Abstract
This study looks at the Japanese dance form, Butoh, and examines subjects’ similarity ratings of ten affects to see whether they form a circumplex structure. Naïve western viewers observed pairwise presentation of 15 second movie clips of dance segments devised to convey different affects. For each possible pairing of the ten affects observers provided a rating of dissimilarity of the dance movements. These dissimilarity ratings were analyzed using the Proxscal algorithm for multidimensional scaling. The results suggest a circumplex structure, with two dimensions that correspond to activation and valence. The cues which may aid recovery of activation and valence from movement are discussed.
