Moving Voices

— Music has the power to moves us in unexpected ways —

Categories: research

I am fascinated by
the way movement (the body) and music (sound) are deeply and intimately connected

According to neuroscientists, music has the ability to evoke at least 13 different emotions. Although they don't know exactly why or how music has this powerful neurological effect on our emotions, a study at the Hanover University of Music and Drama identified specific compositional elements in music that produce inter-individual changes in subjective feelings and physiological arousal. This is the starting point for the research "Moving Voices.

How can we as dancers, choreographers, movement composers create the same emotional impact through our work?

How can we use what we know about music to create a dance piece that has that physical effect on the audience?

The research "Moving Voices" takes an interdisciplinary approach which includes both theoretical studies as well as practical research with music and movement.

I studied various relevant literature such as "This is your Brain on Music" by Daniel J. Leventin, "What are Aesthetic Emotions?" published in the Psychological Review, (2019, Vol 126, no. 2) of the American Psychological Association and "The Scientific Method for Emotional Induction - Alba Emoting" by Susana Bloch, among others.

To explore this through music/movement, I carried out somatic listening exercises, played with different musical composition elements with my voice and observed the unique resonance in my body/movement and explored the musicality of different emotions through movements (rhythm, accents, duration). The intention was to find which movement evokes an abstract expression of different emotions as well as has the ability to move the viewer the same way a musical composition moves the listener.

It was supported by Fonds Darstellende Künste with funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media within the program NEUSTART KULTUR.