Learning and Synchronising Dance Movements in South African Songs – Cross-cultural Motion-capture Study
Authors: Tommi Himberg , Marc R. Thompson 
Published: July 2014

Music and dance are human universals. Understanding the communicative nature and the interpersonal dynamics of making music and dancing has a wide area of applications from academic to artistic, educational and therapeutic uses. Cross-cultural and embodied cognitive approaches are important, as they ensure a view across a spectrum of cultural practices and allow us to explore which aspects of cognitive performance are learned and how.

In this study, our aims were to use a case study to investigate possible cross-cultural differences in movement, especially corporeal representation of beat and metre; to study group entrainment and factors contributing to synchronisation accuracy. From earlier studies in various fields of behavioural and brain imaging research (perception and attention, music performance, action observation network in the brain etc.) we expected that experts would be more coherent and better entrained, or mutually synchronised to each other, but we were interested in the temporal dynamics of entrainment in a group and the details of these differences.

In our study, a choir from South Africa and a group of Finnish choir singers were brought together for a two-day workshop. Songs with choreographed dance movements from various cultures in southern Africa (e.g. Zulu, Sotho and Xhosa) were taught to Finnish participants, and a simple dance choreography was made for a Finnish song that was taught by the Finnish participants. Video, audio and movement data were recorded over a number of performances and practice sessions. Several participants were interviewed informally during the course of the workshop. In this study we analyse two recordings of performances, one of the African and the Finnish song-and-dance.

As expected, the analysis showed differences in embodiment of rhythm and synchronisation between the novices and experts. The novices were very focused on footsteps and their whole body was entrained to just the beat-level of the metrical hierarchy. The experts, however, demonstrated entrainment to multiple metrical levels, with different parts of their bodies. Analysis of the temporal dynamics of the interpersonal relationships within each group revealed a process of continuous, mutual adaptation to achieve accurate entrainment. Investigation of group entrainment and individual deviations from the mean phase revealed roles of leaders and followers and illustrated differences in beat-by-beat synchrony and coordination of larger structures, including bars, phrases and the whole song.

The findings demonstrate how making music and dancing in a group is an enlightening example of joint action and that dynamics of interpersonal coordination can be studied in a relatively naturalistic setting. Mimicry, mirroring, shared intentions and intersubjectivity, with all their emotional consequences can be experienced, observed and to some degree manipulated and studied in these settings. Our rich data set of natural musical behaviour are intended to help to direct the stricter, experimental research designs on this matter, as well as inform especially multi-cultural educationalists about learning patterns of rhythmic dance movements.