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  • Electronic dance music (EDM) and contemporary dance performance: a somaesthetic investigation of choreomusical aesthetics and audience felt experience
    (2024) Gilley, Alexandra
    Thesis
    The increased application of electronic dance music (EDM) in contemporary dance performance gives reason to question the interaction of both artforms and the effects of their fusion on the observer. The two artforms undeniably trigger sensorial responses in spectators, yet little scholarly attention has been given to an analysis of their shared affective characteristics and their potential implications on the viewer. In the field of music psychology, there is an abundance of research on the movement-compelling qualities of EDM and its resulting physiological, physical, and emotional response on the listeners’ mind-body (Becker, 2004; Butler, 2006; Wiltsher, 2016; Solberg et al., 2019; Garcia, 2020). Such responses include the desire to engage in movement improvisation or ‘groove,’ and reach a resulting state of euphoria or transcendence, responses that also appear in contemporary dance improvisation practice. Similarly, in dance spectatorship, the physiological, physical and emotional transference between the mover and observer is conceptualised through kinaesthetic empathy (Martin, 1932; Reason & Reynolds, 2010; Foster, 2011). By addressing their defining stylistic qualities and tracing the ways in which spectators physically and psychophysiologically respond to both artforms, this thesis aims to make apparent their comparable responses in observers, and further support that their unification augments intense aesthetic appreciation. Utilising choreomusicology as a music-movement research tool and somaesthetics (Shusterman, 2008) as a disciplinary framework, this thesis analyses contemporary dance performance works in the field with the intention to develop a more comprehensive understanding of the experience, perception and role of the body in relation to contemporary dance spectatorship and practices.