Human body as the medium in dance movement

To clarify mechanisms involved in the human recognition of body-mediated information, this study examines what kinds of impressions and emotions are perceived from body movements in dance. The study attempted to develop multiple regression models to investigate the effects of physical movement factors on impressions and emotions. The regression analyses show that people perceive emotional information from the body-mediated information, even without facial expressions. Those results suggest that the body does not only have an additional or secondary function, but also plays an important role as independent media in human communications. Emotions are actually expressed and impressed, that is, communicated through the human body as the medium.