From Talent Identification to Multidimensional Assessment: Toward new models of evaluation in dance education

This paper describes new approaches to assessment in dance and dance education. The first part examines assumptions behind traditional models of evaluation in academic and performing arts contexts. I consider whether it is useful to understand human ability as unitary or if it is meaningful to evaluate people according to a single dimension of competence, such as a general intelligence or a unique talent. I argue that pluralistic models of human intelligent performance--and 'intelligence-fair' assessments--more accurately portray the richness, multidimensionality, and diversity in human behaviour. The second part uses this theoretical meta-structure to define key requirements for multidimensional assessment. Recent approaches to assessment in dance are considered in light of these requirements: the United Kingdom's National Curriculum (1988), United States' National Assessment of Educational Progress (1998), and Warburton's (2000a) Multidimensional Assessment in Dance. Implications for dance and dance education are discussed.