SOLO DANCERS Research Articles

MUSEUM OF HISTORY OF UKRAINIAN CHOREOGRAPHIC ART AS A CUMULATION CENTER OF DANCING FOLKLORE

The state and prospects for the development of contemporary choreographic art significantly increase interest in the study of dance folklore of Ukraine. The 21st century opens up new opportunities for the study of Ukrainian dance in the context of the latest methodological approaches. This extraordinary issue causes serious controversy. Choreographic folklore is a system of endless creative process. In fact, the challenge for the researchers is to determine the place of individual folk fact in the whole dynamic system of its creative development. This is a rather complex task that cannot be ignored in the research process. When studying the choreographic folklore of Ukraine, we must constantly take into account its dynamic procedural nature as a whole. This phenomenon develops and functions in organic correlation with all elements of people’s life: its historical, social and labor experience, morality, traditions, ethical and aesthetic ideas. The whole course of studying the choreographic folklore of Ukraine demonstrates the complex and organic intertwining of signs of national unity, local specificity and development autonomy. The study of dance folklore is possible mainly through a thorough and detailed study of local choreographic traditions. Of course, in the present state of folklore, this position implies a very hard and time-consuming work. Material, that sometimes retains subtle traces of past years, requires careful differentiated analysis. The historiographical survey shows that, despite the numerous publications, the historical and cultural folklore and choreographic heritage of Ukraine, the center of which is located in the Museum of History of Ukrainian Choreographic Art, located in the small village Nadiia in Kirovohrad region requires a generalizing research. The introduction into the scientific circulation of archival data will significantly expand the scope of folklore-ethnographic research and give a truly historical and scientific coverage of the development of dance culture of the population of Ukraine. The materials collected in the museum reveal the possibilities of comparative characterization of choreographic folklore and cultural traditions as a whole. The exposition of each hall represents the cultural and historical events of the leading artists in the field of choreographic art, the creative path of well-known solo dancers, as well as the artistic retrospective of significant dancing groups who have introduced and continue to multiply and develop the heritage of Ukrainian choreographic art. Among the main tasks of the museum, the leading ones are the popularization of the dance art of Ukraine among contemporary youth, the discovery of the nature of Ukrainian folk dance, the process of its birth, formation and development, as well as acquaintance with a galaxy of leading masters of Ukrainian choreographic art. The Museum of History of Ukrainian Choreographic Art is systematically updated with new exhibitions on the history of the development of folk dance art of Ukraine, and constantly introduces the followers of the folk traditions of the founders of Ukrainian dance. Today, the Museum of History of Ukrainian Choreographic Art is a cultural, educational, research center, filled with the spiritual heritage of the Ukrainian people for many years. The conducted researches allow to ascertain the fact of extraordinary cultural value of the museum, its expositions and folklore-ethnographic content.

Psychological stress responses to a live performance by professional flamenco dancers.

Dance is a high demanding discipline that involves physiological and psychological pressures. The pressure increases when dancers perform in front of an audience that, on a physiological level, can generate hormonal responses similar to those of an athlete before a competition for social status. Low levels of testosterone (T) and high levels of cortisol (C) are related to a decrease in performance and an increase in the risk of injury. Therefore, this study sets out to analyse hormone response patterns in professional flamenco dance performances depending on whether the performances are completed successfully and whether there are differences by sex and professional category. Saliva specimens (2-5 ml) were taken from the participants before and after the performance. Samples were immunoassayed by duplicate to analyze momentary fluctuations in two hormones regularly used in studies with professional athletes. The results showed significant differences in solo dancers' T responses before and after the performance (p < 0.01), suggesting that the dancing role in the show (soloist or corps the ballet) and responsibility over the performance were important modulators to the hormone responses observed.

