In biology, a genus (plural: genera) is a low-level taxonomic rank (a taxon) used in the classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia. The term comes from Latin genus "descent, family, type, gender", cognate with – genos, "race, stock, kin".

The composition of a genus is determined by a taxonomist. The standards for genus classification are not strictly codified, and hence different authorities often produce different classifications for genera. In the hierarchy of the binomial classification system, genus comes above species and below family.

Generic name

The scientific name of a genus may be called the generic name or generic epithet: it is always capitalized. It plays a pivotal role in binomial nomenclature, the system of biological nomenclature.

Binomial nomenclature

The rules for scientific names are laid down in the Nomenclature Codes; depending on the kind of organism and the Kingdom it belongs to, a different Code may apply, with different rules, laid down in a different terminology. The advantages of scientific over common names are that they are accepted by speakers of all languages, and that each species has only one name. This reduces the confusion that may arise from the use of a common name to designate different things in different places (example elk), or from the existence of several common names for a single species.

It is possible for a genus to be assigned to a kingdom governed by one particular Nomenclature Code by one taxonomist, while other taxonomists assign it to a kingdom governed by a different Code, but this is the exception, not the rule.

Pivotal in binomial nomenclature

The generic name often is a component of the names of taxa of lower rank. For example, Canis lupus is the scientific name of the Gray wolf, a species, with Canis the generic name for the dog and its close relatives, and with lupus particular (specific) for the wolf (lupus is written in lower case). Similarly, Canis lupus familiaris is the scientific name for the domestic dog.

Taxonomic units in higher ranks often have a name that is based on a generic name, such as the family name Canidae, which is based on Canis. However, not all names in higher ranks are necessarily based on the name of a genus: for example, Carnivora is the name for the order to which the dog belongs.

The problem of identical names used for different genera

A genus in one kingdom is allowed to bear a scientific name that is in use as a generic name (or the name of a taxon in another rank) in a kingdom that is governed by a different Nomenclature Code. Although this is discouraged by both the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature and the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature, there are some five thousand such names that are in use in more than one kingdom. For instance, Anura is the name of the order of frogs but also is the name of a genus of plants (although not current: it is a synonym); Aotus is the genus of golden peas and night monkeys; Oenanthe is the genus of wheatears and water dropworts, Prunella is the genus of accentors and self-heal, and Proboscidea is the order of elephants and the genus of devil's claws.

Within the same kingdom one generic name can apply to only one genus. This explains why the platypus genus is named Ornithorhynchus—George Shaw named it Platypus in 1799, but the name Platypus had already been given to a group of ambrosia beetles by Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Herbst in 1793. Names with the same form but applying to different taxa are called homonyms. Since beetles and platypuses are both members of the kingdom Animalia, the name Platypus could not be used for both. Johann Friedrich Blumenbach published the replacement name Ornithorhynchus in 1800.

Types and genera

Because of the rules of scientific naming, or "binomial nomenclature", each genus should have a designated type, although in practice there is a backlog of older names that may not yet have a type. In zoology this is the type species (see Type (zoology)); the generic name is permanently associated with the type specimen of its type species. Should this specimen turn out to be assignable to another genus, the generic name linked to it becomes a junior synonym, and the remaining taxa in the former genus need to be reassessed.

See scientific classification and Nomenclature Codes for more details of this system. Also see type genus.

Guidelines

There are no hard and fast rules that a taxonomist has to follow in deciding what does and what does not belong in a particular genus. This does not mean that there is no common ground among taxonomists in what constitutes a "good" genus. For instance, some rules-of-thumb for delimiting a genus are outlined in Gill. According to these, a genus should fulfill three criteria to be descriptively useful: # monophyly – all descendants of an ancestral taxon are grouped together; # reasonable compactness – a genus should not be expanded needlessly; and # distinctness – in regards of evolutionarily relevant criteria, i.e. ecology, morphology, or biogeography; note that DNA sequences are a consequence rather than a condition of diverging evolutionary lineages except in cases where they directly inhibit gene flow (e.g. postzygotic barriers).

