The evolution of dance

Laland, Kevin N.; Wilkins, Clive; Clayton, Nicola S.

doi:10.1016/j.cub.2015.11.031

Cited by 80 publications

(77 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…There is no doubt that for learning of specific dance routines (e.g., in dance lessons), people with high imitative proficiency will perform better. We agree with Laland et al (2016) that ritualized forms of dance may facilitate the formation of coalitions and signal social cohesion. However, this situation may not accurately capture the evolution of dance as part of sexual selection, where movement quality may be more important than imitative proficiency.…”

supporting

confidence: 84%

Why Did Dance Evolve? A Comment on Laland, Wilkins, and Clayton (2016)

Fink

Shackelford

2016

Evolutionary Psychological Science

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Human dance may have originated from selection to display quality in courtship. This proposal is based on comparative investigation of variation in motor skills in relation to mate preference and selection. However, scholars have also proposed that dance has evolved as a by-product of imitative proficiency. In this view, imitative proficiency plays a central role in dance learning and performance and facilitates movement synchronization among dancers and thus social bonding.Here we comment on a recent paper (Laland et al. in Current Biology, 26, R5-R9, 2016), which favors the latter perspective. We suggest that social bonding through dance has evolved in consequence of the adaptive problem of assessing mate qualities and other social information from body movement. This information may then have been used in strengthening social cohesion.Laland, Wilkins, and Clayton (2016) argue that human dance exploits neural circuity that evolved to facilitate imitation. In this view, dancing requires the performer to adjust his or her movements to an external or internal beat, thus demanding correspondence between an auditory input and motor output. Laland et al. therefore suggest that imitative proficiency is crucial in dancing, and may have been favored by selection to promote social learning. Laland et al. further propose that dance is an exaptation, a by-product of imitative proficiency. We argue that, in considering evidence from comparative research, this proposition prematurely dismisses the hypothesis that dance is an evolved display of motor skills and mate quality.In ritualized form, and especially with choreography, dance skills can be improved by imitation. However, this does not preclude the possibility that selection built sex-specific and condition-dependent dance-related adaptations to facilitate mating success. Research indicates that opposite-sex individuals are attentive to sex-typical mate quality characteristics, such as male strength and female fertility, conveyed through dance movements (Fink, Weege, Neave, Pham, and Shackelford 2015). Deriving these cues from dance movements of opposite-sex individuals does not require information about the dancer's ability to adjust to a rhythm. Yet, there is considerable variation in, for example, attractiveness assessments of male and female dancers, as predicted by Sexual Strategies Theory (Buss and Schmitt 1993), suggesting that dancing proficiency is a sexually selected adaptation.Dance is a complex physical, emotional, cognitive, and culturally ubiquitous social activity, characterized by intentional and rhythmic movements used to express many human facets, including sexuality (Hanna 2010). Comparative studies across taxa suggest that females select mates by evaluating male motor performance, along with conspicuous male ornaments (Byers, Hebets, and Podos 2010). Such elaborate displays are metabolically challenging and, therefore, provide honest signals of male vigor (i.e., the performance intensity of activities that require considerable energetic investment)....

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supporting

confidence: 84%

Why Did Dance Evolve? A Comment on Laland, Wilkins, and Clayton (2016)

Fink

Shackelford

2016

Evolutionary Psychological Science

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“…The field of musical rhythm is increasingly expanding to encompass the scientific study of dance (Ellamil et al, 2016;Fitch, 2016;Laland et al, 2016;Ravignani and Cook, 2016;Su, 2016;Fink and Shackelford, 2017). Only in 2016, three papers have introduced conceptual frameworks for the evolutionary study of dance (Fitch, 2016;Laland et al, 2016;Ravignani and Cook, 2016).…”

Section: The Evolution Of Dancementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Only in 2016, three papers have introduced conceptual frameworks for the evolutionary study of dance (Fitch, 2016;Laland et al, 2016;Ravignani and Cook, 2016). We believe the field would benefit from connecting these theoretical frameworks with recent empirical findings on dance (Ellamil et al, 2016;Su, 2016).…”

Section: The Evolution Of Dancementioning

confidence: 99%

The Evolution of Rhythm Cognition: Timing in Music and Speech

Ravignani

Honing

Kotz

2018

Frontiers Research Topics

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“…First, the comparison will elucidate cognitive and psychological components promoting the evolution of human mutual communication. A recent study proposed that rhythmic dances must be unique to humans because dances should require highly cognitive abilities such as the imitation of other behaviours with musical beats (Laland et al 2016). This idea is controversial (Ravignani et al 2016), because animals with less sophisticated cognitive abilities can perform elaborate and coordinated dances.…”

Section: (Iii) Implications For Human Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Complexity of mutual communication in animals exemplified by paired dances in the red-crowned crane

Takeda

Kutsukake

2018

Japanese Journal of Animal Psychology

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Non-human animals commonly perform mutual communication in which two individuals simultaneously exchange information in an interaction that can comprise multiple components and multimodal signals. The forms of mutual communication vary widely, ranging from simple greeting ceremonies to complex paired dances including multiple behavioural elements. Our understanding of mutual communication lags markedly because few systematic studies have examined this topic. In this review, we used the example of paired dances in red-crowned cranes (Grus japonensis) to examine two important aspects of mutual communication: structure and function. We reviewed the difficulty analysing the key characteristics of structure quantitatively (e.g. sequential pattern and complexity), and examined suitable analytic methods such as determining the four levels of its characteristics. We proposed that a combination of current methods and new methods, such as the Shannon entropy index and temporal associations among behavioural elements, is necessary to quantify the complexity of mutual communication. Regarding the function of paired dances, we critically discuss the pair bond hypothesis, which suggests that a paired dance strengthens pair bonds in monogamous, long-living birds. Testing this classical hypothesis remains a challenge due to the difficulty of performing quantitative analyses of paired dances and the ambiguous concept of pair bonds. We hope that the questions and predictions raised in this paper will encourage future research on mutual communication in non-human animals.

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The evolution of dance

Cited by 80 publications

References 20 publications

Why Did Dance Evolve? A Comment on Laland, Wilkins, and Clayton (2016)

Why Did Dance Evolve? A Comment on Laland, Wilkins, and Clayton (2016)

The Evolution of Rhythm Cognition: Timing in Music and Speech

Complexity of mutual communication in animals exemplified by paired dances in the red-crowned crane

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