FEATURES OF PHYSICAL TRAINING IN SPORTS DANCES. LITERATURE ANALYSIS

The aim of the research is to reveal the opinions of specialists about the features of the organization of the process of physical training of athletes in sports dances based on the study of the analysis of scientific and methodological literature. Sports dances is an acyclic, complex-coordinating sport associated with the art of expressive movement. The scientific novelty of the research results lies in the development and justification of the pedagogical effectiveness of young dancers’ physical training methodology, which for the first time is based on the identified leading motor and functional abilities of dancers in the performance of Latin American dance programs. As a result of research of scientific and methodical sources, it became clear that specialists paid more attention to dancers over the age of 10, to various issues of training and competitive process of practicing in pairs. Until now, these studies mostly related to the stage of specialized training in pairs, and did not relate to solo dancers. Unfortunately, the issues of physical training of solo dancers, and in particular the structure of the leading motor abilities, methodical features of their training have not yet been studied. The solution of these issues is important for achieving high sports results.

Beyond compás: Stepping outside flamenco’s performance norms

This article addresses how flamenco functions as both a noun and an adjective and the interplay between the two in the choreographic process. I use practice as research along with theory and historical analysis to further explore how, as dancer, I initially found and created meaning within the cuadro (a setting where a solo dancer performs with live musicians, typically consisting of a guitarist, singer and percussionists, and relying on shared knowledge of flamenco’s structures to accompany the dance and for the dancer to interpret the music). I then go on to explain how, as choreographer, improvisation outside the cuadro setting and even outside flamenco music opened new movement possibilities and ways to inform, deepen and step back into flamenco structures in my own work. I show how I created new choreography from combining movement knowledge and vocabulary from both inside and outside of the cuadro in choreographed flamenco performances for the theatre.

A complex network of additive and epistatic quantitative trait loci underlies natural variation of Arabidopsis thaliana quantitative disease resistance to Ralstonia solanacearum under heat stress.

Plant immunity is often negatively impacted by heat stress. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms remain poorly characterized. Based on a genome‐wide association mapping approach, this study aims to identify in Arabidopsis thaliana the genetic bases of robust resistance mechanisms to the devastating pathogen Ralstonia solanacearum under heat stress. A local mapping population was phenotyped against the R. solanacearum GMI1000 strain at 27 and 30 °C. To obtain a precise description of the genetic architecture underlying natural variation of quantitative disease resistance (QDR), we applied a genome‐wide local score analysis. Alongside an extensive genetic variation found in this local population at both temperatures, we observed a playful dynamics of quantitative trait loci along the infection stages. In addition, a complex genetic network of interacting loci could be detected at 30 °C. As a first step to investigate the underlying molecular mechanisms, the atypical meiotic cyclin SOLO DANCERS gene was validated by a reverse genetic approach as involved in QDR to R. solanacearum at 30 °C. In the context of climate change, the complex genetic architecture underlying QDR under heat stress in a local mapping population revealed candidate genes with diverse molecular functions.

Detection of Weak Expression of SOLO DANCERS in the Male Germline Using CYCLIN-DEPENDENT KINASE A1 Coding Sequence

Male germline specification is a crucial step in double fertilization in flowering plants. Determining which genes are activated in the male germline, and how those genes are regulated, is essential to understand double fertilization. However, transcription activities in the male germline may be not easy to detect due to low-level expression of some genes and technical difficulties of isolating male germline cells. Here, through a series of gene reporter assays in Arabidopsis, we showed a weak male germline expression pattern of the SOLO DANCERS (SDS) gene, which was confirmed by RT-PCR. Compared to directly fusing the SDS sequence with GFP, adding the coding sequences of other genes such as CDKA1 can greatly enhance the detection of the male germline expression pattern of SDS. We found that SDS expression in the male germline is activated by a novel pathway that differs from the well-known DUO1 regulon. We also developed an SDS-based fluorescence reporter to analyze posttranscriptional regulation in the male germline. Our data suggest that stable gene products of CDKA1 and others may enhance the sensitivity of gene reporters, and the male germline may use diverse pathways to activate gene expression.

