Steve Connor (Extracted from "Science reveals what makes Darren Gough a sexy dancer", The Independent, 22 December 2005

"Darren Gough was unwittingly showing off more than his prowess on the dance floor when he swept to success in Strictly Come Dancing. Scientists have found that good dancing is also a sign of genetic perfection . . . The study, published in the journal Nature, found that women were more likely than men to make a subconscious link between dancing and physical symmetry, which fits in with an evolutionary theory about how important it is for females in particular to choose an attractive, good-quality mate."

[Ed: Darwin is well known for his Theory of Evolution by natural selection for fitness. What is less well-known are his later thoughts that sexual selection was an integral part of this selection. Females have much more to lose in a long-term partnership in which to nurture children so it is females who are the predominant selection agents for a dependable partner. One of the common factors that anthropologists have discovered is that all societies -- hunter-gatherers, pastoralists, agriculturalists -- have developed elaborate rituals by which females (or their parents) choose from the best males available. General fitness, body symmetry, intelligence, and social ranking are all involved. And so it is in modern industrial (or post-industrial) society. It is no wonder, therefore, that Strictly Come Dancing and its similar rival programme on another channel, the X Factor obtained the biggest audiences ever in the history of TV in this country. Sexual selection is also the reason why, in every mature civilisation in the history of mankind, a meritoctratic elite always largely separates itself from the mass of the people (and would not have been watching Strictly Come Dancing and X Factor last Saturday evening).]