Woman's Hour - 13/08/2009

With Jenni Murray. Honey Kalaria, the choreographer behind a Bollywood extravaganza taking place at the Royal Albert Hall as part of the BBC Proms, is in the studio to show some of her dance moves. Bollywood dancing has become increasingly popular as a form of exercise in recent years, encompassing traditional Indian dances and hip hop-inspired steps. Dr Ann David, an expert on dance ethnography from Roehampton University, joins the discussion about why this form of dance has become so widespread. Joan of Arc is remembered variously as a saint, a shepherdess, a heretic and a lunatic. However, a new biography reveals which versions of her are fantasy and which bear proper scrutiny. How canny was Joan about promoting her image, and was she as saintly as her fans would have us believe? Lariss Juliet Taylor, the author of 'The Virgin Warrior - the life and death of Joan of Arc' explains her new theories to Jenni. And a new study in Denmark has found that a group of girls started budding breasts a full year earlier than their counterparts just fifteen years earlier. The difference could not be attributed to the girls' weight, which is often linked to early puberty, nor to increased levels of oestrogen in their bodies. So what accounts for this early development? The findings raise questions about the impact of the environment, specifically 'endocrine disrupting compounds' that mimic oestrogen in the body.