Dance Floor Research Articles

Chiral edge waves in a dance-based human topological insulator.

Topological insulators are insulators in the bulk but feature chiral energy propagation along the boundary. This property is topological in nature and therefore robust to disorder. Originally discovered in electronic materials, topologically protected boundary transport has since been observed in many other physical systems. Thus, it is natural to ask whether this phenomenon finds relevance in a broader context. We choreograph a dance in which a group of humans, arranged on a square grid, behave as a topological insulator. The dance features unidirectional flow of movement through dancers on the lattice edge. This effect persists when people are removed from the dance floor. Our work extends the applicability of wave physics to dance.

ChoreoVis: Planning and Assessing Formations in Dance Choreographies

AbstractSports visualization has developed into an active research field over the last decades. Many approaches focus on analyzing movement data recorded from unstructured situations, such as soccer. For the analysis of choreographed activities like formation dancing, however, the goal differs, as dancers follow specific formations in coordinated movement trajectories. To date, little work exists on how visual analytics methods can support such choreographed performances. To fill this gap, we introduce a new visual approach for planning and assessing dance choreographies. In terms of planning choreographies, we contribute a web application with interactive authoring tools and views for the dancers' positions and orientations, movement trajectories, poses, dance floor utilization, and movement distances. For assessing dancers' real‐world movement trajectories, extracted by manual bounding box annotations, we developed a timeline showing aggregated trajectory deviations and a dance floor view for detailed trajectory comparison. Our approach was developed and evaluated in collaboration with dance instructors, showing that introducing visual analytics into this domain promises improvements in training efficiency for the future.

Embodying Hope on the Dance Floor

Embodying Hope on the Dance Floor

Koreografi Tari Sentak Ilau di Sanggar Seni Nan Gombang Painan Kabupaten Pesisir Selatan

This study aims to reveal, describe and analyze the Choreography of Sentak Ilau Dance at Nan Gombang Painan Art Center, South Pesisir Regency. This type of research is qualitative research using descriptive methods. This research instrument is the researcher himself assisted by supporting instruments in the form of stationery and cameras. Data were collected through literature study, observation, interviews and documentation. The steps of analyzing data are data collection, data reduction, data presentation and conclusions. The results of this study show that the choreography form of Sentak Ilau Dance at Nan Gombang Painan Art Studio in South Pesisir Regency consists of Motion, Top Design, Dynamics, Dramatic Design, Floor Design, Costumes, Properties, Group Composition, and Dance Accompaniment. Sentak Ilau Dance movement comes from Silek Tiger dance, Rantak Kudo and Salido cloth. The top design of Sentak Ilau Dance consists of Angular, Curved, High, Low, Flat, Vertical, Horizontal, Medium and contrasting top designs. The dynamics of Sentak Ilau Dance consists of three aspects, namely aspects of space, time and energy. The dramatic atmosphere in the dance is divided into 2 parts, namely calm and tense. The floor design used varies. Sentak Ilau's dance floor design consists of straight and curved lines. The musical instruments used are such as violin, kompang, bansi, serunai, saluang, talempong and tamburin. The property used in this sentak ilau dance is a jug containing frankincense and used tin bottles containing small stones. The costumes used are modified costumes, namely modified kuruang basiba clothes, Galembong, Saspayang cloth, headdresses used from sisampiang cloth and belts.

‘We’ve Lost Dancing’: The euphoric sounds of post-pandemic pop

This article focuses on the aesthetics of European pop music in the aftermath of the 2019–23 COVID-19 pandemic. I will suggest that this created the perfect conditions for the proliferation of a new kind of pop. Euphoric in tone, post-pandemic pop has been orientated towards the dance floor, nostalgic for 1980s sounds and unconcerned with lyrical complexity. However, it is not without pathos. I will argue that the interpolation of 1980s synth-pop is a symbolic return to the AIDS crisis. I will suggest that musical codes aestheticize sadness in a way that is both familiar and distant. In this direction, film and television soundtracks are particularly potent. Russel T. Davies’s It’s a Sin (2021) screened at the height of the pandemic became a lens through which many understood COVID-19, with music a tool for processing loss, longing and tragedy. The proliferation of disco during this period repositioned the genre as a contemporary form. Focusing on the summer of 2023, however, I will contend that in the revival of Italo disco, we encounter futuristic sensibility, which perfectly fits the post-pandemic mood. A paradoxical gift from our 1980s ancestors, Italo could be the key to unlocking the paralysis of never-ending reminiscence. It is time to turn the lights on the disco and explore the contemporary resonance of a genre that has always existed in the shadows.

