Knowing dance or knowing how to dance? sources of expertise in aesthetic appreciation of human movement

In creating dance performances, performers and choreographers often engage in a prolonged and highly collaborative artistic process. Whereas some studies show that knowing how to perform a movement correlates positively with aesthetic preference, other studies suggest that novel and complex movements outside of the motor repertoire of the observer are actually preferred to known movements. The movement message can be described in terms of its visual features, its action features and its social features. One important constraint of communicating this information is the spectator’s expertise with the movement that is being watched. The aesthetic appreciation of a dance performance will depend on the spectator’s conceptual expertise, his/her knowledge about dance making and its cultural history. The findings are in line with the notion of dance as an intrinsically social art form that involves direct communication between a spectator and a performer via movement.