Exploring Why We are Moved by Watching Dance

 Dance is a dynamic, temporal and ephemeral experience. The viewer therefore has to watch and listen very carefully to ensure understanding as there is no second chance.

The audience and dancers experience a complex mix of related elements: choreographed rhythmic moving figures, costumes, props, sets, lighting, music, sound and smell. Each audience member and dancer also experience the collective audience’s response to the performance. Consequently, dance performances create a powerful emotional experience both for the dancers and the audience that can be profound to all.

I watch dance to escape from the real world and all its problems and worries. At its best, the amalgam of related elements of a dance transports me out of myself and focuses me entirely on the unfolding abstract or narrative performance. 

I am particularly drawn to dances that conjure a feeling of the surreal or other worldly.  Ethereal soundscapes and impactful lighting (e.g. strobe or chiaroscuro) in conjunction with abstract or narrative based choreography, particularly where it incorporates moments where multiple dancers strike strong sculptural poses, seem most likely to transport me out of myself. I become super focused on the unfolding performance and its multiple sources of stimulus. The real world shrinks or momentarily disappears when I am in this possibly sublime/ ecstatic state of mind.

Sublime and ecstatic concepts seem to overlap and entwine. The core connection lies in the shared goal of transporting the audience out of themselves. The sublime can trigger ecstasy by overwhelming a person’s ordinary cognitive and sensory capacities leading to a profound transport that momentarily displaces their usual self-awareness.

I am intrigued to learn more about how and why we react to dance performances. The emotional effects of music are well researched but research into how dance creates an emotional impact is still in its early stages.

Modern neuroscience suggests ecstatic experiences can involve activation of specific brain regions relating to introspection, memory and emotional processes, leading to blissful, altered states of consciousness and rapture. Viewing dance or art can trigger the release of dopamine, a neurotransmitter associated with pleasure and satisfaction leading to feelings of bliss and well-being.

Research has also shown that like music, watching dance can provoke visual imagery and personal memories in the viewer.

Other research has identified that when watching dance, the brain tracks movement sympathetically through the mirror neuron system and kinesthetic empathy, causing spectators to physically and emotionally simulate the dancers' movements. This "empathetic tracking" activates motor areas of the brain as if the viewer were moving, enhancing emotional connection and understanding.

There are three contemporary dances that I would put forward as perfect examples of this art form being transportive, sublime and ecstatic:

Firstly, Cruel Garden, co-designed and choreographed by Christopher Bruce and Lindsay Kemp is a narrative based dance that explores the murder of the surrealist poet Garcia Lorca at the hands of fascists in the 1930s.

The story is very dreamlike and surreal, heavy in metaphors and multi layered. The music plays a vital part in creating a dreamlike and sometimes terrifying atmosphere. It is also very fast paced, following the ideas of the ‘theatre of Cruelty’ where the audience is bombarded with powerful and shocking imagery to remove them from reality and become immersed in the conjured alternative reality.

A second example, also with a strong narrative content is Glen Tetley’s surreal masterpiece, Pierrot Lunaire. This explores the exploitation and humiliation of an innocent, naive character (Pierrot) by a worldly, and cruel couple. His harsh treatment and gradual maturing surprisingly leads to a reconciliation and levelling up with the couple. 

A tall scaffold is employed as Pierrot’s unearthly domain. His acrobatic poses on the scaffolding allow his naivety and awakening desire for Columbine to be clearly exhibited. Strong lighting emphasises the scaffold and movement of the characters. The music, Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire for voice and ensemble, is designed to reflect the dark, psychological, and sometimes violent nature of the surreal poetry that is spoken and sung in a soaring, harsh style. The choreography closely follows the music in its intensity and emotional changes and the synergy intensifies the performative experience.

My final example is abstract in design, Richard Alston’s ‘Strong Language’. It was created for Rambert Dance Company. The curtain opens with a male and female couple moving very slowly and supportively from one sculptural pose to another, initially against a rhythmic soundscape with a drone like background note and an oscillating synthesiser tone that segues into a percussive, repetitive mechanical sound. All the while the dancers, are very harshly lit from the wings, creating deep shadows to emphasise their sculptural shapes. The light sculpted shape of their bodies and the tenderness of their interactions was mesmerising and transporting.

All of these examples are decades old. With the development of technologies, choreographers have found new ways to engage the audience and create an immersive, enthralling experience:

Darshan Singh Buller’s ‘Exile and Death’ is study of the life of the painter Caravaggio. It is a strong example of the use of technology to create a confusing, immersive environment for the audience.  Audio visual projections replace stage sets. These projections can move the perspective of the stage creating giddiness and confusion. Further dramatic impact is created by the harsh lighting that causes chiaroscuro sculpting of the dancers, briefly composed into frozen replicas of Caravaggio’s most famous works.

Choreographer duo Morgann Runacre-Temple and Jessica Wright’s update on Coppélia for Scottish Ballet, describes Silicon Valley’s  hottest new inventor Dr Coppélius and his latest AI creation Coppélia.  The dance uses projected versions of the dancers that perform in perfect synchronisation with the cast members of stage. The action is also captured and projected by on-stage camera operators to give totally different viewpoints to what would previously have been possible, again adding to the immersive experience.

The choreographer, Wayne McGregor has for many years worked with digital technology to help design his dances. His 2026 exhibition Carbon Life at Somerset House was a fantastic exposition of the best technologies that can explore dance in new ways. Large immersive rooms and screens projected digital equivalents of dancers in endless loops, allowing the viewer to learn and interrogate the subtle movements of the dancers from which the digital imagery had been sourced.

It is highly likely that technology will continue to be woven into dance in the future. These are exciting times for dance enthusiasts!

Derek Corbett 28 April 2026