Elephant on the Dance Floor: Revealing the Significance of Dancers’ Sex in Coalition Quality Assessments

Elephant on the Dance Floor: Revealing the Significance of Dancers’ Sex in Coalition Quality Assessments

Who is on the campus dance floor of sustainability reporting? The Spanish case

IMPACT In order to address the challenges of sustainable development, it is crucial for most universities to enhance their sustainability reporting (SR) practices. SR may help universities to enhance their legitimacy. SR should be more than just elaborating and presenting a report; it should be linked to a long-term strategic orientation of the university towards sustainability. Further efforts are necessary to ensure that SR becomes deeply integrated into universities’ missions and long-term strategies. This article will be of particular interest to university managers and other stakeholders—particularly associations, networks, regulatory and oversight bodies in the sustainability field.

Light fever

As well as bringing sparkle to the dance floor, could disco balls become a new educational tool in astronomy? Laura Hiscott investigates.

Worlds of Social Dancing: Dance Floor Encounters and the Global Rise of Couple Dancing, c.1910–40, ed. Klaus Nathaus and James Nott

<i>Worlds of Social Dancing: Dance Floor Encounters and the Global Rise of Couple Dancing, c.1910–40</i>, ed. Klaus Nathaus and James Nott

Born-Again Boogie

This article examines the culture of California Christian nightclubs opened by evangelical entrepreneurs in the 1970s and ’80s. These venues were part of an effort to reclaim secular spaces and transform them into Christian copies of typical nightlife sites like bars and dance clubs. The nightclubs were designed to break the stereotype of religious spaces as anti-fun, offering a secular feel with dance floors and state-of-the-art sound systems. The article explores the rise of Christian nightclubs, the development and culture of these evangelical spaces, and the reasons for their failure to become a significant part of American nightlife. Despite the excitement of Christians at the opening of these venues across the United States, no real mass Christian nightlife movement developed. Although Christian nightclubs opened in various cities well into the twenty-first century, they survived only briefly as novelty creations. Because they were unprofitable, they failed to create a lasting Christian nightlife culture.

Gay men and extreme sexual practices in the era of chemsex and online digital dating platforms

Chemsex is a phenomenon in which, typically, gay men take very powerful and high-risk psychoactive drugs while having sex, often without a condom, otherwise known as bare backing. This frequently, but not exclusively, occurs in a group sex context in a residential or a commercial sex on premises establishment. This use of chemsex can lead to increased rates of HIV transmission, sexual and physical assault, a significant impact and corrosion of mental health and frequent occasions of fatality. Gay men are already a stigmatized group so those who engage in chemsex face multiple stigmas. Christopher Bollas’ seminal paper on Cruising in the Homosexual Arena 1993 (Bollas, 1993) was the inspiration for this article. This article attempts to provide a contemporary psychodynamic and group analytic understanding of the group and inter- and intra-psychic dynamics of more recent developments in gay male cruising practices at this later stage of the AIDS pandemic. The changes result from the demise of the gay male bar scene, its effective replacement with the availability of dating apps, the new digital hook up culture and the aggressive emergence of, for a small subgroup of gay men, the almost overnight replacement of the much less harmful dance floor drugs with extremely hazardous chemsex drugs such as crystal meth, mephedrone and GHB/GBL. Through a group analytic lens this article discusses the challenge of navigating the ungoverned spaces of the extreme and often very dangerous sexual practices in a small but significant subgroup of the modern gay male community.

