So You Think You Can Appreciate Dance?

In the past years cultural institutions like the Dutch National Ballet are facing the problem of a decreasing trend in participation, a lack of diversity and the aging of the current loyal audience members. There is a need for a younger audience to visit ballet performances more loyally. Young adults with a university background were interviewed in in-depth interviews to get insights into their motivators for visiting ballet (Swanson, Davis & Zhao, 2008), their taste patterns (Van Eijck & Lievens) and the nature of the appreciation for ballet: which is informed by flow theory (Nakamura & Csikzentmihalyi, 2002), intrinsic motivation (Ryan & Deci, 2000) and the need for cognition (Cacioppo & Petty, 1982), in the light of their assumed accumulated cultural capital (Bourdieu, 1985; 2008), to uncover the underlying motivations of the visiting behavior of young adults with a university background attending ballet performances of the Dutch National Ballet. Young adults with a university background all have accumulated enough cultural capital to appreciate ballet (Bourdieu, 1985; 2008) and to experience flow (Nakamura & Csikzentmihalyi, 2002; Ryan & Deci, 2000), all have an omnivorous cultural taste with preferences across the highbrow and pop schemes (Van Eijck & Lievens) and are motivated by recreational, artistic and educational motivators to visit ballet performances (Swanson, Davis & Zhao, 2008). They differ however in the extent of dominance of their pop and highbrow cultural scheme (Van Eijck & Lievens) and some are motivated by an escapist and social motivator too. And two kind of subgroups emerged within the group of young adults with a university background: (1) currently active dancers and (2) young adults who have a preference for ballet versus young adults who appreciate modern ballet (at least) as much as ballet. Currently active dancers seem to be motivated by an inspirational motivator and they are also very likely to experience a special kind of additional appreciation of ballet through a bodily sensation of inner mimicry due to interaction of their movement vocabulary and mirror neurons (Cross & Tricini, 2011; Calvo-Merino et al., 2008). And the young adults with a university background who have a preference for ballet most probably didn’t have had the childhood exposure to modern ballet pieces, and are less likely to possess an explicit need for cognition. The young adults with a university background who appreciate modern ballet and ballet have had the childhood exposure to modern ballet pieces, enjoy a higher amount of complexity and value abstract ideas and novelty, are more likely to have a dominant highbrow scheme than a dominant pop scheme, and are the ones who are most likely to possess a high need for cognition. This study thus informs the National Ballet and other cultural institutions through what factors these young adults with a university background (subgroups: active dancers and preferring ballet / appreciating modern ballet and ballet) could be stimulated into visiting ballet performances more loyally.