Dance as a subject for empirical aesthetics.

Abstract

This is the accepted version of the paper.This version of the publication may differ from the final published version. There may be minor differences in this draft with respect to the published version of the paper. Both authors contributed to the paper equally. Permanent repository link Dance as a subject for empirical aestheticsWe are grateful to Marcos Nadal for very useful comments and discussions on previous drafts of the paper and to dancers and choreographers (Tom Sapsford and MavinKhoo) for their help and assistance during some of the projects described throughout this paper. AbstractThe purpose of this paper is to highlight the possibilities that research on dance appreciation offers empirical aesthetics, as well as the challenges it poses. Behavioral and neuroimaging approaches have, to date, mainly focused on the perception and recognition of human body movement and structure. A small number of studies, nonetheless, have explicitly taken the basic research on the perceptual, emotional and cognitive processes engaged during movement observation, together with their neural concomitants, as a starting point to understand the aesthetic experience triggered by the observation of a dance. We provide an overview of these studies and, thereafter, point out avenues for future research on dance appreciation within the scope of empirical aesthetics. We also note some methodological and conceptual issues that should be taken into account in the design of empirical studies of the aesthetic appreciation of dance, including dance theory scholarship and humanistic approaches to dance practice.Finally, we describe how common movement features of dance styles around the world suggest that humans may be endowed with an evolved cognitive ability to appreciate and to be aesthetically moved by dance.

Spectators’ aesthetic experience of sound and movement in dance performance: A transdisciplinary investigation.

“…While these studies implicate temporal features when processing the aesthetics of dance, a study by Calvo-Merino, Urgesi, Orgs, Aglioti, and Haggard (2010) demonstrated that viewing static dance postures also involves brain regions associated with aesthetic processing. In their review of these studies, Christensen and Calvo-Merino (2013) find support for four different brain regions in the aesthetic processing of dance. These include the ventral premotor cortex (BA6), medial and superior regions of the posterior occipital cortex (BA18, BA19), the inferior parietal cortex (BA 39/40) and the occipitotemporal cortex (BA37).…”

Pleasure junkies all around! Why it matters and why ‘the arts’ might be the answer: a biopsychological perspective

“…Low-level stimuli features of works of art trigger our attention, including shapes and tones, and other features such as symmetry and beauty [108][109][110][111][112][113][114]. Besides, the arts push boundaries, surprise, reveal, and excite both artist and spectator.…”

Dance expertise modulates behavioral and psychophysiological responses to affective body movement.

“…Recent studies have shown that expert artists (an example of experts in emotional expression) have enhanced affective responses as compared to controls. For example, actors are more empathic than non-actors (Goldstein, 2009;Goldstein & Bloom, 2011;Goldstein & Winner, 2012), musicians are better at Running head: MOVEMENT EXPERTISE AND AFFECTIVE SENSITIVITY 4 recognizing vocal expressions of emotions than non-musicians (Lima & Castro, 2011), ballet dance ability is associated with trait emotional intelligence (Petrides, Niven, & Mouskounti, 2006), and participants with dance experience show a modulation of their aesthetic response to familiar movements (Kirsch, Drommelschmidt, Cross, 2013;Kirsch, Dawson, Cross, 2015; see Christensen and Calvo-Merino, 2013 for a review on dance expertise and aesthetic perception). This suggests that expertise in the arts facilitates the processing of emotional information.…”