The romantic ballet and its critics: dance goes public

Summary and Initial Exploration of Barbara Gail Montero's Article "The Artist as Critic: Dance Training, Neuroscience, and Aesthetic Evaluation"

“…In addition, these neural activities that are active in the premotor region of the cerebral cortex cause "motor synchronization", also known as human mirror systems, action observation networks, and action resonance circuits. When these systems are more active in the subject's brain, we can understand that the subject's action perception is enhanced (Ruprecht, 2007). In one study, researchers also found that when male and female ballet dancers watched movements that matched their gender, the motor areas of their brains were more active than when watching movements of the opposite gender.…”

“…Similar to the research approach used in Calvo-Merino, Nigmatullina used the magnetic resonance imaging technique (MRI) to measure differences in brain structure between dancers and kayakers and found selective reductions in grey mass in the cerebellum associated with dance training but related to vestibular task performance and time of dance training (Nannicelli, 2020). In other words, the increase in brain grey matter density is positively correlated with perceptual capacity and negatively correlated with reflex adaptability (Ruprecht, 2007). Therefore, the symbolic influence of dance training on brain structure is related to the stimulation and experience of various complex factors such as space (vision), body movement (kinesthesis), and muscle work (proprioception) (Wu, 2017).…”