Experimental Setup

 

Procedure

Each experiment session consists of the following steps:


  1. 1.Initial questionnaire

  2. 2.Put on skin conductance sensor

  3. 3.10 minute warmup period where I ask the participants to walk around the studio, “try to dance tango without music or partner”

  4. 4.~12 minutes dancing alone to four songs

  5. 5.~12 minutes dancing with a partner to the same four songs

  6. 6.Take off skin conductance sensor

  7. 7.Final questionnaire

The two dancing sessions are recorded. The recordings are later synchronized with skin conductance measurements.


Music Selection (click on the links to hear them on Spotify)

Song 1 - The purpose of song 1 is to acclimate the participants to the dancing sections. It’s a commonly played tango.

Song 2 - Another commonly played tango.

Song 3 - Song 3 is Fresedo’s version of La Cumparsita. La Cumparsita is traditionally played at the end of every milonga (tango social dance). The participants should be very familiar with the song since they would have heard a version of it every time they went out dancing.

Song 4 - A dubstep remix by Beats Antique that is sometimes played as an “alternative tango”. This is very different from traditional tango, and I expect most participants to be unfamiliar with this song.


Initial Questionnaire (Questionnaire Before.docx)

The participant is asked about their tango experience and their view on the importance of various factors (connection, musicality, etc).


Final Questionnaire (Questionnaire After.docx)

The participant is asked about their familiarity and preference for the music, their familiarity with their partner, and their evaluation of their partner’s experience level.


Experimental Subjects

I recruited people from the local tango community in Boston. There were 7 leaders and 5 followers, all with a minimum of two years’ experience. Some people came as a couple, others were matched up according to availability. Each experiment session had one or two couples. Since I was mostly interested in the individual’s experience dancing alone versus with a partner, I stepped in as an extra follower when one was needed.


Time & Place

The experiments took place at the MIT Theatre Department dance studio. All the experiments were conducted between 1:30 and 4 PM.









Equipment

I used the Q sensors from Affectiva. The Q sensors measure skin conductance levels at a sample rate of 8 samples/second. The sensors are worn at the wrist and data is stored on a microSD card locally.