The Skill Of Affective Action And Its Applications In Dance Teaching

Dance is a form of visual performance art based on bodily actions and abundance in affects. With the pursuit of physical precision, perfection and sublimity, the teaching of basic dance(ballet) technique, or the daily dance class as it is more commonly known, have grew devoid of and detached from affects, thus the effects of training is undermined. Research and empirical studies based on psychological, especially affective instructional psychology is required to resolve this issue. Indeed, the injection of affective considerations into the training of physical dance technique in order to accentuate the artistic nature of dance has become an area of interest for psychology scholars. The author approaches this research from practical dance teaching, and proposes “the skill of affective action” as a core concept for studies based on theories of Psychology and Dance theories. Through a series of practical studies, the reserach explores the emotional expressiveness of dance actions, from which, processing of these ‘affective actions’ by the spectators are then examined. The validity and effectiveness of the skill of affective action are thus critically analyzed in four separate areas:Research one, theoretical introduction of the skill of affective action. Based on literary reviews in the contexts of philosophy, psychology and arts, the key concept of the skill of affective Action and a series relating concepts including affective action and image of affective Action are raised. Differentiations between affective and none affective action skills are made. The section identifies: affective action as a singular or series of physical action(s) luxuriant in certain emotion or affect; the skill of affective action as the activity in which affective action is applied within the parameters of arts; the image of affective action as the mental pictures of affective actions.Research two, creation of affective action model. Three separate but related studies are included in this research: In study 1, based on the three primary affectshappy, sad and angry, exemplary affective action vocabularies generated through dance actions(instead of the customary studies of affects in dormant) are explored and identified. The study indicates that happiness is translated into dance actions of avid and lively actions incorporating the whole body, leaping, turning and spinning; sadness is associated with slow action, tremors and convulsions; anger is represented through spiky and accentuated actions, stomping and walking in fast pace. Study 2 uses 3D motion capture technique to capture life demonstrations of these exemplary actions and transform them into virtual models. 15 short films of these models in action representing the 3 primary affects were procured. Study 3 is an examination of the effects in the identifications of still images and videos of the virtual models. The findings indicate that affect expressed by the affective action models are easily identifiable by observers.Research three, verification on the validity of the affective action model. Again, two separate but related studies: Study 1 is the verifications on the affective expressiveness of affective actions during dance through the monitoring of body temperature with MObIR M3 mobile infrared detector; The study uncovers that the highest temperature point in an affective action relating to sadness is in the lower chest, for anger, it is in the head and for happiness, it is in the upper chest. Study 2 tests the effectiveness of still images of the affective action models as a subliminal affect trigger, and examines the process of the subjects’ interpretation of affective actions. The study also confirms that still pictures of the affective action model are a significant subliminal affect trigger, and they are equally effective when applied to subjects of non-dance or dance professionals.Research four, application of the skill of affective action in dance teaching. The are two studies in this research: Study 1 is a verification of the effectiveness of short term teaching with stimulations through still pictures of affective action model; Study 2 examines the effectiveness of using music and breath patterning to induce scheme of affective action in long term teaching. Findings from both studies indicate that both strategies can significantly enhance the effectiveness in the affective expressiveness in dance teaching.