The secret on how to impress women on the dance floor has now been revealed. A study has found out that men who move their necks and torsos more to the beat are most likely to attract members of the opposite sex.

British and German researchers filmed 19 men, aged between 18 to 35, with a 3-D camera while they danced to a basic rhythm, and then mapped their movements on humanoid characters.

A group of 37 heterosexual women was asked to rate the dance moves of the humanoids, which gave no indication of the men's attractiveness, to help identify key movement areas of the bodies.

'This is the first study to show objectively what differentiates a good dancer from a bad one. Men all over the world will be interested to know what moves they can throw to attract women,' psychologist Nick Neave of Britain's Northumbria University was quoted as saying in a statement by the Shanghai Daily.

The study, which also involved Germany's University of Gottingen, found that a few basic movements made the difference between a 'good' and a 'bad' dancer.

These were the movements of the neck, trunk, left shoulder and wrist, the variability of movement and the speed of movement.

The analysis was concentrated on three body regions: legs including the ankle, hip and knee, the arms with shoulder, elbow and wrist, and the central body with neck and trunk.

The study found that female perceptions of a good dance quality were influenced by varied movements involving the neck and trunk.

A 'good' dancer thus displays larger and more variable movements in relation to bending and twisting movements of their head/neck and torso, and faster bending and twisting movements of their right knee,' the researchers said in the study published in the Biology Letters journal of the Royal Society.

Neave and fellow researcher Kristofor McCarty from Northumbria's School of Life Sciences said the study was the first to identify bio-mechanical differences between 'good' and 'bad' male dancers.

Neave said such dance movements may show signals of a man's reproductive quality, in terms of health, vigour or strength.

He intends to study dancing in a natural setting and would also try to understand aspects of facial attractiveness, height, clothing and socio-economic status.

'If a man knows what the key moves are, he can get some training and improve his chances of attracting a female through his dance style,' he said.