Coordinated Interpersonal Behaviour in Collective Dance Improvisation: The Aesthetics of Kinaesthetic Togetherness.
Tommi Himberg, Julien Laroche, Romain Bigé, Megan Buchkowski, Asaf Bachrach
Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) February 9, 2018 Peer reviewed DOI: 10.3390/bs8020023 via PubMed
Summary
Collective dance improvisation, such as traditional dancing and contact improvisation, is a participatory, embodied art form that challenges standard aesthetics. This research investigates the mechanisms behind the lived experience of 'togetherness' in such practices, which is kinaesthetic and measurable from both performer and spectator perspectives. Using first-person phenomenological reports and third-person measures of brain and body activity, the authors describe two protocols: a four-person mirror game and a 'rhythm battle' dance improvisation. They correlate subjective connectedness with observed temporal synchronization, proposing that kinaesthetic togetherness (interpersonal resonance) is integral to aesthetic pleasure and may play a broader role in performing arts.
Study at a glance
| Design | theoretical or philosophical paper |
|---|---|
| Key finding | Kinaesthetic togetherness, or interpersonal resonance, is proposed as integral to the aesthetic pleasure of participants and spectators in collective dance improvisation. |
Abstract
Collective dance improvisation (e.g., traditional and social dancing, contact improvisation) is a participatory, relational and embodied art form which eschews standard concepts in aesthetics. We present our ongoing research into the mechanisms underlying the lived experience of "togetherness" associated with such practices. Togetherness in collective dance improvisation is kinaesthetic (based on movement and its perception), and so can be simultaneously addressed from the perspective of the performers and the spectators, and be measured. We utilise these multiple levels of description: the first-person, phenomenological level of personal experiences, the third-person description of brain and body activity, and the level of interpersonal dynamics. Here, we describe two of our protocols: a four-person mirror game and a 'rhythm battle' dance improvisation score. Using an interpersonal closeness measure after the practice, we correlate subjective sense of individual/group connectedness and observed levels of in-group temporal synchronization. We propose that kinaesthetic togetherness, or interpersonal resonance, is integral to the aesthetic pleasure of the participants and spectators, and that embodied feeling of togetherness might play a role more generally in aesthetic experience in the performing arts.