Pointes and pulses: How ballerinas embody stories through musical sensorimotor synchronization

This paper employs a literature study, video observation, and interviews with dancers to explore how classical ballet dancers interact and synchronize with musical rhythm in a solo dance to embody the narrative. The result suggests that dancer–music interaction is embedded within a complex dynamic system, in which the interplay between several processing layers, mechanisms, and multiple contexts is decisive. In these processes, dancers integrate the elements of ballet through mutual interactions with music and audience to embody a multimodal motoric narrative from the libretto, music, and choreography that differs from each one of those elements. Dancers typically synchronize their movements with the rhythm, emotionally interact with the melody, and empathetically interact with the overall sound of the music. Sensorimotor synchronization through various forms of beat induction is recognized as the primary form of interaction. These entrainments create spatiotemporal symmetries, corporeal articulation, and expressive gestures based on the physical and emotional attributes of the dancers. These processes can contribute to the narrative embodiment with the collaboration of the audiences through various emotional induction, metaphorical, and kinesemiotic mechanisms. Behind every symbolic motoric action of a dancer, there exist multiple contexts that the representations of dancers should be interpreted based on these contexts.