The Impact of Soundtrack Congruency on the Aesthetic Experience of Contemporary Dance: Exploring Aesthetic Interaction in Terms of Arousal and Enjoyment Ratings in Three Audio Settings

Often music is used to emphasize particular dance gestures, or dance can be used to illustrate particular passages of music. While each form relies on different sensory modalities, previous studies have demonstrated the ability to deduce the common structures between music and dance, even when each form is presented independently. However, from an aesthetic perspective, music and dance are not always used congruently, to emphasize or complement each other, but are sometimes used in competition, or conflict with each other to emphasize the narrative (Fogelsanger & Afanador, 2006). With this deliberate shift in congruency between stimuli, this begs the questions as to whether congruence between stimuli enhances aesthetic judgements for contemporary pieces, in line with the congruence association model. This study aims to empirically test the assertions that altering the congruency between a contemporary dance and soundtrack leads to a different aesthetic perception of the presentation. Thirty-four participants, were randomly assigned to watch a recorded dance performance in a theatre setting, with either the original soundtrack, no soundtrack or the original soundtrack reversed. Aesthetic interaction was measured in terms of continuous enjoyment ratings using an ASUS tablet, and physiological arousal was measured using Empatica 4 wristbands. Granger Causality analysis indicated that rate of visual change of the stimulus granger caused electrodermal activity, for the congruent and incongruent sound conditions, but not for the silent condition. Group enjoyment scores did not mirror group physiological responses; in that they were not predicted by visual change of the performance. Additionally, the silent and congruent conditions were rated as less enjoyable as the incongruent condition. Qualitative data demonstrated that participants found the congruent and silent conditions boring, while they found the incongruent condition unpleasant.