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This is me walking in two different moods - one happy, the other sad. Can you tell which is which? What are the differences between the two gaits that enable you to decide? Here's the biomechanical analysis to help you...

The motor manifestation of emotion is a topic which has interested several researchers (see bibliography). Charles Darwin's famous book, The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals was perhaps the first systematic study. Later, the famous ballet choreographer, Rudolf Laban, devised a system of notation (Labanotation - still used in dance today) in which he tried to represent not only the basic mechanics of a movement, but also what he called the effort-shape. By this he meant the "style" or psychological purpose behind the movement.

Effort-shape Labanotation

Using three of these dimensions, Laban defined 8 types of effort-shape, with the fourth, Control, making it either controlled (bound) or fluent. Each dimension can also be stressed, giving rise to further subtlety:
 

Exertion	Space	Time	Effort-shape (and with exertion, space or time stressed)
Light	Direct	Sustained	Gliding  (smoothing, smearing, smudging)
		Quick	Dabbing  (patting, tapping, shaking)
	Flexible	Sustained	Floating (strewing, stirring, stroking)
		Quick	Flicking  (flipping, flapping, jerking)
Strong	Direct	Sustained	Pressing  (crushing, cutting, squeezing)
		Quick	Punching  (thrusting, poking, pressing)
	Flexible	Sustained	Wringing  (pulling, plucking, stretching)
		Quick	Slashing  (beating, throwing, whipping)

These principles were used during the 2nd World War in the Laban-Lawrence Industrial Rhythm, which was applied to selection, training, and investigation of work processes in order to maximise efficiency in British factories. Some attempt was even made to experimentally validate them against EMG (Bernstein, 1972), and its an interesting exercise to try to assign a kinematic or kinetic variable to each dimension: e.g. Time is clearly related to velocity; Space to displacement; Exertion to force.

The relationship of these quantities to emotion was noticed by Laban, and later applied to child development (Kestenberg, 1967), and dance therapy for psychiatric disorders (Bernstein, 1984). If you try performing them, you will probably notice that you feel a different emotion with each effort-shape, and of course this the very basis of dance as a communicative art-form. Indeed, a person's gait tells us something about their character and mood (Cutting, 1978).

Questions

• Draw an effort-shape diagram for sad and happy gait
• What are the main differences?
• Do you think this offers any useful insights or practical applications?
• How could 3D motion analysis be used to determine the effort-shape of a subject?
• Do you think there is any effect of motion on emotion?

Bibliography

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Bornstein MH & Bornstein HG (1976) The pace of life. Nature 259: 557-558.

Barclay CD, Cutting JE, Kozlowski LT (1998) Temporal & spatial factors in gait perception that influence gender recognition. Perception & Psychophysics 23(2): 145-152

Bartenieff I (1965) Effort, Observation and Effort Assessment in Rehabilitation. New York, Dance Notation Bureau.

Bechinie M Breaking up romantic relationships, Behavioural cues from the dark side of love

Bernstein P & Cafarelli E (1972) An Electromyographical Validation of the Effort System of Notation. American Dance Therapy Assn. No 2: 78-92.

Bernstein PL (1984)  Theoretical Approaches in Dance/Movement Therapy, Kendall/Hunt, Iowa.

Cutting JE & Kozlowski LT (1977) Recognizing friends by their walk: gait perception without familiarity cues. Bull. of Psychonomic Soc. 9: 353-356.

Cutting JE (1978) Generation of synthetic male and female walkers through manipulation of a biomechanical variant. Perception 7: 393-405.

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