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Unlike ballet, contemporary dance is not necessarily intuitively ‘understood’ by the general public. So, which factors influence whether audiences enjoy a contemporary dance performance? An interdisciplinary research team led by the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics (MPIEA) in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, investigated what people like about contemporary dance using live performances. They found that both objective and subjective factors play a role. The study results were recently published in the journal Cognition.
The performances were watched by around 40 spectators on-site at the MPIEA, the same number followed online via live stream. The audience was presented with six performances of the same choreography: on two occasions, a dancer from the Staatstheater Kassel performed live on stage, on two occasions, an avatar of the dancer was displayed on a screen, and on two occasions, a pre-recorded video sequence featuring the same dancer was shown. After each performance sequence, the audience was asked to complete a questionnaire evaluating what they had seen.
The results show that audience enjoyment of a dance performance depended to a large extent on how expressively the dancer performed. Expressive dance sequences were enjoyed significantly more by the audience than less expressive ones. Since the dancer wore a motion capture suit during the performance, the research team could track his movements and measure his acceleration and speed objectively.
“Previously, expressiveness of dance movements has only been assessed objectively in laboratory-based settings,” explains Fredrik Ullén, co-senior author of the study and Director at the MPIEA. “Using these kinematic characteristics, we could objectively distinguish expressive dance movements from non-expressive ones for the first time in a genuine live dance performance setting, rather than relying solely on the dancer’s and audience’s subjective assessments.”
Moreover, subjective factors such as age, personality, gender, and education also influenced the evaluation. Women generally liked the performances more than men did. Additionally, participants’ interest increased with age. The variable ‘education’ yielded an unexpected result: the higher the educational level of the audience members, the lower their interest. The personality trait ‘openness’ also influenced the evaluation: the more open and sensitive the participants were, the greater their interest in attending such a performance again.
“Our results suggest that expressivity is one factor behind why people like watching contemporary dance. However, the complex interplay between performance features and who the audience is, clearly means that there will never be a one-size-fits-all formula for dance performances that engage and delight all viewers equally,” summarizes first author Julia F. Christensen of the MPIEA. “It depends on who is expressing, what they are expressing with their dancing, and who is receiving this expression. But that’s maybe also the beauty of it all.”
Additionally, the objective factors of the theatrical setting also influenced the experience, with the audience liking the live performances significantly better than the pre-recorded dance videos. Similarly, the audience clearly preferred the human dance performance to that of the avatar. However, there was no significant difference between live and streamed presentations. Contrary to the original assumption, the online audience enjoyed the performances as much as the in-person audience.
While these findings cannot be applied to all dance performances, they suggest that individual differences also play a decisive role in the audience’s aesthetic experience, in addition to the objective factors of the theatrical setting. Previous involvement in dance and artistic education are particularly important factors to consider here.
Co-senior author Emily Cross from ETH Zurich in Switzerland concludes: “This could mean that cultivating a theater audience familiar with this type of dance expression from an early age could help fill tomorrow’s theater seats. Choreographers and dance companies that engage with audiences by inviting the public to rehearsals and dance matinees are acting accordingly. The study’s findings indicate that it would be worthwhile to expand such theater outreach programs.”
Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics
Dr. Julia F. Christensen
julia.christensen@ae.mpg.de
Christensen, J. F., Schmidt, E.-M., Frieler, K., Smith-Chase, R. A., Sancho-Escanero, L., Michalareas, G., Ullén, F., & Cross, E. S. (2025). Aesthetic Appeal of Dance Actions Depends on Expressivity, Liveness and Audience Characteristics. Cognition, 263, 106152. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2025.106152
Dancer Vincenzo Minervini presented the audience with a choreographically consistent performance in ...
Photo: F. Bernoully
(MPI for Empirical Aesthetics / F. Bernoully)
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Dancer Vincenzo Minervini presented the audience with a choreographically consistent performance in ...
Photo: F. Bernoully
(MPI for Empirical Aesthetics / F. Bernoully)
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