Individual Differences in Sequential Movement Coordination in Hip-Hop Dance: Capturing Joint Articulation in Practicing the Wave

Abstract

The current study highlights individual differences in the joint articulation strategies used by novices practicing a hip-hop dance movement, the wave. Twelve young adults, all naive regarding hip-hop dance performance, practized the wave in 120 trials separated into four blocks with the order of internal or external attentional focus counterbalanced across subjects. Various kinematic analyses were analyzed to capture performance success while exploiting the observed individual differences in order to establish the reliability of the proposed performance indicators. An external focus of attention marginally facilitated the smooth transfer of a wave motion across neighboring limb segments as characterized by a constant propagation speed combined with large wave amplitudes. Systematic correlations between the success indicators were found, exemplifying the various degrees of joint articulation that novices prove capable of during an initial practicing session to try and perform a novel complex motor task.

Aesthetic Perception of Stage Setups in Dance

“…First, all groups generally evaluated the movement contract-release as the most aesthetic movement. This finding is in line with previous research (Brown et al, 2021;Torrents et al, 2013), and this could potentially be due to the larger amplitude and wide form of this movement compared to the movements bounce and demi-plié. Additionally, there were no differences between the groups.…”

“…For instance, faster movements are evaluated as more aesthetically pleasing than slower ones (Orlandi et al, 2020). @ @ Furthermore, large amplitude and range of motion are other aspects of an aesthetically pleasing dance movement (Brown et al, 2021;Sato et al, 2014;Torrents et al, 2013;Vinken, 2022). In addition, Orgs et al (2013) state that symmetry is preferred in watching dance performances.…”

Discovering individual-specific gait signatures from data-driven models of neuromechanical dynamics

“…For instance, through observation of movement, the human brain can perceive many socially salient features of an individual's gait, suggesting that it should be possible to infer aspects of gait dynamics from kinematic data. As an example, humans can derive a host of information about individuals from movement patterns, including gender [39], body size [40], sexual orientation [41], emotion [42], individual differences in dancing [43], perceived affective states [44] and underlying intention [45]. Furthermore, judgements based on how individuals move can drive decisions such as partner desirability or attractiveness [46] diagnosis [47,48], and treatment planning [49,50].…”

Discovering individual-specific gait signatures from data-driven models of neuromechanical dynamics

“…For instance, through observation of movement, the human brain can perceive many socially salient features of an individual’s gait, suggesting that it should be possible to infer aspects of gait dynamics from kinematic data. As an example, humans can derive a host of information about individuals from movement patterns, including gender (Pollick et al, 2005), body size (Troje, 2002), sexual orientation (Johnson et al, 2007), emotion (Gross et al, 2012), individual differences in dancing (Brown et al, 2021), perceived affective states (Edey et al, 2017) and underlying intention (Becchio et al, 2012). Furthermore, judgements based on how individuals move can drive decisions such as partner desirability or attractiveness (Neave et al, 2011), disease diagnosis (Habersack et al, 2022; Heinik et al, 2010), and treatment planning (Ferrante et al, 2016; Mikolajczyk et al, 2018).…”