The Greatest Dancers

You've been treated to a quintet of fascinating blogs this week about the greatest dancers from stage, screen and nightclub. Coming late to the action as I do on a Saturday, I often feel duty-bound, for variety's sake, to strike a different note and go tripping off along some alternative path. The one I've chosen today leads us into the ritual and romance of the feathered world.

It's tempting to think of dance as a human social activity and artform, but lots of birds, when it comes time to find a mate, indulge in fantastic displays and courtship routines, and given that birds predate ourselves by about 150 million years, it's a fair bet they've been dancing ever since dinosaurs were doing the swamp stomp.

There's a wealth of live footage available from nature programmes about the agile, colourful and fancy routines that some species in the avian world have evolved to impress the ladies. Just type dancing birds into your web browser of choice if you don't believe me. Some of the footage is even rather cleverly set to music. In preparation for this blog I've watched a good few hours of wildlife clips documenting our fancier feathered friends going through their moves, from comical disco cockatoos to balletic swans, and all sorts of accomplished strutters, jivers, leapers, wing-wagglers and tail-feather flutterers in between. This research enabled me to draw up a short list of my personal favourites for your benefit, if you want to make your searches more specific. I give you my...

Top Ten Dancing Birds:

01 Red Crowned Crane (aka Japanese Crane)

02 Carola's Parotia (aka Queen Carola's Bird-of-Paradise)

03 Hummingbird (many fabulous varieties) 

04 Manakin (including Blue-Backed, Crimson-Hooded, Golden-Winged)

05 Bliue-Footed Booby

06 Albatross (including Black-Footed, Laysan, Sooty, Waved) 

07 Hooded Grebe

08 Sharp-Tailed Grouse

09 Superb Lyrebird

10 Andean Flamingo

Red Crowned Cranes (i)

The stunning Red Crowned Crane is top of my list for a very good reason, as you can see for yourselves - a video in this case is worth a thousand words - if you click on the link here: Dancing Cranes  

These beautiful but now sadly endangered birds are positively balletic in their movements, a dance ritual which they perform in pairs at mating time. There are only a few thousand Red Crowned Cranes left in the wild, inhabiting the Japanese island of Hokkaido and parts of mainland China and Korea. They are monogamous and mate for life, so when they reach maturity (at about four years old) their spectacular dance parties are the primary means by which young cranes attract and bond with a partner.

They are such graceful creatures, it is no wonder that they are long-revered in Japanese and Chinese art, culture and mythology. They symbolise not just beauty and elegance but spirituality, fidelity, morality and nobility. The Japanese used to say that Red Crowned Cranes lived for a thousand years, though thirty to seventy years is nearer the mark. Conservation schemes are underway to try and preserve the habitats of these wonderful birds and to reverse the alarming decline in numbers. Long may they dance.

Red Crowned Cranes (ii)

Is it only me who sees similarities between the elegance of Red Crowned Cranes and those more prosaic red-topped machines that dance gracefully on many a city skyline? Such a comparison was the catalyst for this latest poem from the imaginarium (subject to the usual caveats about modification... maybe even an additional verse).

Cranes

He only ever saw her in hard hat, dungarees and hi-viz vest

commanding the crane next to his.  They waved sometimes 

from their aerial cabs,  sharing the finest view over the city

as they choreographed their way through long grafting days

of Shard building. He imagined intimacy in isolation, a nest

out west perhaps with a red-tiled roof, daily prepared packets

of cheese and pickle in greaseproof, nights of love after telly,

maybe eventually her swelling belly and a child of their own.

There was snow on the ground the day she fell. He could only

hold his breath as he watched her arcing soundless. The blood 

froze in his veins. Time stopped, hopes died. He felt awkward

going uninvited to Grace's funeral, slipped in quietly at the rear

knowing nobody. Grażyna M. Zuraw 1980-2010. Barely thirty. 

He'd never seen her red hair, didn't even realise she was Polish. 

More surprising by far, she had a wife and two young boys. He

sat there feeling old and stupid, only half-heard the Pastor say 

something about cupid's unerring arrow, what a tragic loss and

how fitting that her name actually meant beautiful crane. Tears

flowed all around, his too.  He was still sitting rigid in his pew

after everyone had gone, thinking this is what emptiness is like.   

Thanks for reading, S ;-)