For too long, the arts and sciences have existed in isolation. To bridge this gap, interdisciplinary research ought to be embraced. Dance, in particular, offers a unique avenue for researchers interested in the intricate connections between cognition, embodiment, and movement expertise. New methodologies in neuroscience have allowed this brain-body connection to be further explored. This review examines the existing literature on exactly how the brain coordinates with the body to produce embodied, aesthetic movement, in addition to the neural mechanisms of how people subjectively process and perceive dance. This emerging field is called “neuroaesthetics,” and aims to explore the neural underpinnings of aesthetic experience, perception, and judgment. The human action-observation network, which underlies our ability to understand and imitate other’s movements, is a key element of this, and is starkly influenced by one’s movement expertise. In the following literature review, I aim to closely examine the published works in neuroscience-dance research, in pursuit of a deeper understanding of the complexities of the dancing brain.
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