Nomenclature

None of the Nomenclature Codes require such criteria for defining a genus, because these are concerned with the nomenclature rules, not with taxonomy. These regulate formal nomenclature, aiming for universal and stable scientific names.

See also

Andrew Delmar Hopkins

References

External links

Nomenclator Zoologicus: Index of all genus and subgenus names in zoological nomenclature from 1758 to 2004.

Fauna Europaea Database for Taxonomy

Category:Scientific classification Category:Botanical nomenclature Category:Zoological nomenclature

Name	James Genus
Landscape	no
Background	non_vocal_instrumentalist
Born	January 20, 1966Hampton, VirginiaUnited States
Instrument	Guitar, Bass guitar, upright bass
Genre	Jazz
Occupation	Musician
Years active	1987 - Current
Associated acts	Saturday Night Live Band, Out of the Blue

James Genus (January 20, 1966) is an American jazz bassist. He plays both electric bass guitar and upright bass and currently plays in the Saturday Night Live Band. Genus has performed as a session musician and sideman throughout his career, with an impressive list of artists with whom he has worked.

Genus was born in Hampton, Virginia. He began on guitar at age six and switched to bass at 13. He studied at Virginia Commonwealth University from 1983 to 1987 and played for a summer at Busch Gardens Williamsburg. Then moved to New York City, where he quickly began working with many noted players on the city's jazz scene. He has played with Out of the Blue (1988-89), Horace Silver (1989), Roy Haynes and Don Pullen (1989-91), Nat Adderley (1990), Greg Osby and New York Voices (1990-91), Jon Faddis (1991), T.S. Monk (1991), Benny Golson (1991), Dave Kikoski (1991), Bob Berg (1991-96), Geoff Keeze (1992), Lee Konitz (1992), Michael Brecker (1992-96), Bob James (since 1994), Michel Camilo (since 1995), Elysian Fields (since 1995), Branford Marsalis (1996), Chick Corea (1996), Dave Douglas (1996), Uri Caine (1997), Global Theory (1997), Bill Evans (saxophonist) (2005) and Herbie Hancock (2008).

References

Mark Gilbert, "James Genus". Grove Jazz online.

External links

Conversation With James Genus, 4/01/2009

Category:American jazz double-bassists Category:American jazz bass guitarists Category:Musicians from Virginia Category:1966 births Category:Living people

Wayne McGregor CBE (born 1970) is a British choreographer of contemporary modern dance. His work is highly distinctive in its vocabulary of movement, for its integration of dance with film and visual art, and for his active interest and incorporation of computer technology and biological science. He is the Artistic Director of Wayne McGregor Random Dance, Resident Company at Sadler's Wells Theatre in London; the Resident Choreographer of The Royal Ballet, appointed 2006; and the government’s first Youth Dance Champion, appointed 2008. In 2004 McGregor was a Research Fellow in the Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Cambridge.

McGregor is a frequent creator of new work for La Scala Theatre Ballet of Milan; Paris Opera Ballet; Nederlands Dans Theatre of La Hague; San Francisco Ballet; Stuttgart Ballet; New York City Ballet; The Australian Ballet of Melbourne; and English National Ballet of London. He also advises in theater and film. He served as Movement Director for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

Biography

Wayne McGregor was born in Stockport, England, in 1970. He studied dance at Bretton Hall College of the University of Leeds and at the José Limon School in New York. In 1992 he was appointed Choreographer-in-Residence at The Place, London, and in the same year he founded his own company, Wayne McGregor Random Dance. McGregor evolved what was to become his distinctive choreographic style on Random Dance.

His choreography is an extrapolation of his own movement vocabulary: "[It] had its origins in McGregor’s own long, lean and supple physique and in his body’s ability to register movement with peculiar sharpness and speed; at one extreme McGregor’s dancing was a jangle of tiny fractured angles, at the other it was a whirl of seemingly boneless fluidity."

It was during his major trilogy The Millennarium (1997), Sulphur 16 (1998) and Aeon (2000) that the company became a byword for its radical approach to new technology – incorporating animation, digital film, 3D architecture, electronic sound and virtual dancers into the live choreography. Collaborations with leading multi-disciplinary artists enriched the company’s futurist aesthetic and dramatically enlarged the possibilities of dance. In 2001 it was invited to be the first resident company at the new Sadler’s Wells.

