The Origins of Dance: Characterizing the Development of Infants' Earliest Dance Behavior

Dance is a universal human behavior and a crucial component of human musicality. When and how does the motivation and tendency to move to music develop? How does this behavior change as a process of maturation and learning? We characterize infants' earliest dance behavior, leveraging parents' extensive at-home observations of their children. Parents of infants aged 0-24 months (N = 278, 82.7% White, 84.5% in the United States, 46.0% of household incomes >=$100,000) were surveyed regarding their child's current and earliest dance behavior (movement by the child, during music, that the parent considered dance), motor development, and their own infant-directed dance. We found that dance begins early: 90% of infants produced recognizable dance by 12.8 months, and the age of onset was not solely a function of motor development. Infants who produced dance did so often, on average almost every day. We also found that dance shows qualitative developmental change over the first 2 years, rather than remaining stable. With motor development, age, and more time dancing, infants used a greater variety of movements in dance, and began to incorporate learned, imitated gestures (80% of infants by 17.9 months). 99.8% of parents reported dancing for or with their infants, raising questions about the role of infant-directed dance. These findings provide evidence that the motivation and tendency to move to music appears extremely early and that both learning and maturation lead to qualitative change in dance behavior during the first 2 years, informing broad questions about the origins of human musicality. Public Significance Statement Music and dance impact human well-being, social behavior, and health. We find that the motivation and tendency to move to music appears extremely early in life, and shows developmental change over the first 2 years. Movement to music appears to be a fundamental part of infants' behavioral repertoire, with implications for early cognitive, emotional, social, and motor development.

Automated summary

Dance is a universal human behavior that develops early in infancy and shows qualitative changes over the first two years. Parental influence on infant dance behavior is also evident, with implications for cognitive, emotional, social, and motor development in infants.