How to Impress Women with Dance Moves, Using Science

A team of British and German researchers have turned the wondrous eye of science towards a most perplexing problem: What dance moves do women like? Their conclusions, based on a small study:

[E]ight movement variables made the difference between a “good” and a “bad” dancer. These were the size of movement of the neck, trunk, left shoulder and wrist, the variability of movement size of the neck, trunk and left wrist, and the speed of movement of the right knee.  The analysis was concentrated on three body regions: legs including the ankle, hip and knee, the arms with shoulder, elbow and wrist, and the central body with neck and trunk.

The study found that female perceptions of good dance quality were influenced most greatly by large and varied movements involving the neck and trunk. The speed of the right knee movements were also important in signaling dance quality. A “good” dancer thus displays larger and more variable movements in relation to bending and twisting movements of their head/neck and torso, and faster bending and twisting movements of their right knee,” the researchers said in a report published in the Royal Society Journal Biology Letters.

So: Just keep track of all of those things and perform them simultaneously. Easy, right? To sum things up more simply, the researchers said that variety is the key to avoiding “dad dancing.”

Below, the computer-generated avatars the researchers made to demonstrate good and bad dancing:

Good dancing!

Bad dancing!

(Reuters via Discoblog)