Murder on the Dance Floor – The Danish Disco Cartel

Murder on the Dance Floor – The Danish Disco Cartel

I bet you don’t look good on the dance floor: Re-examining the innovation policy dance metaphor in the case of Colombia

Innovation heuristics offer guidance on how to navigate through the complex dynamics of innovation governance. However, further discussion is needed on the premises of such analytical tools to inquire on their implications on innovation policy and practice. This paper builds on the innovation policy dance metaphor to better grasp the ever-changing interplays (or dance) between innovation practice (I), policy (P) and theory (T). We critically assess the basic underlying assumptions of this metaphor, by examining the extent to which its heuristic pretensions are relevant in the Latin American context. To do so, we explore three illustrative cases in Colombia, shedding light on some crosscutting opportunities and gaps for the dancing metaphor across different innovation I-P-T situations. Some derived lessons suggest that dancing occurs within and/or between different governance levels, where variables such as politics shape the innovation I-P-T interplay and time defines first and second order learning pathways.

Relations of dance culture and social structure in a Moldavian rural community

The social structure of the Moldavian Csángó settlements and the social systems that form in the dance scenes significantly determine the possibility of participation in dance occasions and the formal and stylistic performance of dances. The gender, age, and marital status of community members, as well as the specific position of dancers and the relationship between them, are revealed in dance forms and practices of space use on the dance floor, individual dance construction, and dancers’ behaviour. Through the study of local dance cultures, a social structure is observable that is held together by gendered and generationally defined norms, rules, and obligations. This makes dancing a socially defined collective activity in rural communities in Moldavia, Romania. The aim of this study is to interpret the representational practices of age and social status in dance culture, which are constantly changing, through the example of dance events, especially weddings, in a single Moldavian Csángó village.

Sondheim at the disco

Songs from Stephen Sondheim’s musicals have occasionally left the theatre to circulate through popular culture – and, in some unusual instances, they have even made their way to the dance floor. This article examines three disco adaptations of Sondheim show tunes: ‘Send in the Clowns’ by Grace Jones, ‘The Ballad of Sweeney Todd’ by Gordon Grody and ‘Losing My Mind’ by Liza Minnelli. Informed by histories of queerness and cultural production, the author interprets these dance tracks as reflections of queer life in the 1970s and 1980s, from gay liberation and radically camp exuberance to the homophobic ‘disco sucks’ backlash and the devastation of AIDS. While casting a critical eye on the artistic merit of these cover versions, the article argues that taking Sondheim from the Broadway stage to the discotheque can create new understandings of the meaning and social significance of a great songwriter’s work.

Feasibility of Digital-based Flipbook Teaching Materials to Improve Learning Outcomes of Grade V Elementary School Students

Teaching materials are one of the important components in learning. The use of printed teaching materials does not contain complete material so that it makes the low learning outcomes of students. This study aims to analyze the feasibility of digital-based flipbook teaching materials for plate dance floor patterns as a solution to improve student learning outcomes. This research method is Research and Development (RnD) developed with the ADDIE model. The subjects of this study were material experts, digital teaching material experts, teachers and fifth grade students. The method used to collect research data through observation, interviews, and questionnaires were used to obtain assessment data from material experts, digital teaching material experts, students, and teacher responses. The data analysis techniques used are qualitative and quantitative data. The result showed thar the feasibility of digital-based flipbook teaching materials from material experts was 91,5% with a very feasibility category, while the result of the validation of digital teaching material experts were 95% with a very feasibility category. The results of this study indicate that digital-based flipbook teaching materials for plate dance floor patterns are suitable for use in learning dance in elementary schools.

The Concept of Habituation Learning in Developing Students' Talents, Interests, and Creativity in Dance Art Learning at Andhe-andhe Lumut Art Studio Kediri

The background of this research was that education in contemporary Indonesia used to emphasize academic abilities. Society used to consider the acquisition of grades in a subject and use it as a measure of success in learning. Additionally, the preservation of cultural heritage and the fundamental cultural data statistics in East Java used to be uneven. This research aimed to: 1) Analyze the concept of habituation learning; 2) Analyze the implementation of the habituation concept in developing talents, interests, and creativity. This research used a qualitative method by observing events that occurred in the field, noting what happened, analyzing documents found in the field, creating transcripts of field findings, and generating a detailed research report. The research was conducted at Andhe-andhe Lumut Art Studio Kediri, observing all the learning activities. Data sources for this research were informants, including studio trainers, studio owners, studio users, and studio students; places and events; relevant studio-related documents. Data were collected through observation, interviews, and documentation. The research resulted the following findings: 1) The concept of habituation was carried out in six stages: thinking, recording, repetition, storage, repetition again, habit; 2) Talent was supported by factors like navitis, empirical, convergence; 3) Interest was affected by factors like attention, pleasure, willingness; 4) Creativity was executed in four stages: preparation, incubation, illumination, confirmation, which encompassed the ability to create dance floor patterns, create movements, and produce new dance works

