in astrophysics, high-energy physics and theories of quantum gravity. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superfluidity MIT scientists have brought a supercool end to a heated race among physicists: They have become the first to create a new type of matter, a gas of atoms that shows high-temperature superfluidity. http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2005/matter.htmlThe estimated population of the United States is 313,948,019 so each citizen's share of this debt is $51,989.48. The National Debt has continued to increase an average of $3.88 billion per day since September 28, 2007! http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of theUnited States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. http://www.nea.gov/Public Art Fund brings dynamic contemporary art to a broad audience in New York City by mounting ambitious free exhibitions of international scope and impact that offer the public powerful experiences with art and the urban environment. http://www.publicartfund.org/ Dance your Ph.D. http://gonzolabs.org/dance/ Science Magazine Article:
http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2012/11/bodystorming-dance-grooves-show-.html Abstract for Trends in Cellular Biology Article about bodystorming:
http://www.cell.com/trends/cell-biology/abstract/S0962-8924(12)00183-3Twin Cities Public Television Episode #325 about BLM and David Odde's Moving Cell Project:
http://www.mnoriginal.org/episode/325-andre-salvadore-astronautalis/hit-the-moving-cell-project/Five minute excerpt of a documentary on Bodystorming by Robert Hammel:
http://vimeo.com/2195592719 Minute excerpt of a documentary on Bodystorming by Robert Hammel:
http://vimeo.com/30346802

About TED Talk Lessons

TED Talk Lessons are created by TED-Ed using phenomenal TED Talks. Do you have an idea for a lesson? Create it now using any video from YouTube »

Meet The Creators

  • Educator Black Label Movement, John Bohannon

More from Visualizing Data