In the heat of the moment : audience real-time response to music and dance performance

Social interaction and class display are supposedly important components of the concert experience, as well as other factors such as watching the performer(s), other audience members and the environment. But music listening during the concert has an expected salience. However, measuring this multifaceted experience has been difficult for researchers. Traditional, retrospective and single moment reporting of audience experiences are now being augmented by responses made as the performance unfolds. Encouragingly, new techniques for tracking responses continuously have developed beyond infancy, with various techniques available for moment-by-moment self-reports of variables such as engagement, ‘when something happens’, arousal and valence. This chapter begins with brief discussion of historical precedents to measuring audience response continuously. We then report a descriptive case study of audience response to a live dance work, provide a time series analysis of the performance features and responses, and discuss directions for future research