ОСОБЛИВОСТІ ЕМОЦІЙНОГО ІНТЕЛЕКТУ ТАНЦІВНИКІВ ПАРТНЕРСЬКОГО ТА СОЛЬНОГО ВИДІВ ХОРЕОГРАФІЇ

The article is devoted to the investigation of the differences іn the manifestation of the components of emotional intelligence between partner and solo dancers. The results of the empirical research revealed that the paired dancers are characterized by average level of awareness and understanding their emotions, awareness of their inner state, developed emotional stability, high empathy, low level of emotional divergence, also they demonstrated developed intuitive channel of empathy. The attention to the adequate recognition of their own, as well as of their opponents, ensures the ability of the guys dancers to properly interpret verbal and non-verbal information, in order to receive the incentives of our men and women's s sons, and apparently the sons of the couple. According to the results, solo dancers are characterized by such indicators as identification in empathy (they have a developed ability to understand others), the average level of awareness and understanding of their own emotions, low level of emotional divergence, the average level of flexibility, high rates of neuroticism, which is usually developed among ballet dancers or in choreographic universities by solo performers. The rational empathy channel is quite developed in both groups of dancers. It means that they have a clear focus of attention, they perceive the subject, express empathy, and also show interest in others, which helps them to find an emotional and intuitive reflection of the partner. For paired dancers it is natural, but we should note that since there is an improvisation in solo dancing, the average results of respondents in this group are connected with this. Accordingly, in solo performers it is defined that choreographic practices and improvisation serve as artistic forms of modulation of emotions and development of emotional plasticity. Thanks to choreographic vision, not only the interpretive process on the part of the dancer / choreographer takes place, but there is also a creative association between emotions and music, because in this combination of movements reflects the experience of the dancer. Further research can be devoted to the revealing of the differences in emotional intelligence between male and female dancers.

Kwaito's Promise: Music and the Aesthetics of Freedom in South Africa by Gavin Steingo

Reviewed by: Kwaito's Promise: Music and the Aesthetics of Freedom in South Africa by Gavin Steingo Jacob Wainwright Love Gavin Steingo, Kwaito's Promise: Music and the Aesthetics of Freedom in South Africa. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2016. 320 pp. Gavin Steingo, Kwaito's Promise: Music and the Aesthetics of Freedom in South Africa. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2016. 320 pp. Kwaito, a brand of electronic dance music that emerged in South Africa in the 1980s and came to prominence as the music of township youths after the end of apartheid in the 1990s, presents a fertile field for academic investigation. Gavin Steingo, who worked in Soweto, southwest of central Johannesburg, in 2008 and 2009, here brings his findings forward in a book flush with ethnographic detail and thick in descriptive and theoretical nuance. Each chapter, in its own way, explores how "kwaito frames sensory experience by ignoring actual social conditions" (10), subverting in effect the truism that music is a sonic expression of ideology. The word "kwaito" may reflect Afrikaans kwaai "angry, harsh," repurposed to signal an approving "cool, hot" (43). The sounds of this music, eclectic and changing over time, echo those of multiple popular genres, reaching back to mbaqanga, kwela, dancehall, disco, and even bubblegum, but most directly to house music, which originated in Chicago and was initially accepted in South Africa under the label of international music. Pieces consist mainly of percussive and melodic layers looped into tracks using synthesized instrumental sounds, conventionally of a guitar and a bass guitar, with electronic imitations of a snare drum, a hi-hat cymbal, and a bass drum. They are not usually performed onstage with live instruments, but are put together on computers and played through sound systems. In clubs, and for recordings and videos, vocalists may contribute to the mix, commonly in a rapped manner, inviting shouted responses. The lyrics, often invoking the urban creoles isicamtho and tsotsitaal, with occasionally interjected English, Zulu, and Sesotho idioms, highlight the [End Page 221] vagaries of contemporary urban life while remaining paradoxically apolitical. Associated dancing typically features flashy leg and foot movements, set against a reinterpreted four-on-the-floor house beat; in some social situations, solo dancers in turn claim the center of a circle to flaunt their moves. Kwaito serves as a token of identity, a symbol of all things township, real and imagined, a celebration of individual choice, once under the social restraints codified by apartheid, but now let loose in a more democratically ordered world. It is hence "less a form of escapism than an aesthetic practice of multiplying sensory reality and thus generating new possibilities in the midst of neoliberalism's foreclosure of the future" (vii–viii). Steingo takes up theoretical concerns deriving from this practice at the start, in the preface and Chapter 1, "The Struggle of Freedom." He emphasizes the analytical centrality of freedom in aesthetics, nodding affirmatively toward the political philosophy of Jacques Rancière, with a determined aim "never to discover the meaning" in his interlocutors' words, "or to discern what they mean to say or what they would say in the absence of mystification," all to avoid enshrining the academic mastery that interprets by demystifying and seeks any "truth behind illusion" (19). He thus tries to refrain from creating, in Rancière's phrasing, "a knowledge which represses," lest it incommode "an ignorance which liberates" (20). Chapter 2, "The Experience of the Outside," traces the origins of kwaito from its emergence in the mid-1980s to the formal end of apartheid in 1994. One legend says it grew out of speed garage, a British electronic genre, which South African DJs transformed to appeal more to township tastes by spinning 45-rpm records at long-playing speed, thereby slowing down the tempo (49–50). Steingo explores how kwaito differs from house music and in the process discusses theoretical problems inherent in the concept of genre. He attributes the local appeal of kwaito to its origins outside South African society, foundationally in music emanating from the United States, seen as a utopian land of plenty (56), far removed from the oppression perceived in the local political system. Chapter 3, "Platform...

