Week 10: Dance Flashcards
Duration
time b/w onset and offset of an event
dawg
vits
IOI (inter-onset interval)
time b/w onset of successive beats (or events of any kind)
Metric Rhythm vs Non-metric Rhythm
Metric Rhythm:
IOIs are related to one another as simple mathematical ratios
Ex: “Happy birthday” song
Non-metric Rhythm:
IOIs are NOT related to one another as simple mathematical ratios
Ex: speech rhythm
Limiting Case
Isochronous (“same time”) rhythm
All IOIs are equal
EX: metronome beat (ticking of a clock)
It is a 1-beat rhythm
Metrical hierarchy
Most rhythms contain multiple periodicities.
These tend to be nested into a hierarchy.
A metrical hierarchy with binary subdivisions of IOIs at each successive level
- Longest notes=longest IOIs
- Shortest notes=shortest IOIs
Sub-beats
If the longest note is the basic beat, the other note-types are sub-beats
Sub-beats are typically small-integer ratios of the beat: 2’s or 3’
Metrical structure is
generic, not music-specific.
Tactus
The level of the metrical hierarchy that you would tap
The tactus is the level of the hierarchy at which you are most likely to entrain (synchronize movements with that rhythm)
Metrical structure vs Metric entrainment
Metrical structure:
Walking
- Self-paced
Common in animals (birds flying up/down, horses galloping)
Metric entrainment:
Marching
- Entrained
Extremely rare in animals (mostly in humans through dance)
Most entrainment in animals is NON-metric
- When birds flying are not synchronized with wings up and then down all together
React vs Predict the beat
React to the beat:
- Beat trigger movement
Expect tapping to be AFTER the beat
Predict the beat:
- Internal model of beat (anticipation)
Expect tapping to be BEFORE the beat
When ppl tap their finger to a metronome beat, they tend to tap slightly BEFORE (10 milliseconds) the beat (predict the beat).
“React to the beat” model INCORRECT
Multiple sensory cues for entrainment
Acoustic –music, body percussion (clapping/stomping)
Visual –seeing your partner
Haptic –proprioceptive, somatosensory (pulling/pushing movement)
- Direct body contact –dance (from partner)
- Indirect contact via an object (moving furniture with someone)
Group dancing MAWA
Group dancing is unique to the human species
Group dancing is the most organismal aspect of human behaviour…a group of people moving as if with one body
Spatial Configurations
Geometrics as the building block of human interaction
Dyads (2 people): face to face OR side by side
Group configurations:
- Lines: side by side (Zumba class), front to back (marching, conga line)
- Circles: side by side (folk circle dancing, holding hands in a circle), front to back (native dancing, POW WOW)
Dance can be symbolic (MAWA)
Circle Dancing vs Couple Dancing
Circle dancing is very equal –same movement at same time
- Enclosing something inside circle (space in circle, normally dancing around something in the centre)
Couple dancing –men always the leader (gender inequalities)
Situations of body contact
Greeting –handshake, hug
Holding hands
Holding children
Therapeutic touch –massage, physiotherapy
Sex
Dance
Entrainment
Self-paced:
Non metric -most movements
Metric -walking
Mutual Entrainment:
Non metric -moving furniture w/ someone
Metric -rowing w/ a team
External Entrainment:
Metric -dancing to music
2 Types of entrainment
Mutual Entrainment:
Interactively generated rhythm: adaptive adjustments by the agents
“entraining with”
EX: moving furniture w/ someone
Both leading and following
Involves metric or non-metric rhythms
Widespread in animals
External Entrainment:
To a fixed timekeeper that is NOT adaptable
“entraining to”
EX: dancing to recorded music (music cannot adjust to you)
Pure “following” (no mutuality)
Generally involves metric rhythms
Rare in animals outside of humans
Metric entrainment is
an art-specific function
Movement synchrony stimulates prosocial behaviours
Coordinative roles
Leader:
Makes plans
Initiates actions
Navigates
Follower:
Responds to leader
Adjusts actions
Coequal
Evolution of Entrainment
So where did rhythm come from if not from music?
Mutual entrainment of body movement
Congo line in chimps
- Chimp at the back holding chimp at front (haptic channel)
- Entrainment occurs during bipedal locomotion in chimpanzees
“Dance” model of rhythm
Dance: Rhythm evolved as mutual entrainment
- 2 animals moving together
Music: Music inherited rhythm from dance
Rhythm occurred in context of dance, then music entered in
- Interpersonal: mutual entrainment
- Locomotor: intrinsic duple rhythm
- Multimodal: acoustic, visual, haptic
- Body percussion as an acoustic cue
Mutual Body Swag (MAWA)
Proto-dancing: Mutual body swag during conversational interaction
2 parallel systems for narrative
Dance:
The body
Pantomimic gestures
Music:
The voice
Spoken language
Narrative dance and mime theatre convey narratives using a gesture language based on iconicity.
