A Study on the Supporting Role of Musical Receptivity and Rhythm Perception in Dancers' Stage Expressiveness
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.70088/brgvh895Keywords:
musical receptivity, rhythm perception, dance expressiveness, embodied cognitionAbstract
This study investigates how musical receptivity and rhythm perception function as foundational cognitive-affective capacities that directly support stage expressiveness in trained dancers. Rather than treating music as mere accompaniment, the research conceptualizes auditory processing as an embodied perceptual scaffold—integral to kinesthetic intentionality, timing precision, and expressive nuance. A cohort of 96 professional and pre-professional dancers participated in a controlled multimodal assessment protocol comprising standardized auditory discrimination tasks, real-time movement synchronization challenges, and expert-rated expressive performance evaluations under varied musical conditions. Results demonstrate statistically robust correlations between fine-grained rhythm perception thresholds and qualitative markers of expressive fluency—including dynamic phrasing, gestural coherence, and emotional resonance—as independently assessed by three certified movement analysts. Musical receptivity, defined here as the capacity to register and retain structural, timbral, and affective dimensions of sound without verbal mediation, emerged as a stronger predictor of expressive authenticity than technical proficiency alone. Crucially, deficits in rhythmic entrainment were consistently associated with fragmented phrasing and diminished kinaesthetic continuity, even among dancers with high motor control. The findings challenge conventional pedagogical hierarchies that prioritize physical execution over auditory-cognitive integration. Instead, they affirm that stage expressiveness is not merely performed but co-constituted through real-time dialogue between auditory perception and somatic response. This reframing carries implications for dancer training, artistic direction, and interdisciplinary models of embodied cognition.References
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