His career to date has also taken him beyond the conventional stage, choreographing for films such as Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, creating site-specific installations for Southbank Centre’s The Hayward, The Saatchi Gallery, the Houses of Parliament and for the Pompidou Centre in Paris. Collaborations with artists outside of the dance field have included composers Sir John Tavener, Scanner, Plaid and Joby Talbot/The White Stripes, animatronics experts, Jim Henson’s Creature Workshop and neuro-scientists and heart-imaging specialists for his past two works for Wayne McGregor | Random Dance, AtaXia and Amu. McGregor was the first to curate, in September 2008, the 3-day long new festival for the Royal Opera House, Deloitte Ignite. This came 18 months after his successful Royal Opera House production Chroma (2006).

Wayne McGregor was appointed Resident Choreographer of The Royal Ballet in December 2006. After Chroma, he went to create the award-winning Infra (premiered at Covent Garden on November 13, 2008) which was followed by a new staging of his La Scala production of the opera Dido and Aeneas -premiered in spring 09 alongside Acis and Galatea (this marked McGregor’s Royal Opera debut). In 2009, Wayne McGregor created Limen for The Royal Ballet, Dyad 1929 for The Australian Ballet and Dyad 1909 for Wayne McGregor Random Dance. In 2010/2011, Wayne McGregor will create new work for New York City Ballet, Stuttgart Ballet and Bolshoi Ballet, with a new full-length for Wayne McGregor | Random Dance premiering at Sadler's Wells in November 2010.

McGregor was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2011 New Year Honours for services to dance.

Works

Entity

Entity is an hour-long dance piece for Wayne McGregor | Random Dance featuring 10 dancers and soundscape created by Jon Hopkins (Coldplay and Massive Attack collaborator) and award-winning composer Joby Talbot. Entity premiered at the Sadler's Wells Theatre, London in April 2008. In December 2010, Entity became the first full length dance performance available on Apple's iTunes video download service.

Dyad 1909

One of two ballets that Wayne McGregor created to celebrate the centenary of the Ballets Russes; the other is Dyad 1929, for The Australian Ballet. Dyad 1909, for Wayne McGregor Random Dance, is inspired by Ernest Shackleton’s Nimrod expedition to the South Pole in 1909, the year that the Ballets Russes was founded. The creative team includes the acclaimed artists and filmmakers Jane and Louise Wilson, longstanding lighting designer Lucy Carter and costume designer Moritz Junge. Icelandic composer Olafur Arnalds provides a newly commissioned score combining piano, strings and electronics.

Limen

Limen is Wayne McGregor’s most recent work for The Royal Ballet. It premiered at The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in November 2009. It uses the classical vocabulary of 15 dancers, including Edward Watson, Leanne Benjamin, Steven McRae, Sarah Lamb and Eric Underwood. The women dance en pointe lending the work a more classical air than MacGregor's previous Royal Ballet commissions. Its centrepiece is an ethereal pas de deux, danced in bright spotlight against a black backdrop set to a futuristically raw sounds of Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho. McGregor says that Limen - a word that relates to ideas of limits and thresholds - is a meditation on ‘thresholds of life and death, darkness and light, reality and fantasy’.  Such borderline territory is akin to that of the work of Japanese contemporary conceptual artist Tatsuo Miyajima, with whom McGregor has collaborated on the sets.

Dido and Aeneas / Acis and Galatea

A new double bill of Purcell and Handel, conceived, directed and choreographed by Royal Ballet Resident Choreographer, Wayne McGregor. The production uniquely combines the forces of both The Royal Opera and The Royal Ballet companies. McGregor’s Dido and Aeneas is based on his production at La Scala, Milan, in 2006. Here it is paired with Handel’s pastoral masque Acis and Galatea. Lead singers include Sarah Connolly (Dido) and Danielle de Niese (Galatea), making her Covent Garden debut. For Acis, the dancers include Edward Watson, Lauren Cuthbertson and Eric Underwood. Set designs are by Hildegard Bechtler; costume designs are by Fotini Dimou and lighting design is by Lucy Carter; The Orchestra of The Age Of Enlightenment is conducted by Christopher Hogwood.