The Bodies of Others: Drag Dances and Their Afterlives by Selby Wynn Schwartz

Reviewed by: The Bodies of Others: Drag Dances and Their Afterlives by Selby Wynn Schwartz Harry Hoke The Bodies of Others: Drag Dances and Their Afterlives. By Selby Wynn Schwartz. University of Michigan Press, 2019. Cloth $80.00, Paper $34.95. 300 pages. 22 illustrations. Selby Wynn Schwartz's The Bodies of Others takes an expansive view of drag dance on the concert stage, weaving together dance studies, gender theory, and historiography to ask how four decades of drag dancers performed as other selves. Schwartz mobilizes dance studies to show how longstanding theories of gender acts and choreographies, such as those of Susan Leigh Foster and Judith Butler, work in praxis, extending scholarship from performance and nightlife studies to the concert stage. Schwartz shows how gesture, costume, and other external transformations build a critical internal practice of inviting another into one's body, transforming ossified concert dance techniques in exciting, gender-busting ways. The result of this transformation, she argues, is a performance that goes beyond mimicry, parody, or inspiration to create a novel synthesis of the self/other. Schwartz analyzes not only individual dances, but also the ways that drag performances have afterlives in restagings, company members, and future artists. Thus, Schwartz's central claim is that drag dance builds a living, queer archive in which dancers invite others into their bodies, then inspire this practice in future artists, creating threads of memory [End Page 166] and re-enlivening the ghosts of past performers in a different cultural context. The introduction draws on theories of drag and gender performance like Marlon Bailey's notion of "working the body" and Trajal Harrell's "fictional archiving" to sketch drag dance as a process of revivifying past performances. Each of the subsequent five chapters begins with one central performance (most are from the 1980s), and then traces its afterlives across the next four decades. Schwartz explores how drag dances shift with changing notions of gay rights and queer politics, and asks what narratives are inscribed on and by gender-bending performances as they echo cross-temporally. While the five chapters end without a conclusion, Schwartz emphasizes that the choreographic lineages she explores continue to manipulate gestural codes today, rendering them visible alongside the ghosts of dancers past. Across the chapters, Schwartz brings theories of gendered acts out of the quotidian and into the stylized world of concert dance. Chapter 1 focuses on Mark Morris's 1989 performance of Dido and Aeneas to argue that Morris's gestural vocabulary in dual roles of the Queen and the Sorceress builds rigid choreographic gender constraints with no room for improvisation. Such inscription places the Queen on an inescapable narrative toward death. Schwartz argues that as the performance is restaged with new performers, the signs become more malleable and collective, opening the door to a more utopian vision of queer politics. In later productions, the ensemble takes precedent over the solo, and both female/male solo dancers create new combinations of female masculinity and male femininity to break such fatalistic narratives. Chapter 2 centers Richard Move's performances ofMartha @, in which he danced in drag as Martha Graham. Rather than replicating Graham's choreography, which changed as her body aged, Schwartz argues that Move created the internal space to channel Graham in his vastly taller, differently proportioned body. Schwartz goes on to introduce Move's company member Catherine Cabeen, who originally danced deeply gendered feminine roles for Martha Graham before performing both masculine and feminine movements to channel the experience for Move. Schwartz uses dance studies to bring gestural repertoires into moments of staged choreography, arguing that this kind of living archive preserves Graham's legacy as a dancer more deeply than straight dance lineages, which preserve the gendered choreography at the expense of Graham's ephemeral essence. Schwartz continues to show how dance brings theories of the body into praxis in chapter 3, which takes the work of Japanese Butoh dancer Kazuo Ohno as its starting point. Schwartz argues that in channeling Spanish dancer La Argentina in Admiring La Argentina (1977), Ohno uses the process of drag to invite the dancer into his body. Through drag, Ohno looks to transcend boundaries of time and...

