Comparison of Barron-Welsh Art Scores of Artists and Nonartists and between Dancers of Two Training Styles

Summary.-The Barron-Welsh Revised Art Scale was administered to 144 female and 68 male university undergraduates in art, music, dance, and general studies to test whether experience and training in the arts would be associaced with choices consistent with openness to perceptual experience. It was hypothesized that training in modern and jazz dance, which is stylistically less classical and formal, would be associated with greater sensitivity to experience than would training in ballet and flamenco, more formalized dance styles. No differences between art smdents and nonart students or among dancers with various training experiences were observed. The purpose of the present study was to explore a relationship in one aspect of creativity between artists and nonarrists and among dancers of varied training styles, i.e., ballet, flamenco, modern and jazz. Experience in artistic activities was expected to generate greater sensitivity to visually perceived objects by artists than in nonartists and even greater sensitivity in modern and jazz dancers than by ballet and flamenco dancers. The vicissirudes of dance movement are intrinsic in the technical training of modern and jazz dancers. Interpretations of movement impulses interweaves with the basic structure of a modern or jazz vocabulary. The formality of classical ballet and flamenco training have existed longer with established movement vocabularies in both. Interpreting ballet and flamenco movement is restrictive in crafting movement studies. The Barron-Welsh Revised Art Scale (Barron-Welsh, 1949) was originally developed and validated as a measure of creativity expressed in preference for complexity and symmetry in visual experience. It was selected for its simplicity and objectivity. A total of 144 female and 68 male undergraduate smdents participated in the study. Smdeots were chosen from the College of Fine Arts from various technical levels of dance styles: ballet45 students, flamenco-20 students, modern-50 students, and jazz-30 students; from two intermediate levels of smdio painting-14 students; from a music theory course--10 students; and from a general liberal arts lecture course-150 students. Enrollment in the Fine Arts courses ranged from 10 to 50 smdents per class. The 150 smdents enrolled in the liberal arts lecture course who had a minimum of one year of dance training in the past five years were included in the training category. Participants' ages ranged from 17 to 46 yr.; M = 23 yr. The groups in the Fine Arts course and in the liberal arts lecture course were equivalent In age and experience. Twelve percent indicated a major in art; 21 % social sciences, 1656 biophysical science, 17% business, 7% education, 4% journalism, 1% athletics, and 21% in other areas. The percentages of those who had art training in a particular field for a minimum of one year are 49% in music, 16% in art history, 24% in ballet, 17% in modern dance, 15% in jazz, and 3% in flamenco. Thirty-three percent said they had performance experience of at least one year. Ethnic composition of the sample was as follows: 58% Caucasian, 6% Native American. 25% Hispanic. 1% black, 1% Asian American, and 5% other. Twelve percent mentioned Spanish spo!cen at their homes frequently or al