Editing Dance notation

{{Short description|Transcription systems for documenting dance}}
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[[Image:Zorn Cachucha.jpg|thumb|400px|''La [[Cachucha]]'', by [[Friedrich Albert Zorn]] using Zorn Notation|alt=]]
'''Dance notation''' is the [[symbol]]ic representation of human [[dance]] movement and form, using methods such as graphic symbols and figures, path mapping, [[Numeral system|numerical system]]s, and letter and word [[Writing systems|notations]]. Several dance notation systems have been invented, many of which are designed to document specific types of dance while others have been developed with capturing the broader spectrum of human movement potential. A ''dance score'' is a recorded dance notation that describes a particular dance.

== Usage ==

The primary uses of dance notation are historical dance preservation through documentation and analysis (e.g., in [[ethnochoreology]]) or reconstruction of [[choreography]], dance forms, and technical exercises. Dance notation systems also allow for dance works to be documented and therefore potentially copyrighted.

Two popular dance notation systems used in [[Western culture]] are [[Labanotation]] (also known as Kinetography Laban) and [[Benesh Movement Notation]]. Others include [[Eshkol-Wachman Movement Notation]] and DanceWriting.

Many dance notation systems are designed for specific types of dance. Some examples include Shorthand Dance Notation for dances from [[Israel]], Morris Dance Notation for [[Morris dance]], and [[Beauchamp–Feuillet notation|Beauchamp–Feuillet Notation]] for [[Baroque dance]]. As a result, these systems usually cannot effectively describe other types of dance.

== History ==

<gallery>
Dancewriting 001.jpg|[[Valerie Sutton]] in a dance pose...
Dancewriting.jpg|...and its corresponding "Sutton DanceWriting" notation
</gallery>

In the 1680s, [[Pierre Beauchamp]] invented a dance notation system for Baroque dance. His system, known as [[Beauchamp–Feuillet notation]], was published in 1700 by [[Raoul Auger Feuillet]] and used to record dances throughout the eighteenth century.

A well-known collection of dance scores is the [[Sergeyev Collection]], recorded using [[Vladimir Ivanovich Stepanov]]'s notation method (1892). This collection documents the [[Mariinsky Ballet|Imperial Ballet]]'s (today the Kirov/Mariinsky Ballet) repertoire from the turn of the 20th century, including [[Marius Petipa]]'s original choreographic designs for ''[[The Sleeping Beauty (ballet)|The Sleeping Beauty]]'', ''[[Giselle]]'', ''[[Le Corsaire]]'', and ''[[Swan Lake]]'', as well as ''[[Coppélia]]'' and the original version of ''[[The Nutcracker]]''. It was with this collection that many of these works were first staged outside Russia.

In 1934, the composer [[Joseph Schillinger]] created a highly accurate notation system based on the 3D bone rotation and translation of a moving dancer.<ref>{{Cite journal |title=A Modern Instantiation of Schillinger's Dance Notation | journal=Contemporary Music Review | date=April 2011 | volume=30 | issue=2 | pages=179–186 | doi=10.1080/07494467.2011.636204 | url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07494467.2011.636204 | access-date=5 August 2019| last1=Schedel | first1=Margaret | last2=Fox-Gieg | first2=Nick | last3=Yager | first3=Kevin G. | s2cid=62206676 | url-access=subscription }}</ref> With [[motion capture]] technology half a century in the future, there was no way to effectively measure and record this information at the time.

In 1948, [[Hanya Holm]] became the first Broadway choreographer to have her dance scores copyrighted, for her work on ''[[Kiss Me, Kate]]''.

In 1951, Stanley D. Kahn published [[Kahnotation]], a dance notation system specific to [[tap dance]].