Dancing with Anthems, Godzilla and Laser Pointers: Performance as Protest in the Post-Umbrella Movement Era and the 2019 Anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill movement in Hong Kong

In this paper, I explore public performances in protest as a form of civic participation, especially for performances that aim to challenge and critique two controversial laws in Hong Kong, the Anthem Law and the Anti-Extradition Law. I focus on how arguments presented in the protest are performed in public, particularly on how participants make use of their voices and bodies in improvised and choreographed ways. I focus on two examples. The first is a series of “flash mob” events organized by the pro-democracy political party, Demosistō, who performed and parodied the national anthem, “March of the Volunteers”. The second example is a public assembly during the Anti-Extradition Law movement, where protestors used laser pointers to transform a protest space into a disco-like dance floor. I read these cases in dialogue with scholarship on performativity by Judith Butler, Richard Schechner, Jorge Cadena-Roa and Cristina Puga. I focus on how protestors navigate identity through performing with music in public space, where civic engagement manifests as bodily movements, sound and voices.

Machine learning reveals the waggle drift's role in the honey bee dance communication system.

The honey bee waggle dance is one of the most prominent examples of abstract communication among animals: successful foragers convey new resource locations to interested followers via characteristic "dance" movements in the nest, where dances advertise different locations on different overlapping subregions of the "dance floor." To this day, this spatial separation has not been described in detail, and it remains unknown how it affects the dance communication. Here, we evaluate long-term recordings of Apis mellifera foraging at natural and artificial food sites. Using machine learning, we detect and decode waggle dances, and we individually identify and track dancers and dance followers in the hive and at artificial feeders. We record more than a hundred thousand waggle phases, and thousands of dances and dance-following interactions to quantitatively describe the spatial separation of dances on the dance floor. We find that the separation of dancers increases throughout a dance and present a motion model based on a positional drift of the dancer between subsequent waggle phases that fits our observations. We show that this separation affects follower bees as well and results in them more likely following subsequent dances to similar food source locations, constituting a positive feedback loop. Our work provides evidence that the positional drift between subsequent waggle phases modulates the information that is available to dance followers, leading to an emergent optimization of the waggle dance communication system.

Low Stiffness Dance Flooring Increases Peak Ankle Plantar Flexor Muscle Activation During a Ballet Jump.

Research in court sports shows that factors which aid in extrinsic shock absorption, that is, flooring and footwear, can help reduce lower extremity injuries. However, since students and performers of ballet or most styles of contemporary dance cannot depend upon footwear, the only extrinsic factor to help them with shock absorption is flooring. We investigated whether doing sauté on a low stiffness dance floor produced a difference in EMG output of the vastus lateralis, gastrocnemius, of soleus compared to a high stiffness floor. Average and average peak amplitude EMG output from 18 dance students or active dancers performing 8 repetitions of sauté on a low stiffness floor (Harlequin® Woodspring) was compared to a maple hardwood floor on concreted subflooring. The data showed a significant increase in average peak EMG muscle amplitude during jumping on the low stiffness floor compared to a high stiffness floor for the soleus muscle (P = .033) and a trend for increase average peak output for the medial gastrocnemius (P = .088). The difference in average peak amplitude of EMG output is explained through the difference in force absorption between floors. With the high stiffness floor, more force of the landing was returned to the dancers' legs, but the low stiffness floor absorbed some of the force of landing the jump, and therefore muscles needed to contribute more to maintain the same jump height. The force absorption characteristic of the low stiffness floor may decrease injury rates in dance through causing an adjustment in muscle velocity. Rapid eccentric muscle activity carries the greatest possibility of musculotendinous injury and is experienced in lower body muscles controlling all joints during impact absorption, which includes landing of jumps in dance. If a surface can decelerate the landing of a high velocity dance movement, it also decreases the musculotendinous demand for high velocity tension generation.