A new report shows that women should swing their hips and move with asymmetric abandon to burn up the dance floor.

New research published in Scientific Reports shows that if a woman wants to be noticed on the dance floor, big hip swings and limbs moving independently of each other are key to being consider a top-notch groover.

^{Good dancing. Images courtesty of Northumbria University}

Scientists at Northumbria University in the UK asked 200 heterosexual people (57 males and 143 females) to rate 15-second clips of 39 female dancers. The team used motion-capture technology to record the movements of the young women – university students aged 18 to 30 – dancing to a basic drum beat, and then turned them into avatars so that their physical appearance did not influence the results.

The researchers found that three types of movement contributed to someone being considered a good dancer: vigorous swinging of the hips, asymmetrical movements of the legs and arms, and arms held at an intermediate level. Letting it all hang out and going for broke physically attracted the highest scores.

Women and men were in “very strong agreement” about which dancers were “good” and “bad”.

^{Bad dancing. Images courtesy of Northumbria University}

Dr Nick Neave, an Associate Professor of Psychology at Northumbria University and the author of the report, told the New York Times that dance moves have two functions for women. “One is, they’re showing off their reproductive quality, perhaps their hormonal status, to males. Another is, they’re showing off how good they are to female rivals.”

“When you look at males and females walking, the key difference is, males have this shoulder swing, and females have this hip swing,” added Neave.

While swinging hips are probably related to femininity and child-bearing, the researchers suggested that the ability to move the limbs independently might be considered a display of well-developed motor control.

In the YouTube video below, Alpha Wave Music has put a soundtrack to some of Northumbria University’s dancing avatars to illustrate what was deemed to be “good” and “bad” dancing.

“When you are dancing you are painting a complex biological picture which shows your age, health, motor skills, hormonal status, personality and intelligence to others. Dance is not just a bit of fun, it is a serious way of expressing yourself to other people,” Neave told The Telegraph in the UK.

In 2011, the same research team found that women preferred certain dance moves by men, particularly exaggerated movements in the upper body.

“We know that dance moves are signaling strength and vigour in males. Now we’re beginning to do the same research with females,” Neave told the New York Times.

Neave and his team now want to see if and how dance attractiveness is linked personality, health, age or hormonal status in women, and whether culture and sexual orientation affects dancing and perceptions of dancing.

According to The Telegraph, previous studies have found that women’s faces become more symmetrical, and therefore more attractive, during ovulation, Neave and his team plan to investigate whether a woman’s hormonal status affects the way she dances.