Dance psychology

Dance psychology is a combination of mental states and sensations associated with dancing or observing the dance process.

The term defines an interdisciplinary academic field that studies people in the process of dance. Areas of research in this area include the study of measures to improve the health status of older people using dance techniques, the study of stimulating the creative potential of children, as well as psychological motives when choosing a partner in the dance and the emotional components in the dance.

Content

1 Audience Perception
2 Feeling Emotions
3 Participation in the dance
4 emotions
- 4.1 Empathy
- 4.2 Creativity
5 Useful properties of dance
6 Literature
7 References

Audience Perception

Analytical data continuously provide choreographers with information about the audience’s perception of dance material. In the process of collecting data, scientists noted such a pattern as the discrepancy between the meaning in the submitted material of the choreographer and its implementation by the audience. In the course of repeated experiments, it turned out that the characteristics characteristic of the dance contribute to the occurrence of an arousal effect among the audience. Dancers feel similar emotions, watching the overall picture on the stage during the performance of the dance by various dance groups. In addition to dance, arousal of excitement is also facilitated by a change in music and the activity of the dancers themselves.

Feeling Emotion

The analysis of the scientist Laban’s movement classifies human movements by duration, time, change in body temperature , contraction and expansion of the limbs, their tension, as well as the dynamics of movement. During his experiment, subjects watched 20 videos of various dancers performing the same dance, with which they conveyed anger , fear , sadness and joy . The experiment was that observers had to guess the transmitted emotions without any help. The highest level of recognition was for “sadness”, followed by “anger” and “joy”.

The automated recognition system tried to find examples of movement for various emotions: fear is expressed through sudden movements and contraction of the muscles of the body, joy through smooth movements and sadness with the help of frequent pauses between movements. These examples are supported by the recognition of the audience expressed emotions performed by dancers.

Dance Participation

An interesting fact is that often in dance groups dancers think in different directions and engage in different styles, but at the same time they have one basic foundation and work in tandem with a dancer of a different genre, reacting to his movements. The connection between the dancers arises through the direct perception of each other's movements in a “mirror” manner, hence the synchronism in the dance.

The professional memory of the dancer includes various ways of moving their body and knowledge of specific combinations. Thus, the dance is similar to a language in which “grammar” depends on methodological memory, and “vocabulary” depends on narrative memory.

Each dancer has an identical dance style, which is the result of the influence of various choreographers and styles.

Emotions

Empathy

Empathy is a mediator in the knowledge of dance. Through understanding other people's emotions and intentions, the dancer builds the philosophy of his dance. Improvised movements are based on “material knowledge” - the theory that the body reveals the nature of the spirit, as well as the theory of knowledge based on the fact that knowledge is embodied in our actions, social knowledge, which consists in understanding the actions and emotions of dancing and conditional knowledge - knowledge is inseparable from action.

Empathy provides a temporary structuring of movements, which allows improvisation to be a kind of choreography.

Creativity

Scientists set up another experiment that showed how emotions affect creative abilities . The experiment was conducted as part of the video game Dance Dance Revolution . Participants are randomly distributed across three different levels of difficulty, reflecting the degree of excitement involved during the game. During the dance, the experimenter accidentally gave the participants very bad or very good grades, trying to influence their emotional state .

After the test, the participants were tested on the level of creativity. Low levels of emotional excitement led to a high level of creativity, but a poor psychological state. High levels of excitement and a good mood led to even higher levels of creativity.

Useful properties of dance

To convey meaning, the dance uses emotions, creativity, cultural influence and symbols.

The dance resembles a language, since it has a “vocabulary” - dance movements, has “grammar rules” - a system for combining movement.

Dances increase the level of interaction between the dancers and the choreographers in the dance hall. Dance helps students in the process of self-knowledge. For example, in preschool institutions, children develop communicative communication using the language of dance, movements and joint actions to express their ideas. Thus, children increase the level of social cognition and get acquainted with the capabilities of their body.

Another useful feature of the dance is the existing contact between the partners, which, with the right approach, gives the partners a sense of trust in each other. Through the dissolution of boundaries, natural corporeality and its healing potential are awakened. An attempt to penetrate deeper provides an understanding and experience of the depth of possibilities and this is a necessary step to self-study and self-actualization.

Active openness and trust offer paths to an endless variety of options, ways of expression and creativity. Through unconditional acceptance of corporeality and confidence in the process, beautyful and powerful moments of virtuosity and awkward awkward moments of vulnerability become equally valuable.

Literature

Catherine J. Stevens, Emery Schubert, Rua Haszard Morris, Matt Frear, Johnson Chen, Sue Healey, Colin Schoknecht, Stephen Hansen. Cognition and the temporal arts: Investigating audience response to dance using PDAs that record continuous data during live performance // International Journal of Human-Computer Studies. - 2009. - T. 67 , No. 9 . - S. 800-813 . - DOI : 10.1016 / j.ijhcs.2009.06.06.001 .
Antonio Camurri, Ingrid Lagerlöf, Gualtiero Volpe. Recognizing emotion from dance movement: Comparison of spectator recognition and automated techniques // International Journal of Human-Computer Studies. - 2003 .-- T. 59 . - S. 213-225 . - DOI : 10.1016 / S1071-5819 (03) 00050-8 .
Mamiko Sakata, Mariko Shiba, Kiyoshi Maiya, Makoto Tadenuma. Human body as the medium in dance movement // International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction. - 2004. - T. 17 , No. 3 . - S. 427–444 . - DOI : 10.1207 / s15327590ijhc1703_7 .