“Some like it hot”: spectators who score high on the personality trait openness enjoy the excitement of hearing dancers breathing without music

Abstract

Music is an integral part of dance. Over the last 10 years, however, dance stimuli (without music) have been repeatedly used to study action observation processes, increasing our understanding of the influence of observer’s physical abilities on action perception. Moreover, beyond trained skills and empathy traits, very little has been investigated on how other observer or spectators’ properties modulate action observation and action preference. Since strong correlations have been shown between music and personality traits, here we aim to investigate how personality traits shape the appreciation of dance when this is presented with three different music/sounds. Therefore, we investigated the relationship between personality traits and the subjective esthetic experience of 52 spectators watching a 24 min lasting contemporary dance performance projected on a big screen containing three movement phrases performed to three different sound scores: classical music (i.e., Bach), an electronic sound-score, and a section without music but where the breathing of the performers was audible. We found that first, spectators rated the experience of watching dance without music significantly different from with music. Second, we found that the higher spectators scored on the Big Five personality factor openness, the more they liked the no-music section. Third, spectators’ physical experience with dance was not linked to their appreciation but was significantly related to high average extravert scores. For the first time, we showed that spectators’ reported entrainment to watching dance movements without music is strongly related to their personality and thus may need to be considered when using dance as a means to investigate action observation processes and esthetic preferences.

Audiences’ Experience of Proximity and Co-presence in Live Dance Performance

“…This finding expands Jola et al, where experiencing performers' closeness was challenging for certain spectators' personalities. 27 Thus, we may term a kinaesthetic response that includes a negative and hindering enjoyment, a kinesthetic dissonance characterized by uneasiness or discomfort at the reciprocal presence of the other.…”

A Practice-Inspired Mindset for Researching the Psychophysiological and Medical Health Effects of Recreational Dance (Dance Sport)

“…One important question for this discipline with regards to dance movements is whether and how dance viewers understand emotions and intentions of a dance movement ( Jola et al, 2011 ; Grosbras et al, 2012 ; Kirsch et al, 2013 ; Christensen et al, 2014 , 2016a , b , 2018 ; Bachrach et al, 2016 ), what audiences find aesthetically pleasing in a dance movement ( Calvo-Merino et al, 2008 , 2010 ; Cross et al, 2009 ; Daprati et al, 2009 ; Miura et al, 2010 ; Orgs et al, 2016 ), how audience members’ bodies synchronize with each other ( Pollick et al, 2018 ), or with the dancer during the performance ( Bachrach et al, 2015 ; Theodorou et al, 2019 ). Interindividual difference measures that illustrate different reasons why people choose to dance, and which dance styles are preferred are also recently gaining momentum ( Maraz et al, 2015a , b ), as is research into dance style preferences for watching dance by people with different personality profiles ( Jola et al, 2014 ). Cognitive, affective and social effects of regular “watching” of dance have received little empirical attention so far (though see Jang and Pollick, 2011 ).…”

The Dancing Queen

“…Finally, spectators' resonance with a dance style was suggested to be affected by the narrative , the live presence of the performers (Jola & Grosbras 2012) and their personality (Jola et al 2014). Moreover, resources of cognition and emotion potentially compete when watching dance (Grosbras et al 2012).…”