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Outdoors: Turkey Lurkey

Last year, I don’t suppose there were any office Christmas parties. Parties scheduled for this year, if any, will probably be quiet affairs---certainly not anything like the office party depicted at the end of the first act of the Broadway musical, Promises, Promises.   

At that office party, three secretaries from the Entertainment Committee presented a remarkable dance to the song   “It’s Turkey Lurkey Time.”

The choreographer, the late Michael Bennett, created the dance number which accurately mimics the courtship dance of a tom turkey, complete with strutting, body shaking, flapping, and a whole lot of energetic head bobbing.

Real tom turkeys fan their gorgeous tails and dance in the springtime  in order to attract mates. But the head bobbing is not reserved for the courtship performance. Turkeys, and actually quite of few species of birds—especially those that walk on the ground, appear to bob their heads.

A bird bobs to fixate on the objects around it and to allow its vision to stabilize.  If they walked without bobbing, they would see a blur. Actually, they do stop to gaze, but it happens so fast, we humans perceive continuous motion.

Bobbing apparently helps with balance and provides depth perception, but scientists think it also enables birds to become aware of their surroundings.

But the crazy thing is, birds really aren’t bobbing. It’s an optical illusion. They just move their heads forward and lock them in place. Then they move  their bodies catch up and realign to their heads.

OK. I get it with the birds, head bobbing helps stabilize their vision.  But I will never know how the performers who attempt this remarkable song and dance keep their balance or have the stamina to make it to the snowy, blowy, mistletoey  end.

"Outdoors with Coggin Heeringa" can be heard every Wednesday on Classical IPR.