Synchronization and Coordination of Art Performances in Highly Competitive Contexts: Battle Scenes of Expert Breakdancers

Abstract

In the performing arts, such as music and dance performances, people actively interact with each other and show their exciting performances. Some studies have proposed that this interaction is a social origin of the performing arts. Some have further investigated this phenomenon based on the synchronization and coordination theory. Though the majority of these studies have focused on the collaborative context, several genres of the performing arts, such as jazz sessions and breakdance battles, have a competitive context. Several studies have suggested that, in this competitive context, performers actively interact with each other and construct some correspondence. Moreover, a few recent studies focusing on competitive conversations, such as debates, have shown that, compared to people's interactions in collaborative conversations, people in competitive contexts frequently coordinate their behaviors in complicated ways. However, the interaction and coordination among performers in these competitive contexts have not been sufficiently investigated. Therefore, we investigated the coordination of expert breakdancers in battle scenes and measured their rhythmic movements using a motion capture system. We calculated the relative phase of the rhythmic movements between two dancers to investigate their coordination. The results showed that the dancers' rhythmic movements tended to synchronize in an anti-phase fashion, which means that there were similarities as well as differences between the two dancers' rhythmic movements. Furthermore, this pattern of coordination changed dynamically as time elapsed, from an in-phase synchronization or leader-follower relationships to an anti-phase synchronization and then leader-follower relationships.

Keywords: breakdance; competitive context; interpersonal coordination; performing arts; relative phase; synchronization.

Figure 1

(A) Outline of the battle scene. Two dancers faced each other and showed their performances in turn. (B) Picture of the battle scene. One dancer showed his performance, and another dancer watched and responded to his performance. (C) Body plane. The red circle indicates the marker position, and the red arrow indicates the movement direction we analyzed.

Figure 2

Normalization procedures and the representative examples of raw data (Whole turns) and spectrum analysis (Turn 1) of individual-level rhythmic movement data.

Figure 3

Procedures of calculating the relative phase of the two dancers' rhythmic movements. We made this explanation by referring to Kijima et al. (2012) and Okumura et al. (2012).

Figure 4

(A) Several examples of the relative phases in the Real pair condition. The spaces colored in blue show the time when both dancers did not show their performances (P1, P8), those colored by red show the performance time of the first dancer (P2, P4, P6), and those colored by green show the performance time of the second dancer (P3, P5, P7). (B) Several examples of the relative phases in the Virtual pair condition. (C) Frequencies of each relative phase of the dancers' rhythmic movements in the Real pair condition and the Virtual pair condition. Vertical lines at each plot indicate standard error. Asterisk and cross indicate the relative phases whose frequencies show significant differences with that at −180–−160 degrees and 160–180 degrees in the Real pair condition (*: p < 0.05 with −180–−160 degrees, +: p < 0.05 with 160–180 degrees).

Figure 5

Frequencies of the relative phase of the dancers' rhythmic movements in each turn. Vertical lines at each plot indicate standard error. Asterisk and cross indicate the relative phases whose frequencies show significant differences with that at −20–0 degrees and 0–20 degrees in Turn 1 and Turn 4 (*: p < 0.05 with −20–0 degrees, +: p < 0.05 with 0–20 degrees) and −180–−160 degrees and 160–180 degrees in Turn 2 and Turn 3 (*: p < 0.05 with −180–−160 degrees, +: p < 0.05 with 160–180 degrees).