HEARTBOND
Inspiring a more connected world
our projects
Heart of Ballet
A collaboration between Heartbond and Collision Unknown
Research questions - Heart of Ballet 1
In this exciting research project we were fortunate enough to work with two world-class ballet dancers, Matthew Ball & Mayara Magri, and a small audience to answer three questions. Can we measure the heart synchronisation between?
- Dancers
- Audience members
- Dancers and the audience members
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Additionally we wanted to test if we could measure audience engagement and relate this to the joy and inspiration that ballet brings.
What we discovered
We recorded five experiments using the Heartbond app and gathered the feelings of the audience and dancers in written form. The results showed that heart rate variability synchronisation was present between dancers and audience members in all three research situations. The self-reports backed up these results. We also observed complex clustered correlations within the audience at peak moments during the dances. All participants of the study left more inspired than when they arrived and this was reflected in the degree of synchronisation observed.
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What this means
The results of this feasibility study show the promise of using heart synchronisation technology to measure audience engagement and appreciation. There is also an opportunity to use it to coach performers to dismantle what they call 'the 4th wall' - that invisible barrier that can prevent them connecting with the audience.
This research inspired the development of the Heartbond console which could be used in the future to monitor the effectiveness of dance and other art performances. Immersive display of the data would present exciting opportunities to engage audience and performers alike.
Heart of Ballet 2
In this follow on research project we focused on potential HRV synchronisation between ballet dancers and a choreographer as well as with a dancer who was acting as an expert audience member. We saw considerable synchronisation between the choreographer and the ballet dancers as well as with the professional viewing dancer. For more information about this project, have a look at our summary report.
Choreographer Valentino Zuccetti and dancers Hanna Park and Martin Diaz
Heart of Ballet 3
In this small project we had the chance to work with a group of talented apprentice ballet dancers from the Royal Ballet who are at the beginning of their careers. We recorded the heart rates of four audience members as they watched a ballet sequence created by choreographer Valentino Zuccetti. The theme of the dance was about loss and included a range of both subdued as well as uplifting sections. We calculated how much the audiences heart rate patterns synchronised during the performance.
Comparison of audience synchronisation with and without 'Sun' feedback image
Once again we showed that the heart rate variability patterns of the audience synchronise at specific times during the dance and these could be related to the more uplifting and more emotive sections. We also experimented feeding back the heart synchronisation data to the audience by projecting a pulsating sun image on the wall behind the dancers that grew brighter as the audience connected. We found that the lighting distracted the audience from the dancing and did not positively benefit their experience. We realise that far more research is needed into the psychological impact of displaying emotional and group connection data to audiences - something we are actively engaged in with our academic partners.
Heart of Ballet 4
In Heart of Ballet 4 Collision Unknown and Heartbond we were very fortunate to
work with Fumi Kaneko and Vadim Muntagirov, principal dancers at the Royal Ballet.
We were interested to follow up on our previous Heart of Ballet studies where we found that when we focused on the dancers we seemed to synchronise with their heart rate patterns.
Below is one of the graphs that shows the data that we recorded.
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Photo from left: Rosie Collins, Vadim Muntagirov, Fumi Kaneko, Valentino Zucchetti, Peter Granger, Claire Berry
and Tim Duncan
Each line on the graph shows the amount of synchronisation between an audience member (Claire), the dancers and the choreographer (Valentino). From this we can see that Fumi and Vadim were highly synchronsied during the dance sequence. Claire's heart synchronisation moves from Fumi and Vadim to Valentino as her focus changes from the dancers to Valentino, as he discussed the choreography.
We have seen this pattern throughout our research. We believe that this is very significant in our understanding of audience engagement in the performing arts and also in our understanding of broader relationship dynamics.
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Our future research is going to focus on how we can display these patterns in ways that would provide enhance connection in ballet and beyond.
Power of Butoh
We are really excited to be collaborating on a new project that we are called the Power of Butoh. This project is being researched by a dynamic collaboration with a shared belief in the potential of heart-based connection.
At the centre of this project are Vangeline and Akihito Ichihara, experts in Butoh, (a Japanese avant garde style of dance) as they develop their piece MAN WOMAN. To bring MAN WOMAN to public view the Vangeline Theater/New York Butoh Institute has partnered with ELF and the legendary New York artist Machine Dazzle.
Vangeline and Akhito Ichihara Ichihara are working with us along with our academic partners, Prof Dr Judith Revers, Professor of Art Therapies at Medical School Hamburg (Germany), Dr. Petia Sice, Associate Professor in the Department of Computer and Information Sciences at Northumbria University (UK) and Marianne Sice, Interdisciplinary Artist, Musician, and Artist Development Coach.
Early research has already been carried out and already we can see the power of Butoh to connect the dancers to each other, and we are expecting to broaden this to look at the synchronisation of dancers and audience.
This project aims to run up to the UK premiere of MAN WOMAN scheduled for spring 2026. We shall keep you updated with our progress.
For more information check out Vangeline and Akhito Ichihara on their socials
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https://www.vangeline.com/man-woman
images are courtesy of Vangeline and Akihito Ishihara
Gorse Hill Research Workshop
A collaboration between Heartbond and HeartMath UK & IRL
Research questions
During this workshop we set out to replicate some of the findings from our previous research with a larger number of experimenter pairs. We set up experiments to investigate if the heart rate patterns of two people synchronise when:
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- they make sustained eye-contact over short distances
- one person feels love, appreciation and gratitude for another, sitting back to back.
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Two experimenters making sustained eye-contact with each other, 2 metres apart (LF/HF).
The results
We recorded data across both the research questions for 11 pairs and found that synchronisation was present in many cases. The results show that HRV synchronisation is a natural and common phenomenon present in all relationship encounters. We found that the degree of synchronisation varies with the level of presence, attention and intention that experimenters have for each other.
Two experimenters back-to-back, sitting, experimenter in green focusing positive intentions during pink periods only, experimenter in orange reading. (LF/HF)
Studying the mechanism for
HRV Synchronisation
Research questions & results
In this intriguing project we set out to test the assumption that the mechanism for HRV synhronisation relies solely on conventional sensory cues. For instance the experimenters hear each other's breathing sounds and adapt their heart rates subconsciously to synchronise.
We ran two experiments, one with both experimenters in one room and the the same experiment in two different rooms. As you will see in the video, the results provide strong evidence that conventional sensory cues, although important in HRV sycnhronisation, cannot be the only explanation for this phenomenon.
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