Dance Notation - History

History

Books containing dance notation were published in England and Italy in the early 18th century.

In 1975 Ann Hutchinson-Guest reconstructed the choreographer Arthur Saint-Léon's Pas de Six from his 1844 ballet La Vivandière along with its original music by the composer Cesare Pugni, for the Joffrey Ballet. The piece was reconstructed from Saint-Léon's own method of dance notation known as La Sténochorégraphie. In 1978 Pierre Lacotte staged the Pas de Six for the Kirov/Mariinsky Ballet, who still retain it in their repertory. The Pas de Six has since been staged by many ballet companies all over the world, and is known as either the La Vivandière Pas de Six or the Markitenka Pas de Six (as it is known in Russia).

A famous collection of dance notation is the Sergeyev Collection, which was recorded in the method of notation devised by Vladimir Ivanovich Stepanov. The collection documents the famous Imperial Ballet's (today the Kirov/Mariinsky Ballet) repertory from the turn of the 20th century - the majority of which were staged by the great choreographer Marius Petipa. The collection includes Petipa's original choreographic designs for such ballets as The Sleeping Beauty, Giselle, Le Corsaire, Swan Lake (staged with Lev Ivanov). Other works included are the original version of The Nutcracker, and the Imperial Ballet's definitive Coppélia. It was with these notations that many of these works were first staged outside of Russia, forming the nucleus of the Classical Ballet repertory.Hanya Holm was the first Broadway choreographer to have her notations copyrighted, for her work on Kiss Me Kate.

The first computerized notation system, which displayed an animated figure on the screen which performed the dance moves specified by the choreographer, was the DOM dance notation system, created by Eddie Dombrower on the Apple II personal computer in 1982. (See Dance Notation Journal, Fall, 1986, 4(2) pp. 47-48.) Several notation systems are used only for specific dance forms, for example, Shorthand Dance Notation (dances from Israel), Morris Dance Notation (Morris dance), and Beauchamp-Feuillet notation (Baroque dance).

Ann Hutchinson-Guest's book Choreographics (1989), compares thirteen historical and present-day dance notation systems (with visual examples) and through 'one to one' comparisons illustrates the advantages, and disadvantages of each system. The book is good introduction to the development and implementation dance notation systems.