In 1956, Rudolf and Joan Benesh first published [[Benesh Movement Notation]], a written system for recording human movement. It is most widely used in the recording and restaging of dance works.<ref>{{cite web |title=Benesh International: Benesh Movement Notation |url=https://www.royalacademyofdance.org/benesh-international-benesh-movement-notation/ |website=Royal Academy of Dance |access-date=26 July 2021}}</ref>

In 1958, Eshkol and Wachman published an exposition of [[Eshkol-Wachman movement notation|their movement notation]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Eshkol |first=Noa |title=Movement notation |last2=Wachman |first2=Avraham |publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson |year=1958}}</ref>

In 1969, Romanian choreographer Theodor Vasilescu published a dance notation system for Romanian [[folk dance]]s.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.britannica.com/art/dance-notation/Twentieth-century-developments| title=Twentieth-century developments |access-date=6 March 2021}}</ref>

In the 1970s, [[North Korea]]n choreographer U Chang-sop developed a system of dance notation for [[Korean dance]] called the Chamo System of Dance Notation, which uses pictorially based symbols.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Dance notation |last=Guest |first=Ann Hutchinson |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia Britannica |publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. |date=2 October 2016 |access-date=14 May 2019 |url= https://www.britannica.com/art/dance-notation }}</ref>

In 1975, [[Ann Hutchinson Guest]] reconstructed choreographer [[Arthur Saint-Léon]]'s ''Pas de Six'' from his 1844 ballet ''[[La Vivandière or Markitenka|La Vivandière]]'', along with its original music by composer [[Cesare Pugni]], for the [[Joffrey Ballet]]. The piece was reconstructed from Saint-Léon's work, which was documented using his own method of dance notation, known as ''[[La Sténochorégraphie]]''.

In 1982, the first computerized notation system—the ''DOM'' (Dance on Microprocessor) dance notation system—was created by [[Eddie Dombrower]] for [[Apple II]] computers.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Forrest |first=Juliet |year=1986 |title=Field Report: A Choreographer's Assessment of the DOM Notation System |journal=Dance Notation Journal |issue=Fall |pages=47–48}}</ref> The system displayed an animated figure on the screen that performed dance moves specified by the choreographer.

In 2017, Felipe Hsieh created [[Tango Notation]], a dance notation system specific to Argentine tango.

==See also==
*[[Action stroke dance notation]]
*[[Motif description]], a subset of Labanotation

==References==
{{reflist}}

== Further reading ==
* Cage, J. and Knowles, A. (1973) ''Notations''. Reprint Services Corp. {{ISBN|0-685-14864-5}}
* Drewes, Henner (2003) ''Transformationen – Bewegung in Notation und digitaler Verarbeitung'' in Fellsches, J (Ed) Folkwang-Texte Bd. 18. Verlag Die Blaue Eule, Essen. {{ISBN|3-89924-057-X}}
* [[Ann Hutchinson Guest|Hutchinson Guest, A.]] (1989) ''Choreographics: a comparison of dance notation systems from the fifteenth century to the present''. Routledge {{ISBN|90-5700-003-2}}
* Kahn, Stanley D. (1951). "presenting Kahnotation: the K-Symbols for writing Tap Dancing"
* Neagle, R.J. and Ng, K.C. (July 2003) ''Machine-representation and visualisation of a dance notation'' in Proceedings of electronic imaging and the visual arts. London
*{{cite book|author=U Chang-sop|title=The Chamo System of Dance Notation|year=1988|publisher=Foreign Languages Publishing House|location=Pyongyang|oclc=500236112}}
* Felipe Hsieh (May 2018) ''Initial Tango - INITIAL TANGO: the tango ideogam writing system''. {{ISBN | 9781980737018}}
* Felipe Hsieh (July 2020) ''TANGOBOOK: Dance Notation of The Classic Tango''. {{ISBN | 9798669531782}}

==External links==
{{Archival records|title=Dance Notation Collection|location= [[Music Division, Library of Congress]]|description_URL=http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.music/eadmus.mu020028}}
{{sister project links|d=Q34175|c=Category:Dance notation|n=no|b=no|v=no|wikt=no|s=no|q=no|voy=no|m=no|mw=no|species=no}}
* [https://www.dancewriting.org/ Sutton DanceWriting]

{{Archival records|title=Dance Notation.Twentieth-Century Developments|location= [[Britannica]]|description_URL=https://www.britannica.com/art/dance-notation/Twentieth-century-developments}}

{{Dance|state=expanded}}
{{Cultural Conservation-Restoration}}

[[zh-yue:舞譜]]

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[[Category:Dance notation| ]]
[[Category:Notation]]