notation is valuable in recording/transcribing dance in a written
form. i know of two dance notation idioms. one was used to
record/transcribe historical dance: symbols describing/delineating
gender, direction, type of step, etc. At the top of the page was
the bars of music that accompanied a drawing of the symbols.
Choreography was separated into figures of manageable length. The
notation was indeed used to teach the newest dances to those who
wished to be in vogue in the courts of the Italian, French, and
English reigning monarchies. In this dance notation system the
feeling or spirit of the dance is not recordable or transcribable;
although a sense of it may be developed by practicing the dances
over and over; until the freedom is found within the form.
The other system is Laban Notation, which i know alot less about,
although i do understand the basic factors of space, time, weight,
and flow, and that symbos of these elements are combined to form
effort graphs. I think that Laban, and people who are developing
his work are coming closer to movement notation, but again my point
is that written language/notation/idiom will never be able to
capture the living human spirit. This is also true for music
notation as well. The existance of the form is the proof of its
own necessity. what do you think?
crs97