The Development of the Open/Closed Movement Analysis Scale:

A Pilot Study of the Effectsof Different Musical Styles

on Freedom of Body Movement

Jessica Stahl

Research Summary

Throughout the history of dance therapy, music has been used bymany clinicians to support therapeutic process and goals. Enhancing

freer, more expressive movement is often a goal in the dance therapysession.

To that end, the Open/Closed Movement Analysis Scale (OCMA) wasdesigned and pilot tested. The OCMA comprises six variable pairs, eachrepresenting a distinguishing feature of free, expressive (open) move-ment, as well as its counterpart, restricted (closed) movement.

Related variables were culled from the literature and are operationallydefined below:

GAZE: Open = Eyes are open and gaze is outward. Closed = Eyes are halfshut or closed and gaze is downward.

POSITION OF THE TRUNK: Open = The trunk and neck area are al-lowed to bend, stretch and/or twist. Closed = The trunk and neck areheld rigid with little movement.

MAGNITUDE OF MOVEMENT: Open = The arms are moved aboveshoulder height and or the feet are stepped out beyond shoulderwidth. Closed = The arms and feet remain close to the body and arenot moved beyond the shoulders.

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SEQUENCE OF MOVEMENT: Open = Spontaneous movement with noset patterns. Closed = Repetitive with patterened movement.

VARIETY: Open = Postural Movement. Closed = Gestural Movement.POSITION OF THE LIMBS: Open = Limbs are moved with observable

energy. Closed = extremities are either held rigidly or allowed to falllimply.

The sample for the study comprised the researcher’s personal contacts.Subjects consisted of males and females, children and adults, and per-sons of varying cultural backgrounds.

The music used in this study was Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, andwas used in five musical styles: classical, reggae, electronic, dance androck versions. Each subject was left alone and the music was played ineach of the five selected styles for 40 seconds each in random order. Sub-jects’ spontaneous movement was videotaped. Next, each subject com-pleted a four-item questionnaire to assess: 1. familiarity with the styles;2. enjoyment of style; 3. feelings of freedom and expressiveness in move-ment related to style; and 4. least freedom of movement and expressive-ness related to style. The researcher defined free as, “Capable of a widerange of movement without being limited by muscle rigidity, contractionor excessive muscle limpness.” Expressive is defined as, “Representativeof inner feelings and/or emotions.”

Finally, the researcher analyzed the middle 20 seconds of each video(muted), using the OCMA. In the OCMA, open movements are assigneda value of 1. Closed movements are assigned a value of 0. Values weretallied to obtain a raw score for each subject. Scores were adjusted toallow comparison across music styles by removing emphasis on the indi-vidual. Results were then analyzed statistically.

Results and Discussion

In this study, reggae and dance music were found to produce most free-dom of body movement. Subjects performed most unfavorably to classicalmusic. Adults preferred orchestral music, while children preferred elec-tronic music. Age group (children vs. adults), and cultural backgroundmay account for differences in response in this study. There did not ap-pear to be subsantial differences between male and female responses,however.

The primary focus of this study was on the development of the OCMA.Hence, this pilot study was conducted with a small and uncontrolledsample and its results should not be generalized. The study affirmed

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that the OCMA can be used to gather observable data that could be sta-tistically analyzed to compare body movement based on music style. Fur-ther research is needed to address issues related to validity and reliabil-ity of the OCMA.