Conclusion & Discussion

 

In this study, I examined the skin conductance response of Argentine tango dancers as they danced alone and with a partner. The music selection included both very familiar and very unfamiliar samples, in an attempt to study the effects of the familiarity of music on the dance experience. What the data showed, primarily, was that everyone is unique in their physiological response.


Taking the mean of the normalized EDA signals, we see that the beginning of each song is associated with clear peaks, especially during the dancing with partners condition.


The peak onset time analysis is very interesting with regard to the music structure of the songs. In general, high peak counts are associated with areas of high energy in the music. Song #4 (dubstep) is especially telling because it has more clear tempo and volume modulation than traditional tango. The peak distribution in the partner dancing condition for song #4 is clearly associated with areas of high and low energy in the music.


Based on the increased frequency of peaks, it would seem that the dancing with a partner is more arousing than dancing alone. However, another study where the order of dancing alone and dancing with partner is randomized is required before any claims can be made. Similarly, the order of the songs played needs to be randomized as well before I can claim that the unfamiliar song (#4) is more arousing.



Future Study

In this study, every participant had a minimum of two years tango experience. A future study could recruit novices as well as experts, to see how different experience levels respond to dancing alone vs. with partner, and whether novices respond to unfamiliar music differently.


Another idea for future study is to examine the effect of different contexts on music perception. For instance, it seems that the distribution of peaks is associated with musical structure, arguably more so in the partner dancing condition because the dancers are actively interpreting the music. A focused study might look at which aspects of music a listener focuses on in different conditions. The results from this study imply that arousal from dancing with a partner may be associated with the energy in the music, but further study is needed to draw conclusive results.