dance

Change begins from the feet – give a dancer new shoes, and build a style of dancing around those shoes, and she develops muscles and new habits of motion.  So, a technical innovation like a pointe shoe can transform the world of dance – and create generations of dancers with similar bodies, musculature, and style.  This Atlantic piece, based on a presentation by a grad student at the University of Pennsylvania, has me spinning on the consequences of small changes.  How often do our little decisions, our simple inventions, give rise to structures the final impact of which we don’t remotely understand?

Pointed in this direction, as usual, by boingboing.