BigShinyThing

Star of the seminal documentary about the New York ballroom scene Paris is Burning and legendary Vogue-er, Willi Ninja also appeared in Malcolm McLaren’s pre-Madonna attempt at popularising the scene, Deep in Vogue. Only the other day, thanks to YouTube, we found a lot of proof that Vogue-ing wasn’t dead (see below). Now sadly one of its grande dames is.

This week’s grand folly: Smirnoff is to teach hiphop and graffiti classes. This is from a vodka brand kids.

Via Consumerist.

In a study published in the American journal, Public Library of Science Genetics, Psychology Prof. Richard P. Ebstein and his research associates have shown, through DNA examination, that dancers show consistent differences in two key genes from the general population. [...]

This finding is not surprising, says Ebstein, in view of other studies of musicians and athletes, which also have shown genetic differences.

Ebstein and his colleagues found in an examination of 85 dancers and advanced dancing students in Israel variants of two genes that provide the code for the serotonin transporter and arginine vasopressin receptor 1a.

Both genes are involved in the transmission of information between nerve cells. The serotonin transporter regulates the level of serotonin, a brain transmitter that contributes to spiritual experience, among many other behavioral traits. The vasopressin receptor has been shown in many animal studies to modulate social communication and affiliative bonding behaviors. Both are elements involved in the age-old human social expression of dancing.

So now you know. Evidently dancers are also ‘more spiritual’.

From Eurekalert

We wrote about both youtube and Rize a while back (David LaChapelle takes klowning mainstream). Now you can watch a clip on Youtube in case you missed Christina and Missy’s videos.

“It’s a completely new way of moving your body,” LaChapelle says. “You can’t believe what you’re watching. It’s insane. You’ve never seen bodies move that fast. These kids are creating an art form from nothing. It’s inspiring.” His ‘discoveries’ have also featured in videos for Missy Elliott, Black Eyed Peas and, more recently, Leftfield .

To give you an idea, the trailer to Rize reads ‘the images in this film have not been sped up in any way.’