Performance Quality Assessment in Ballet, Modern and Contemporary Dance: A Two-Step Systematic Review.

This article systematically reviews dance performance quality outcome measures used in ballet, modern, and contemporary dance, aiming to identify existing tools and assess their measurement properties such as validity, reliability, and responsiveness. Fifteen different outcome measures were identified, with measurement property data available for 14 tools across 17 studies; however, most studies showed low methodological quality and very low-quality evidence according to the COSMIN and modified GRADE criteria. Only the Radell Evaluation Scale for Dance Technique (RESDT) demonstrated low to moderate quality evidence for validity and reliability, while the remaining tools lacked sufficient high-quality evidence to support confident use. The review highlights challenges in developing standardized, objective scoring criteria in dance due to genre diversity and subjective assessment, recommending cautious interpretation of current tools by clinicians, teachers, and researchers until further rigorous validation studies are conducted.