Creating Completely Both Male and Female Sterile Plants by Specifically Ablating Microspore and Megaspore Mother Cells.

Although genetically modified (GM) plants have improved commercially important traits, such as biomass and biofuel production, digestibility, bioremediation, ornamental value, and tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses, there remain economic, political, or social concerns over potential ecological effects of transgene flow from GM plants. The current solution for preventing transgene flow from GM plants is genetically engineering sterility; however, approaches to generating both male and female sterility are limited. In addition, existing strategies for creating sterility lead to loss or modifications of entire flowers or floral organs. Here, we demonstrate that instead of the 1.5-kb promoter, the entire SOLO DANCERS (SDS) gene is required for its meiocyte-specific expression. We then developed an efficient method to specifically ablate microspore and megaspore mother cells using the SDS and BARNASE fusion gene, which resulted in complete sterility in both male and female reproductive organs in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) and tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum), but did not affect plant growth or development, including the formation of all flower organs. Therefore, our research provides a general and effective tool to prevent transgene flow in GM plants.

Using a Novel Motion Index to Study the Neural Basis of Event Segmentation

Our understanding of the perceived actions of those around us includes an ability to segment this continuous stream of activity into discrete events. We studied naive observers' abilities to segment a video of an unfamiliar dance style into events using a combination of behavioural, computational vision and brain imaging methods. A 386 s video of a solo Bharatanatyam dancer was used as the basis for the study. A computational analysis provided us with, for every video frame, a Motion Index (MI) quantifying the movement of the entire dancer. A behavioural analysis using 30 naive observers provided us with the time points where observers were most likely to place an event boundary. These behavioural and computational data were used to interpret the brain activity of another 11 participants who viewed the dance video while in an MRI scanner. Results showed that the Motion Index predicted brain activity in a single cluster in the right hemisphere that was located close to the Extrastriate Body Area (EBA). Eve...

