MEN who are venturing out tonight to hit the dance floor can forget about pulling out the robot moves.

According to a new study men who want to drive women wild on the dance floor have to forgo the jazz hands.

New research shows sexy dancing is all about moving the torso and the arms.

Psychologists from Northumbria University in England filmed 19 male volunteers, ages 18 to 35, with a 12-camera system as the men danced to a German dance track, the kind of drum rhythm one might hear clubbing.

None of the men involved were professional dancers.

The men also wore 38 small reflectors all over their body, which the systems monitored to capture the motions of the dancers in three dimensions.

These movements were mapped onto featureless, white, gender-neutral humanoid characters, or avatars.

This way, the 35 heterosexual women the scientists also recruited could rate 15-second clips of each dancer without being prejudiced by each guy's individual level of physical attractiveness.

Each dancer was judged on a scale of one to seven, from extremely bad to extremely good.

The results showed guys whose dance included larger and more variable movements of the neck and torso were considered attractive by the ladies.

Synergy Dance Studio principal Leticia Mills said men grow up not having the confidence to dance.

“Society has made it very difficult for men to feel comfortable while dancing in public,” Ms Mills said.

“Once men get to the stage where they are afraid to dance the best thing for them to do would be to take some classes to gain confidence.

“The most important thing to remember is to be confident and relaxed on the dance floor.”

Ms Mills said men who are confident in their dancing ability appear more attractive to women.

“Showing self confidence is very attractive,” Ms Mills said.

“Men who are confident on the dance floor and who look like they know what they are doing are impressive.”

Men are now encouraged to take a leaf out of the John Travolta and Patrick Swayze playbook and use their confident dance moves to get the girl.