Characteristics of Movement and Emotions Elicited by Two Different Kinds of Dance

As a kinetic bodily logos dance could be seen as a language communicating feelings and emotions thought movements. Recent studies focused on isolated body part to study the capacity of dance movements to transmit emotions to the audience. Use of space in classical ballet is characterized by “fluid” body movements with large, open segment motions and changes in velocity with jumps, rotations, and a general perceived “lightness of the body” both from the dancer and from the audience. We studied the audience feelings and emotions elicited by these two very different style, using a noise free method (motion analysis graph and animated stick figure). Many unexpected characteristics and emotions were elicited with particular reference to gender.