Ulysses Kay Archive: Columbia University Rare Book and Manuscript Library

African-American composer Ulysses Kay (1917-1995) wrote more than one hundred forty compositions in a wide range of forms--five operas, over twenty large orchestral works, more than thirty choral compositions, fifteen chamber works, a ballet, and numerous other compositions for voice, solo instruments, film, and television. (1) Born in Tucson, Arizona to a musical family, Kay was encouraged by both his mother and her brother, Joe King Oliver, to study piano, violin and saxophone. He entered the University of Arizona in 1934, receiving the Bachelor of Music in 1938. For the next two years he studied composition at the Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester, with Bernard Rogers and Howard Hanson, and received the Masters in Music in 1940. From 1941 to 1942 he studied with Paul Hindemith at Tanglewood and at Yale University. Compositions from this period include the Sinfonietta for Orchestra, the ballet Danse Calinda, and Three Fanfares for Four Trumpets. During World War II, Kay served in the U. S. Navy, playing with and arranging for the Navy Band, stationed at Quonset Point, Rhode Island. His most prominent composition from this period is Of New Horizons for concert band. Commissioned by Thor Johnson and performed by the New York Philharmonic, its premier took place in Lewisohn Stadium on July 29, 1944. Upon discharge from the Navy, Kay received the Alice M. Ditson Fellowship for creative work at Columbia University, where he studied with Otto Luening from 1946 to 1947. During the summers, he was a resident at the Yaddo Festival in Saratoga Springs, New York, where he would return six times, later joined by wife Barbara, through 1971. Major works from this period include: Danse Calinda Suite; Rope for solo dancer and piano; Concerto for Orchestra; and the film music for Quiet One, a documentary film about Donald Thompson, then ten years old, by Janice Loeb, Sidney Meyers, and Helen Levitt, with commentary by James Agee and additional photography by Richard Bagley. Many honors and scholarships followed, including a Fulbright Scholarship, grants from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Institute of Arts and Letters, and a Julius Rosenwald Fellowship. From 1949 to 1952, Kay received two Prix de Rome awards that allowed him to travel and study in Italy. The first African-American to receive the prize, it gave him residence in the American Academy in Rome, along with his new bride, Barbara Harrison of Chicago, whom he had married on August 20, 1949. Compositions from this period include: a piano quintet, a string quartet, a brass quartet, Sinfonia in E for orchestra, and Song of Ahab, a cantata for baritone and ten instruments. Returning to New York, Barbara taught music in Manhattan, and Ulysses accepted a position with Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) that would last from 1953 until 1968. Turning down several teaching positions, he obtained a job that gave him a regular schedule, allowing him to compose as much as possible. Compositions include: A Lincoln Letter, an a cappella work for mixed chorus and bass soloist; Six Dances for String Orchestra; Fantasy Variations for Orchestra; and two operas, Boor, and Juggler of Our Lady. In 1958, Kay was a member of the first delegation of composers to the Soviet Union, a part of the U.S. State Department's Cultural, Educational and Technical Exchange Agreement. The others in his group were Roy Harris, Peter Mennin, and Roger Sessions. During the month-long trip, Kay appreciated the interest in jazz expressed by Russian composers and he played them recordings of the music of Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, Louis Armstrong, and Johnny Richards, among others. He also attended performances of his own compositions, those of his fellow delegates, and the works of Russian composers. Upon his return, Hi-Fi Review published his account of the trip entitled Thirty Days in Musical Russia. …

Robust reconstitution of active cell-cycle control complexes from co-expressed proteins in bacteria

