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Licensed Unlicensed Requires Authentication Published by De Gruyter Mouton August 15, 2022

Watching and feeling ballet: neuroscience and semiotics of bodily movement

  • Sergei Kruk ORCID logo EMAIL logo
From the journal Semiotica

Abstract

Neuroscience has established several brain pathways that process visual information. Distinct neural circuits analyze body appearance and movement providing information about the person’s cognitive and emotional states. The activity of the pathways depends on the salience of visual stimuli for the organism in the given circumstances. Since ballet performances are not among the crucial events for the viewer’s organism, not all viewers perceive and interpret bodily signs that express the mental state of the dancer. Treatment of the dancer as close other activates the neural circuits that elaborate emotions, this enables the viewer to feel the internal state of the dancer and enrich the interpretation of the scenic action.


Corresponding author: Sergei Kruk, Riga Stradins University, Riga, Latvia, E-mail:

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Received: 2022-06-18
Accepted: 2022-07-22
Published Online: 2022-08-15
Published in Print: 2022-09-27

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