What Snowball The Dancing Parrot Is Teaching Neuroscientists About Why Humans Dance

These newly published observationscement the human-ness of Snowball’s dancing. His initial headbangs andfoot-lifts are movements that parrots naturally make while walking orcourting. But his newer set aren’t based on any standard, innatebehaviors. He came up with them himself, and he uses them for differentkinds of music. “This is what we would genuinely refer to as dance, bothin the scientific community and in the dance profession,” says Nicola Clayton of the University