BackgroundCell proliferation is an important determinant of plant growth and development. In addition, modulation of cell-division rate is an important mechanism of plant plasticity and is key in adapting of plants to environmental conditions. One of the greatest challenges in understanding the cell cycle of flowering plants is the large families of CDKs and cyclins that have the potential to form many different complexes. However, it is largely unclear which complexes are active. In addition, there are many CDK- and cyclin-related proteins whose biological role is still unclear, i.e. whether they have indeed enzymatic activity. Thus, a biochemical characterization of these proteins is of key importance for the understanding of their function.ResultsHere we present a straightforward system to systematically express and purify active CDK-cyclin complexes from E. coli extracts. Our method relies on the concomitant production of a CDK activating kinase, which catalyzes the T-loop phosphorylation necessary for kinase activity. Taking the examples of the G1-phase cyclin CYCLIN D3;1 (CYCD3;1), the mitotic cyclin CYCLIN B1;2 (CYCB1;2) and the atypical meiotic cyclin SOLO DANCERS (SDS) in conjunction with A-, B1- and B2-type CDKs, we show that different CDKs can interact with various cyclins in vitro but only a few specific complexes have high levels of kinase activity.ConclusionsOur work shows that both the cyclin as well as the CDK partner contribute to substrate specificity in plants. These findings refine the interaction networks in cell-cycle control and pinpoint to particular complexes for modulating cell proliferation activity in breeding.

Evaluation of seven promoters to achieve germline directed Cre-lox recombination in Arabidopsis thaliana

Site-specific recombination systems, such as Cre-lox from bacteriophage P1, have become very important tools for plant genome engineering. In many cases a constitutive promoter is used to express the recombinase gene. However, for certain research and commercial applications constitutive Cre-mediated recombination may not be desirable. We have evaluated the potential of seven different germline promoter:cre fusions to remove a stably integrated lox cassette through Cre-mediated recombination in Arabidopsis thaliana. We monitored the functionality of each promoter in the germline of primary transformants by analyzing the presence of the recombined lox cassette in T(2) progeny. The selected germline promoters are involved in different developmental cues, including early stem cell identity (CLAVATA3), flower meristem identity (LEAFY, APETALA1), floral organ identity (AGAMOUS), and meiosis (SOLO DANCERS, DMC1, SWITCH1). For five out of these seven promoters we were able to show that efficient Cre-mediated recombination does, indeed, occur and that the recombination takes place at some point during germline development. Furthermore, a recombination efficiency of 100% is obtained when Cre-expression is regulated by the CLAVATA3 promoter. In addition, with these promoters, we observe much less variation in recombination frequency than previously reported for the 35S promoter. For these reasons, we believe that germline-specific Cre-lox recombination provides an additional tool to the site-specific recombination technology in plants.

Functional conservation of the meiotic genes SDS and RCK in male meiosis in the monocot rice

The Arabidopsis SDS (SOLO DANCERS) and RCK (ROCK-N-ROLLERS) genes are important for male meiosis, but it is still unknown whether they represent conserved functions in plants. We have performed phylogenetic analyses of SDS and RCK and their respective homologs, and identified their putative orthologs in poplar and rice. Quantitative real-time RT-PCR analysis indicated that rice SDS and RCK are expressed preferentially in young flowers, and transgenic RNAi rice lines with reduced expression of these genes exhibited normal vegetative development, but showed significantly reduced fertility with partially sterile flowers and defective pollens. SDS deficiency also caused a decrease in pollen amounts. Further cytological examination of male meiocytes revealed that the SDS deficiency led to defects in homolog interaction and bivalent formation in meiotic prophase I, and RCK deficiency resulted in defective meiotic crossover formation. These results indicate that rice SDS and RCK genes have similar functions to their Arabidopsis orthologs. Because rice and Arabidopsis, respectively, are members of monocots and eudicots, two largest groups of flowering plants, our results suggest that the functions of SDS and RCK are likely conserved in flowering plants.

