Validity and reproducibility of a rubric for the analysis of the aesthetics of expression in dance

Abstract

Dance is an artistic discipline that combines the skill of body movement with the expressiveness of emotions, feelings, and ideas. However, expressiveness generally remains in the background both in the teaching process and in its evaluation. In this sense, the objective of the present study was to design and validate a rubric to evaluate the expressiveness in dance in general, as well as to assess its inter-evaluator reproducibility and its application in two groups of dancers. Both groups learned the same choreography with the difference that only one of them was aware of the rubric. This choreography was videotaped to later be evaluated by two types of evaluators, with and without experience in dance. The rubric consisted of 4 items and showed good validity (Cronbach's alpha = 0.94) and reproducibility (intraclass correlation coefficient > 0.76). In addition, the knowledgeable group obtained a better score in each of the expression patterns that make up the rubric (p < 0.05). By way of conclusion, the rubric designed here allows the evaluation of the expressiveness in dance, it can contribute positively both in the teaching-learning process, as well as in the evaluation of the dancers, and also, it can be used by both dancers and people without experience in this discipline.