Infra

Infra created for The Royal Ballet and premiered in November 2008 at the Royal Opera House. The set for the show included a 18 metre LCD display with animations by British artist Julian Opie who also designed the set. The music for the show was by composer Max Richter. The show had a cast of 12 dancers from the Royal Ballet and also a number of extras with short non-dancing roles.

The BBC aired a special one hour feature which documented the making of Infra, and also showed the work in full.

Chroma

Chroma is McGregor’s 2006 award-winning dance piece for The Royal Ballet. The score, drawn from compositions and arrangements by Joby Talbot and his arrangements of music by The White Stripes, is paired with stark minimalist designs by architect John Pawson.

Awards

2010: Critics Circle National Dance Award for Infra (Best Choreography - Classical)

2009: International Theatre Institute's Excellence In International Dance

2009: Ballet Tanz's Choreographer Of The Year

2009: Movimentos Award for Entity

2008: South Bank Show Award for Entity and Infra

2008: Benois De La Dance Award for Infra

2007: Critics Circle National Dance Award for Chroma (Best Choreography – Classical)

2007: Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Dance Production for Chroma

2007: South Bank Show Awardfor The Royal Ballet triple bill which featured Chroma

2003: Time Out Live Awards Outstanding Choreography

2001: Time Out Live Awards Outstanding Achievement in Dance Award

Choreographic style

Wayne McGregor’s choreography is characterised by dynamic, sharp, often fragmented and often sinuously fluid movement. This movement vocabulary has its origins in McGregor’s own long, lean and supple physique and in his body’s ability to register movement with peculiar sharpness and speed.

Fascination with technology and science

McGregor started playing with computers when he was seven and it was natural for him to incorporate the cyber world into his own choreography. Collaborating with state-of-the art designers he experimented with projecting computer generated images onto the stage. In Sulphur 16 (1998) his dancers were dwarfed by the presence of a shimmering virtual giant and danced with a company of digital figures who wove and shimmered among them. In Aeon (2000) digitally created landscapes transported the dancers to what seemed like other dimensions and other worlds.

On specific occasions McGregor has used technology to alter the conditions under which his work is viewed. 53 Bytes (1997) was created for simultaneous performance by two sets of dancers in Berlin and Canada and it was watched by audiences in both countries by live satellite link. In 2000 McGregor aimed for a wider global public by transmitting a live performance of his Trilogy Installation over the internet.

Wayne McGregor Random Dance has been the vehicle for McGregor’s ongoing fascination with the mechanisms of the human body. In Amu (2005) he explored the functions and the symbolism of the heart, in Ataxia (2004) the connection between brain and body movement and in his most recent work, Entity (2008) the links between artificial intelligence and choreography.

During Entity rehearsals, he and the dancers worked alongside six international cognitive scientists and technologists from esteemed institutes including University College London, University of Cambridge, University of California, San Diego and Imperial College London. In January 2009 they traveled to University of California, San Diego and created a new piece of work under ‘lab’ conditions, Dyad 1909; fueling the search for new creative decisions on the part of McGregor and new findings in the brain/body relationship for the scientists.

Credits

Dance performance

Outlier for New York City Ballet (2010)

Limen for The Royal Ballet (2009)

Dyad 1909 for Wayne McGregor | Random Dance (2009)

Dyad 1929 for The Australian Ballet (2009)

Infra for The Royal Ballet (2008)

Renature for NDT1 (2008)

Entity for Wayne McGregor | Random Dance (2008)

Nimbus for The Royal Ballet (2008)

Genus for Paris Opera Ballet (2007)

[meməri] for D.A.N.C.E. (2007)

Chroma for The Royal Ballet (2006)

Eden|Eden for San Francisco Ballet (2006)

Skindex for NDT1 (2006)

Ossein for Wayne McGregor | Random Dance (2006)

Amu@Durham for Wayne McGregor | Random Dance at Durham Cathedral (2006)

Engram for the Royal Ballet (2005)

