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Illusion of the Week: Black Art in Dance

Check out this Black Art dance video by Fighting Gravity, from their America’s Got Talent!

This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American


Ed. note: This blog was previously posted to SleightsOfMind.com

French Magician Omar Pasha

Our bookSleights of Mind features a wonderful group of French magicians, The Ostrowsky family, who produce a show called "Omar Pasha". Its a wonderful and mystical show in which the protagonist magically manipulates objects and people on stage. Everything appears and disappears to the notes of Bolero. The inevitable decapitations and recapitations proceed seamlessly, and right before your very eyes, as you watch from the audience. To find out more, read Sleights of Mind.


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But in the meantime, check out this related new dance video by Fighting Gravity, from their America’s Got Talent! appearance, in which a group of dancer’s uses magical Black Art methods in a new and exciting dance exhibition.

Susana Martinez-Conde is a professor of ophthalmology, neurology, and physiology and pharmacology at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University in Brooklyn, N.Y. She is author of the Prisma Prize–winning Sleights of Mind, along with Stephen Macknik and Sandra Blakeslee, and of Champions of Illusion, along with Stephen Macknik.

More by Susana Martinez-Conde