A poet of silence: Edward Petherbridge and the Pyladean tradition

The focus of this article is the ancient pantomimic or Pyladean tradition and, specifically, its reception in the work of British actor Edward Petherbridge. Pantomime was a balletstyle entertainment, which flourished in the Graeco-Roman world between the end of the first century BCE and the end of the sixth century CE. It involved a solo dancer (predominantly male and masked), who enacted successively the various characters in a specified plot to the accompaniment of instrumental music and sung narrative. Its essentialcharacteristicwascorporealeloquence.Petherbridgeisanactorwhousesboth movement and stillness to communicate character in a way that is dance-like. The Pyladean qualitiesIbelieve heexemplifiesinclude: thesilent embodiment andexposition of character; precision in posture, gesture and rhythm; cheironomia (the measured motion of the hands); and display of mind in terms bodily. In the course of the article, I examine these Pyladean attributes in relation to the principles expounded by Lucian in his treatise De Saltatione (On Dancing). I look at Petherbridge’s dancer’s ‘line’, his training in movement and mime, and, with examples from a few of his most celebrated roles, his use of physical nuance in the delineation and undoing of character. 2ll’ 7per 7sh 3 Puqik1” crhsm0”, deK t1 nq e0menon 5rchsin ka1 kwsoN suni0nai ka1 m1 lal0onto” toN 2rchstoN 2ko0ein. In the words of the Delphic oracle, whosoever beholds dancing must be able ‘to understand the mute and hear the silent’ dancer. (Lucian, De Saltatione, 62)

Silent eloquence: Lucian and pantomime dancing

One of the greatest aesthetic attractions in the ancient world was pantomime dancing, a ballet-style entertainment in which a silent, solo dancer incarnated a series of mythological characters to the accompaniment of music and sung narrative. Looking at a multitude of texts and particularly Lucian's On the Dance, a dialogue written at the height of pantomime's popularity, this innovative cultural study of the genre offers a radical reassessment of its importance in the symbolic economy of imperial and later antiquity. Rather than being trivial or lowbrow, pantomime was thoroughly enmeshed in wider social discourses on morality and sexuality, gender and desire and a key player in the fierce battles about education and culture that raged in the ancient world. A close reading of primary sources, judiciously interlaced with a wealth of interdisciplinary perspectives, makes this challenging book essential for anyone interested in the performance culture of the Greek and Roman world.

Building vibration excited by step dancing—Case study

A new three-story building (steel frame, metal deck, concrete floor slabs) for the performing arts includes a dance studio on the upper level. An isolated concrete floor was installed within the dance studio, which is effective at attenuating impact sources (as modeled by a standard tapping machine), and normal foot fall (walking, light dancing, or similar). Hard-shoe, percussive dance (e.g., step dancing) by solo dancers and especially a chorus of 20 to 30 dancers, generates significant foot fall noise and vibration within the building, that is audible in the spaces one and two floors below the dance studio, and causes perceptible vibration of the building structure. Structural analysis relating natural frequency of building structure with natural frequency of isolated floor and forcing frequency of dancers was performed. Noise and vibration testing, with tapping machine and dancers, was also performed. Stiffening of slab with additional steel column to reduce effective span was effective in reducing magnitude of intrusive noise and vibration, as demonstrated by testing with dancer as source.

Marker-Free Transgenic Plants through Genetically Programmed Auto-Excision

We present here a vector system to obtain homozygous marker-free transgenic plants without the need of extra handling and within the same time frame as compared to transformation methods in which the marker is not removed. By introducing a germline-specific auto-excision vector containing a cre recombinase gene under the control of a germline-specific promoter, transgenic plants become genetically programmed to lose the marker when its presence is no longer required (i.e. after the initial selection of primary transformants). Using promoters with different germline functionality, two modules of this genetic program were developed. In the first module, the promoter, placed upstream of the cre gene, confers CRE functionality in both the male and the female germline or in the common germline (e.g. floral meristem cells). In the second module, a promoter conferring single germline-specific CRE functionality was introduced upstream of the cre gene. Promoter sequences used in this work are derived from the APETALA1 and SOLO DANCERS genes from Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) Columbia-0 conferring common germline and single germline functionality, respectively. Introduction of the genetic program did not reduce transformation efficiency. Marker-free homozygous progeny plants were efficiently obtained, regardless of which promoter was used. In addition, simplification of complex transgene loci was observed.

And Then We Moved In

And Then We Moved In