"It's Like Being On Stage": Conveying Dancers' Expressiveness Through A Haptic-Installed Contemporary Dance Performance

In dance performances, choreography, music and lighting are combined to convey meaning to the audience. However, this communication typically relies on visual and auditory stimuli alone. While haptic technologies have been leveraged to enhance the perception of dancers’ movements, less focus has been placed on exploring their potential in enhancing dancers’ somatic expressiveness. Through co-design activities with 5 professional contemporary dancers, we crafted an interdisciplinary combination of choreography and haptics. In total, 128 audience members watched one of three live performances while wearing custom-made haptic wristbands. From an open-ended questionnaire and interviews with audience members, we explore how the introduction of haptics deepens their embodied sensations and helps to create a sense of resonance with the dancers. Based on our findings, we discuss implications for future directions in how haptic technologies could drive innovation in dance performances from the point of view of both dancers’ creativity and audience experiences.