There is a growing body of knowledge about movement behavior (as it is variously called--kinesics, nonverbal communciation, expressive movement, body language, etc.). Increasingly anthropologists, psychologists, researchers in child development, etc. are attending to body movement. One could argue that although this is still a relatively underdeveloped area of research and that studies we have now will probably be rendered quite obsolete in five years, there is enough of a picture of what can be done and may be discovered to talk about it as a field in its own right. Further, one could argue that the preliminary research techinques and findings of movement research may, even at this point, be useful and relevant to research in dance. As an introduction to the topic a survey of some of the most important behavioral studies of body movement will be presented, followed by a discussion of a dance film and then implications of a practical, methodological, empirical, and theoretical nature that may be of interest to dance researchers.

For purposes of discussion, this survey is divided into three parts according to those studies which deal with (1) movement and expression of emotions, (2) movement style (from individual to cultural), and (3) movement in interaction.

It seems that the most common assumption about body movement is that it reveals inner emotions or attitudes. Darwin first made this idea the subject of serious scientific study in 1872 when he published The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals.

The employment of the scientific process to gain additional insight into a particular problem beyond the ordinary inquiry of the problem is commonly referred to as research. In fact, the term research can be substituted for scientific process. In general, research differs from other scholarly activities in regard to the methods and procedures under which the problem is studied and analyzed. Research further aims to enlarge the fields of knowlege already in existence. The researcher identifies a problem or an issue within his/her field of interest and then systematically undertakes to answer specific questions or hypotheses concerning the problem.

The scientific problem under consideration by the researcher must be a significant, well-defined problem as well as one that the researcher is totally involved in answering. This is a most important aspect of the research process because the identification and the statement of the problem directs all of the later activities of the inquiry. The statement of the problem is a roadmap of the territory under consideration.

Once the statement of the problem has been identified in clear, percise terms the researcher moves into the second phase of the research process, namely the proposal of the hypothesis or hypotheses. An hypothesis is a guess that the researcher makes about the problem and it provides a basis for the research, therefore it is a vital aspect of the entire study regardless of the type of research being undertaken. A hypothesis is generally a statement of expected relationships among the variables. Whether the hypothesis is accepted or rejected should not be the prime objective of the researcher. Statistically significant results are not necessary to add knowledge to our existing knowledge; statistically insignificant results also add to our knowledge. The hypothesis may be viewed as an “if … then …” type of relationship. If certain conditions prevail, then certain other things will result.

The week-end conference on “Research in Movement” convened August 10-12, 1973, at Nonington College, near Dover, Kent, England. Five lectures beginning with an evening session on Friday, August 10, featured the paper on “Ergonomics,” by.Dr. Nigel Corbett (Industrial Engineer, Birmingham University), which was read and discussed by Mr. S. Madeley. He oriented the assembled movement researchers to the fact that “measurement of motion” is of particular concern to physiologists and scientists since the World War II demanded immediate practical solutions (how to survive in a jungle, speed and weightlessness in flying, etc.). Now it is vital that the job be fitted and programmed to the worker. He cited research by Alberg (1968) on tests and models of tasks (52 experiments); by Spitzer & Hethinger (1970) on static work involving large body movement and force factors; by Laban (1950) as utilized in Britain by Paddy McMasters who analyzed filmed worktasks.

The research at Birmingham University focused on three types of actions: weight, breath, reaction-time factors for which examples were set-up each with four tasks for eight different people. The pilot studies are continuing and yielding results, corroborating that movement actions can be successfully measured.

On Saturday, August 11, the next three lectures enthralled everyone. The Principal of Nonington College, Miss Ellinor Hinks, spoke on ”Educational Gymnastics”. Her invention of special equipment created and designed for the exploration of total body movement techniques, conceived and housed in a unique space-gymnasium, is highly effective in training young people who concentrate and inventively achieve far more than pure motor skills. Two films of her work “Movement in the Making, I & II”, demonstrated her new method. As films, they superbly illustrate the physical potentialities of movement with this new type of apparatus (the films can be rented or purchased).

ICAES provides an opportunity for anthropologists from throughout the world to assemble every five years. This year, a number of pre-congress conferences were organized to provide settings for intensive interaction among small groups of specialists preparatory to the general Congress sessions. The report I was asked to present to the general ICAES section drew heavily upon discussions by pre-Congress participants in dance, music, oral literature, and visual arts, as well as comments at other contemporaneous formal and informal meetings with dance anthropologists (including two active CORD members, Joann Kealiinohomoku and Anya P. Royce) and two participants from the 1972 CORD conference on Dance and Anthropology (Alan P. Merriam and Beryl Bellman). The report was, of course, also shaped by my own perspectives on the anthropological study of dance. The paragraphs which follow include what is essentially an abstract of my report to the Congress.

The importance of dance as a phenomenon for anthropological study derives from its near universality, its possible biological and evolutionary significance as innate behavior with survival value (Norbeck, ICAES 1973, Blacking, ICAES 1973), its stylistic endurance, episodic nature which is in some sense repeated by other actors, malleability, apparent record in antiquity, interrelation with other behavioral phenomena, accessibility to empirical observation and film recording (Collier 1967, Sorenson 1967, Prost, ICAES 1973, Sorenson and Jablonko, ICAES 1973) and relative lack of systematic study by any of the social science disciplines (see Royce 1973 and Merriam 1973 on approaches to the study of dance). Dance as recurring human behavior thus constitutes a legitimate cultural field of inquiry.

Because of the expressed interest of more than 35 particpants of the IX International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences, this 1970 ethnic dance research guide with 1973 revisions is being reprinted here.

Analyst's definition of dance: purposefuly, intentionally rhythmical, and culturally patterned sequence of non-verbal body movement and gesture which are not ordinary motor activities, the motion having inherent value.