The short: I'm looking into why it's nice to watch or be part of. The long: I've been looking at ballet in particular. But in all dance, there are people in the same outfits, performing the same movements. One thing I think about them is that by all their most visual characteristics being repeated, they become a sort of archetype - a type of person or each of them not quite a whole person, just several characteristics rather than a particular character. The more of them there are sharing characteristics, the less individual they are. To me that puts them in an interesting place between the physical world and the psychic world: it almost makes them less real and more dream-like, though you're physically watching them. Less whole in a way, but also more whole, because they represent something visible in many people. But I've also read about coordinated rhythmic interaction encouraging prosocial behaviour. One study of four-year-olds found dancing and singing to have a significant effect on their following interactions, in the forms of empathy and cooperation. Somewhere else I found someone suggesting that even if you're not physically moving but are observing drill or dance, or even a 2D representation of these (or clearly repeated motifs, similar expressions or positions etc, rather than direct and specific repetitions), the image triggers a "similar pack-response as your eyes move around the image and pick up the rhythmic movements and register them on you." Any thoughts people have on any of this would help me and be of interest, but in particular, I was wondering if anyone knows any psychological/medical names or explanations for this "pack-response" that I could research. Sorry I made that so long. Thanks for any help. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Looking into Pierre Dulaine's work may give you some ideas: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Dulaine
