All in the hips: Study reveals how to own dancefloor

A new scientific study has revealed that dance moves with significant hip swing while moving legs and thighs independently are rated high on attractiveness.

Published in Scientific Reports, the study reveals very specific patterns of dance taken from analyzing the movements of 39 female dancers and coupled with the ratings of 200 people critiquing the performance.

Researchers at the University of Northumbria used motion-capture technology to record the movements, animating each dancer as an avatar, to make sure dance moves were the only rating factors, not appearance.

Some 57 men and 143 women then watched the animated performance and gave a rating of each performance.

When the results were tallied it seemed that sizeable hip swings and leg shimmies moving independently of each other not only made for an impressive performance, but also attributed to perceived fertility and high-quality motor control.

Speculating on the findings, lead researcher Dr. Nick Neave said: “One is, they’re showing off their reproductive quality, perhaps their hormonal status, to males, another is, they’re showing off how good they are to female rivals.”

This research follows from a study conducted by the Northumbria team in 2011 in which they found that: “Socially desirable personality traits, including extraversion, conscientiousness, and emotional stability, have been found to correspond positively to women’s ratings of men’s dance attractiveness."

"Traits related to risk-taking are attractive in male partners, and also seem to predict more attractive dance movements.”