Amu for Wayne McGregor | Random Dance (2005)

Eden|Eden for Stuttgart Ballet (2005)

AtaXia for Wayne McGregor | Random Dance (2004)

Series for Wayne McGregor | Random Dance at Houses of Parliament, London (2004)

Dragonfly for National Glass Centre, Sunderland (2004)

Qualia for The Royal Ballet (2003)

Xenathra for Wayne McGregor, Dance Umbrella (2003)

Binocular for Adam Cooper Dance Company (2003)

Polar Sequences for Wayne McGregor | Random Dance (2003)

Nautilus for Stuttgart Ballet (2003)

Bio-logical for BodyCraze, Selfridges London/Manchester (2003)

2 Human for English National Ballet (2003)

Alpha for Wayne McGregor | Random Dance (2003)

PreSentient for Rambert Dance Company(2002)

Game of Halves for National Youth Dance Wales (2002)

BodyScript for Connect with Sadler’s Wells (2002)

Phase Space for the Gothenburg Ballet/Random Dance (2002)

L.O.V.E for Imagination Frankfurt (2002)

Nemesis for Wayne McGregor | Random Dance (2002)

digit01 for Wayne McGregor | Random Dance (2001)

HIVE for National Youth Dance Wales (2001)

11 Digital Mantras for The Roundhouse London (2001)

Castlescape for East London Dance (2001)

Codex for First Class Air Male - Dance East (2001)

detritus for Rambert Dance Company (2001)

brainstate for Wayne McGregor | Random Dance and The Royal Ballet (2001)

Velociraptor for Dance East/Bury Festival (2001)

Symbiont(s) for The Royal Ballet (2001)

Aeon for Wayne McGregor | Random Dance (2000)

Fleur de Peux for Vivianna Durante, Royal Ballet (2000)

Telenoia for Canary Wharf (2000)

The Field for East London Dance/Greenwich & Docklands International Festival (2000)

net/work Narrative(s) for South East Dance Agency/Brighton International Festival (2000)

Equation for the Centre George Pompidou, Paris (1999)

Zero Hertz for Cork Opera House, Ireland (1999)

In:terplay (Bruce Nauman) for the Hayward Gallery, London (1998)

Sulphur 16 for Wayne McGregor | Random Dance (1998)

Intertense for Shobana Jeyasingh Dance Company (1998)

Medusa for Olympic Ballet Company, Milan (1998)

Trial By Jury for Melbourne International Festival (1998)

Angel for the Natural History Museum, London (1998)

Scottish Opera/Random Collaboration for the Galleryof Modern Art, Glasgow (1998)

Pointe for the Saatchi Gallery, London (1997)

Dance Of The Broadband for Le Groupe de la Place Royale, Ottawa (1997)

The Millennarium for Wayne McGregor | Random Dance (1997)

Skinned Prey for 4D (London Contemporary Dance School) (1997)

x2 for the Royal Museum, Edinburgh (1997)

Chameleon for the Barbican Centre, London (1997)

Black on White for the South Bank Centre Ballroom, London (1997)

S.I.N. for Shed O, London Docklands (1997)

Neurotransmission for Snape Maltings Concert Hall, Aldeburgh (1997)

Encoder for Shobana Jeyasingh’s Away Game (1996)

Bach Suite for Crusaid Gala (Olivier Theatre, RNT) (1996)

Ventolin for West Yorkshire Playhouse (1996)

Esc...otherspace for Birmingham Hippodrome (1996)

8 Legs of the Devil for Wayne McGregor | Random Dance (1996)

Urban Savage for Ricochet Dance Company (1996)

Vulture (Reverse Effect) commissioned by Cultural Industry (1996)

Cybergeneration for the Belfast International Festival at Queens (1996)

Installation over 4 for Selfridges’ Gallery Window

World Disabled Games (opening) for Birmingham International Stadium

Match Half for Nottingham Forrest Stadium

Slam for The Arches, Glasgow (1996)

Dragonfly for the Alternative Hair Show, Drury Lane (1995)

CeBit Dances for Imagination/Ericsson, Hanover (1995)

Cyborg for Wayne McGregor | Random Dance (1995)

