Every year for the last 17, News from Science invites entries for their ‘Dance Your Ph.D.’ contest
“Writing about music is like dancing about architecture.”
This phrase is often erroneously attributed to musician Elvis Costello and pulled out to belittle the endeavour of music criticism.
But is it really futile to dance about architecture? What about the research for your science doctorate?
Not according to the folks at Science, a journal published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
A Nov. 26 post on X invitingly asks: “Can you explain your doctoral research through interpretive dance?” The post contains sample videos of a few of the science-driven interpretive dances.
He won $2,750 for his efforts and drew attention to his ecology research at the Australian National University, studying eastern gray kangaroos living at one of Australia’s national parks.
“It’s very hard to get anyone to dance, particularly scientists. Their parties are not on the dancey side,” he said. “One thing you can count on with scientists is they’re competitive and they have a sense of humour about their work so I thought, let’s just put it all together.”
Entrants submit their dances to one of four categories: biology, chemistry, physics, and social sciences. They are evaluated by a panel of judges that included artists, dancers and scientists. The four category winners receive $750 each, with the ultimate winner also claiming the grand prize of $2,000.
In 2023, more than two dozen entrants from around the world got their dance on. An entrant can be beginning their Ph.D. journey or have graduated years ago.
For the 2024 contest, an additional category has been added focusing on AI research and quantum science.
Oh, a few last provisos. No PowerPoint slides or jargon. Get out your top hat and cane!
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