Effects of observer experience on continuous measures of engagement with a contemporary dance work

Abstract

Dance is multifaceted and interculturally complex. Empirical approaches to investigating the ways in which observers respond to dance offer a potentially productive means of understanding the cognitive bases upon which these responses to dance are generated. This study demonstrates one such approach, by measuring the responses of two groups of observers to a single dance performance continuously, as the performance unfolded. Specifically, we asked a group of dance students and a group of dance professionals to record their engagement with the same professional solo contemporary dance performance as a means of investigating whether and how the responses of dance students and professionals differ. Our analysis of these measurements demonstrates both similarities and differences between the two groups. On the basis of this analysis, we speculate that both students and professionals respond to choreographic ‘disjunctures’ in which expectations are overturned, which we term ‘gem moments,’ and that mature artists’ responses to dance differ from those of students through a change in degree – an increased ability to respond to ‘gem moments’ – rather than through a shift in the kinds of choreographic structures that elicit increasing engagement.