Dance Moves Reflect Current Affective State Illustrative of Approach-Avoidance Motivation

Music and dance fundamentally relate to both emotions and movement, yet little is known about how emotionality shapes the way people move to music. We investigated how individually experienced affective states, indicative of the broader approach-avoidance orientation, were reflected in dance movements to music. Sixty young adults completed the Positive Affect Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) and danced to 30 music excerpts while their movements were tracked with an optical motion capture system. A number of postural and kinematic features were extracted from the movement data. Positive affect indicative of approach motivation was found to relate to higher velocity of movement in the hands and head, as well as to a spread-out posture of the hands. Moreover, positive affect also correlated with higher dimensionality of movement, indicating a connection to more complex and variable dance moves. None of the connections between negative affect and movement features were significant, but the trend was consistently opposite to the findings for positive affect. Hence, the results suggest a connection between fast, spread-out and complex movement patterns and self-reported positive affect reflective of general approach motivation in behavior. The study enhances our understanding of the ways in which emotionality shapes our nonverbal behavior, and offers novel viewpoints to music and dance as means for emotional self-expression.