ABSTRACT
Dance can be appreciated from all sorts of perspective. This chapter considers what it takes to appreciate dance from the perspective of a seated, non-moving audience member. A dance appreciator in this position is typically someone who can hear and see, who can feel vibrations of sound through their skin, and who can have other human, kinaesthetic responses and perceptions as well as the cognitive ability to process them. This appreciator is also someone who is a person with a history that may or may not include experiences of dance that have conditioned his or her responses to watching dance. Based on both this experience, and the skill and capacity to focus, pay attention, make judgments, and convey those judgments, there are different types and levels of audience appreciation. The chapter presents three types of audience appreciation. There are Innocent Eye Appreciation, Dance-Trained Appreciation and Critical Appreciation.
