Effects of a Fragmented View of One’s Partner on Interpersonal Coordination in Dance

Abstract

In this study we investigated the effects of a mirror-mediated, partial view of one’s dance partner on interpersonal coordination in dance duets. Fourteen participant pairs (dyads) were asked to perform a reflectionally-symmetric eight-segment dance-relevant arm movement sequence in two visual conditions: with one dancer facing the mirror and providing a partial view on the dance partner, or both dancers facing back to back with, for both dancers, no view on one’s partner. During an eight-count beat-preparation phase, the task was paced via a metronome at three TEMPI; 1.6, 1.9, and 2.3 Hz, which was subsequently removed after which the movement sequence continued in silence. Interpersonal coordination was assessed using two tri-axial wireless accelerometers, one fixed to each dancer, that allowed the off-line kinematic analyses of dyad correlation, mean relative phase and mean standard deviation of relative phase of the up–down movements of (one of) the hands of the two dancers. In addition, two independent raters estimated the realized movement frequencies and percentage of the trial duration that the dancers moved in sync. Repeated measure ANOVAs revealed systematic effects of tempo on the performance measures, a positive effect of the use of the mirror on the coordination of the dancers’ movements but no facilitating effect of the mirror on the dancers’ synchronization. Overall, the results support the contention that when dancing to an internalized rhythmic beat the use of a mirror provides an ecological means to stabilize interpersonal coordination in dance duets without an effect on synchronization.

Interpersonal Coordination: Methods, Achievements, and Challenges

“…Despite the real possibility of being used simultaneously to study multiple factors impacting body coordination, accelerometers have typically been utilized to inquire into musical features that could affect the emergence of coordinated interpersonal movement patterns in natural and semi-natural contexts. Accelerometers have recently been utilized to study the coordination of people dancing together to the rhythm of music ( Ellamil et al, 2016 ; Lang et al, 2016 ; Tarr et al, 2016 ) or to the rhythm of a metronome ( Brown and Meulenbroek, 2016 ). For example, Ellamil et al (2016) investigated the influence of various musical features on group synchrony.…”

Social motor coordination during adult–child interactions

“…Early measurements of SMC, through the synchrony field, involved either intensive behavioral coding 26 or behavioral ratings 27 or explicitly manipulating study conditions to promote a narrow definition of synchrony, such as a dyad bouncing or swinging at the same time to a beat. 11,28 Mathematical applications to applied sciences now allow researchers to quantify SMC using both linear (cross-correlations) 5,22,[29][30][31] and nonlinear (i.e., coherence, relative phase, and cross-wavelet analyses) 1,2,6,32 approaches using a variety of different methods for capturing movement activity, including motion sensors, 9 accelerometers, 33,34 and musical instrument digital interface (MIDI)/audio recordings (e.g., to capture moments of contact during a drum hit). 15,35 SMC has also been measured through the timeseries analysis of movement obtained from the frame-difference method (FDM), 29,36,37 which measures the difference in luminance of grayscale pixels between consecutive video frames.…”

Sensing Technology for Assessing Motor Behavior in Ballet: A Systematic Review

“…One limitation of the research studies so far is concerning the elements involved in motor coordination of ballet movements. For instance, only one study has analyzed upper limb movements of classical ballet [51]. Despite accepting a higher relevance of the lower limbs in the performance of ballet movements, upper limbs may also have a significant contribution to increase balance and movement fluidity, as we have found that postural sway plays an important role in motor behavior of ballet movements [28,41,44,52,80,[92][93][94][95].…”