The Art of Dance is Moving.

     I really love to watch dance. When I visited London during Christmastime ten years ago, I watched the Nutcracker performed by the Royal Ballet. I will never forget how marvelous it was. The sugar plum fairy seemed like a real fairy who could fly boundless. Her amazingly high grand jeté made me forget that she was a character played by a human.
 

What is the origin of physical arts?

The origin of aesthesis can be attributed to the evolution of the rewarding system. When animals encounter something essential to their survival such as carbohydrates or fats, their rewarding system activates and they seek out such stimuli. I wonder whether this idea is applicable to physical ability. A high jump signals physical fitness and conditioning. If a person who is physically fit is preferred over those who are not, a high jump should bring satisfaction to spectators.
 

The beauty in sexual selection

In the wild, many species show sexual displays. In some species, their genetically fixed physical traits evolved by way of sexual selection. Sometimes these traits are extravagant, like a male peacock’s feathers. In other species, behavioral patterns evolved that allowed them to use external materials for their courtships. Male Costa's Hummingbirds have an iridescent purple crown of feathers on their heads, which reflect sunlight. During courtship, the male birds adjust their position relative to the Sun and fly vertically to maximize their visual attractiveness from the female's perspective (Simpson and McGraw, 2018). Some bowerbirds construct their bowers as a long avenue that allows females to view the male displays from within (Endler et al., 2010). Males make courts with gray and white objects that increase in size with distance from the avenue entrance. This gradient creates a forced visual perspective for the female, which can yield false perception of a larger male body than in reality.
In wild species, these ornamental features or courtship displays are sexually selected. However, many questions still remain unsolved regarding sexual selection in humans. What factors have been sexually selected in humans? Physical appearance? Intelligence? Dominance? It is unclear whether humans feel sexual appeal towards physical ability or fitness.
 

Does the sexual selection explain the beauty of dancing?

I have several female ballet dancers that I would consider my favorites. I cannot say who is the best because each dancer has her own unique qualities that make her dancing beautiful. Every time I watch the stage, I am amazed that the same choreography seems completely different depending on the dancer. One of my favorites is Aurélie Dupont, who was one an etoile of Paris Opera Ballet.

I cannot be the only person who finds beauty in same gender dancers. Sexual appeal is only one facet of attractiveness. Audience members are also influenced by swagger, an endearing demeanor, and sometimes the mere fragility of dance. The main reason why I love Aurélie is that her performance has a fleeting quality, as if each moment is distinctly separate and exists only for that instant. Thus, sexual selection cannot explain the beauty of dance.
Thus far, no one has created a robot that can walk the same way that a human can. A robot named Atlas was invented by the company Boston Dynamics and it can freely move by bipedal walking. However, it is still far from mimicking human walking. But, given that technology is advancing at an amazing rate, a humanoid which can dance like humans is closer to reality than you may think. If such a robot were invented, it would be created to surpass the physical capabilities of humans, with higher jumps and faster turns. However, it would be neither moving nor impressing.

I once watched the Swan Lake in a front row seat of the theatre. From my vantage point, I saw the dancers were drenched with sweat. Ballerinas perform so effortlessly that one tends to forget just how difficult it really is. Their performance must be more physically and cognitively challenging than it seems. Just standing on pointe requires considerable strength. Additionally, in a classical piece, dancers must memorize the entire choreography of a performance that lasts 2-3 hours. It must take a considerable amount of effort to perform onstage.

Dance is an art form that is emotionally moving, and it is not dependent upon gender. I do not believe that I would not be moved in the same way by man-made dancers. Part of the beauty is the time and effort that each dancer has poured into his or her performance.

Reference
Simpson, R. K., & McGraw, K. J. (2018). It's not just what you have, but how you use it: solar‐positional and behavioural effects on hummingbird colour appearance during courtship. Ecology Letters, 21, 1413-1422.

Endler, J. A., Endler, L. C., & Doerr, N. R. (2010). Great bowerbirds create theaters with forced perspective when seen by their audience. Current Biology, 20, 1679-1684.