Jacob’s Membrane for Wayne McGregor | Random Dance (1995)

For Bruising Archangel for Wayne McGregor | Random Dance (1995)

AnArkos for Wayne McGregor | Random Dance (1995)

Sever for Wayne McGregor | Random Dance (1995)

9.7 recurring 2%Black for National Youth Dance Company (1994)

Artificial Intelligence for National Youth Dance Company (1994)

Cyberdream for The Boys Project, The Place (1994)

White Out for The Boys Project, The Place (1994)

Vulcan for Swindon Youth Dance Company (1994)

Labrax for Wayne McGregor | Random Dance (1994)

GCSE National Set Study for Northern Examinations & Assessment Board (1994)

Xeno 1 2 3 for Wayne McGregor | Random Dance (1993)

Film/TV

In The Spirit of Diaghilev for BBC4 (2009)

The South Bank Show, Wayne McGregor:Across The Threshold for ITV1 (2009)

Infra for BBC2 (2008)

Entity for Arte (2008)

Tremor for Channel 4 (2005)

Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire for Warner Bros (Dir. Mike Newell) (2004)

Dance USA for BBC 4 (2004)

Dice Life for Channel 4 (2004)

Chrysalis for Arte (2002)

The Dancers Body for BBC 2 (2002)

Nemesis for BBC4 (2002)

Physical Dysfunctional for BBC Knowledge (2001)

Symbiont(s) for BBC2 (2001)

Horizone for Dance for the Camera (BBC & ACE) (2001)

Medusa for RaiUno International, Italy

Bent for Channel Four Films, Sarah Radclyffe Prod. (1996)

Tomorrows World Live commissioned for NESTA

Broadband Documentary for Discovery Channel, USA

The Last Siren commissioned by RaiUno International

Redoxon Commercial for Arden Sutherland Dodd

Eurostar Commercial for Arden Sutherland Dodd (1998)

Theatre

Breakfast at Tiffany's for Theatre Royal Haymarket (2009)

Fram for the National Theatre (2008)

Ring Around The Moon for Playhouse Theatre, West End (2007)

Kirikou & Karaba for Casino de Paris (2007)

Much Ado About Nothing for the Peter Hall Company (2006)

You Can Never Tell for the Peter Hall Company (2005)

Aladdin for the Old Vic (2004/5)

Cloaca for the Old Vic (2004)

Woman in White for The Palace Theatre (2004/5)

A Little Night Music for the National Theatre (1995)

Cleansed for the Royal Court Theatre

Antony and Cleopatra for the National Theatre

Opera

Dido and Aeneas for Royal Opera (2009)

Acis and Galatea for Royal Opera (2009)

Dido and Aeneas for La Scala (2006)

The Midsummer Marriage for Chicago Lyric Opera (2005)

La Bohème for Scottish National Opera

Manon for English Touring Opera

Hansel and Gretel for Scottish National Opera

Rinaldo for Grange Park Opera

The Mikado for Grange Park Opera

Salome for English National Opera

The Marriage of Figaro for Scottish Opera

Orpheus et Eurydice for Scottish Opera

Orpheus et Eurydice for Scottish Opera Go Round

External links

Random Dance

Royal Opera House

Interview with Wayne McGregor, IAS, University of Minnesota, September 2009

THE OBSERVER, 11 NOVEMBER, 2009

THE GUARDIAN, 9 NOVEMBER, 2009

THE NEW YORK TIMES, 28 NOVEMBER, 2008

THE SUNDAY TIMES CULTURE, 20 APRIL, 2008

THE TELEGRAPH, APRIL 14, 2008

THE GUARDIAN, APRIL 11, 2008

THE FINANCIAL TIMES, feature about Wayne McGregor, APRIL 5, 2008

TIME MAGAZINE, feature about Wayne McGregor, APRIL 2, 2008

THE EVENING STANDARD, APRIL 1, 2008

References

Category:Choreographers of The Royal Ballet Category:1970 births Category:People from Stockport Category:English dancers Category:English choreographers Category:Living people Category:Danseurs Category:Ballet choreographers Category:Choreographers of New York City Ballet Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire