1 INTRODUCTION1.1 Uses for Dance NotationIn the post-videotape era, the principal uses for a dance notation are likely to be (1) to give a quick overview of the figures of a dance to someone who is about to study them, either live or from videotape, or (2) as a refresher for someone who has already learned the figures, but wants to quickly check something (which is not easy to do with a long videotape). For these purposes, it is more important that the dancer be able to quickly notate or read the more critical aspects of the dance (like when weight changes occur), although it is still useful to be able to provide a complete dance description, including styling, when desired.A complete dance description will take the form of (a) an overall formula setting forth the pattern in which the motifs are danced, (b) scores of the individual motifs, and (c) notes on the fine points of the individual scores which would otherwise clutter up the scores with less important details. These notes may themselves take the form of short scores. 1.2 Notation PhilosophyGiven the variety of dance, it is difficult to decide which characteristics of a movement should be considered most important, and therefore made the easiest to notate and the easiest to read. This notation system has necessarily made some choices in that regard.First of all, following the lead of Rudolf Laban, the inventor of Kinetography Laban/Labanotation, it is clear that for accuracy in representing timing, it should be possible to use one dimension of the page to represent the passage of time in a continuous manner. While either the vertical or horizontal direction could have been used for this purpose, the vertical direction was chosen, as it allowed the horizontal dimension to take on a natural connotation. The dancer's body is left and right symmetrical, and it is therefore logical that the score represent movements of the left and right arm, or the left and right limb, in a left-and-right symmetrical manner. Therefore, the horizontal dimension is reserved for representing the symmetry of the body, and the vertical dimension is the time dimension. Thus, in the present system, as in Laban's the movements of each dancer are represented by symbols placed in the appropriate horizontal andvertical positions on graph paper. However, the present notation system departs from Kinetography Laban (and Labanotation) in a number of important respects. First, instead of putting all movements on a single vertical staff, leg movements are put on a leg staff, arm movements on an arm staff, and movements of other parts of the body in a "trunk section". The rationale is that when a dance employs movements of both the legs and arms, usually they are taught in isolation first, and only later combined. The use of separate staffs means that a dancer who wishes to study only the leg movements may more readily ignore the arm movements, and vice versa. A similar argument applies to the trunk section, however, since there is no need to distinguish left and right body parts, there is no staffline in the trunk section. Second, there is no "support" column. Instead, the present system features both a basic action column and a detail column for each limb. An "action stroke"--from which this notation system takes its name--is placed in the basic action column for the active limb. This stroke tells the dancer whether the action is a step, a touch-gesture, or an air-gesture. Because the step stroke extends the full width of the column, while the gesture strokes do not, it is still possible to see quickly when the support changes. The action stroke can be drawn very quickly and therefore lends itself to a "shorthand" notation. Later, the details may be added in the form of additional symbols placed in the detail column (or, in the cases of steps and touches, symbols above and below the action stroke that indicate what is touched and what is doing the touching). Third, the system makes repeated efforts to avoid "false precision." Examples of false precision would be implying that a movement starts exactly 1/4 beat before the count, when all that can be said is that it is shortly before the count, or indicating a limb to be lifted at exactly a 45 deg. angle, when it would be more appropriate to say that it is lifted but to somewhat less than 90 degrees. Nonetheless, if you want to specify a timing or position exactly, you can do it. There are still more differences between this system and Labanotation which will be explained at the appropriate time. 1.3 Sections of the ScoreA complete score has five sections:(a) a general section, usually 2-4 columns, wherein the symbols describe the movement and facing of the dancer as a whole, usually relative to the room or stage where the dance is performed (one column may also give the count numbers forreference purposes); (b) a leg section (the leg staff), usually four or six columns, indicating the actions and poses of the legs and feet; (c) an arm section (the arm staff), also four or six columns, indicating the actions and poses of the arms and hands; (d) a trunk section, wherein the symbols set forth the movements of the head, neck, chest and pelvis. In notating a figure with frequent movements of the trunk, each body part has its own column; if the movements of the trunk occur only occasionally, and different body parts do not move simultaneously, the number of columns may be reduced; and (e) a notes section, which contains numbers referring to more detailed explanations of the movement, following the score.
Within a staff, symbols to the left of the staffline refer to the left limb, and those to the right, to the right limb. The inner columns carry the solid action strokes from which this notation system takes its name. A straight line stroke is a step, a downwardly curved stroke is a touch-gesture, and an upwardly curved stroke is an air-gesture. Dotted step or touch signs indicate passive retention of weight or contact. Symbols above the touch strokes indicate which part of the body, if any, istouched. The outer columns indicate the direction, flexion and rotation of the limb in question. The vertical dimension is time; the lower the position of a movement symbol on the staff, the earlier it occurs. A dotted vertical line separates the arm section from the trunk section, and the trunk section from the notes section. When the notator knows that a particular section of the score will be empty for a particular figure, that section may be omitted. Also, it is often more convenient to notate an occasional movement of the arm or trunk by an appropriate note, rather than by including an arm or trunk section. 1.4 TimingThe timing of an action is indicated by the vertical placement of the action stroke. In order to assure that a particular vertical distance will always correspond to the same time interval for a given figure, the use of graph paper (or a software equivalent) is highly recommended. I prefer graph paper with four squares to the inch, and I find that the scale should be chosen so that all or almost all actions are separated by at least two squares on the page.The counts are marked off on the stafflines, using short, light, diagonal lines. When the rhythm is uneven, the count marks will be unevenly spaced. For example, in a Bulgarian Kopanitsa, with an 11/16ths rhythm (counted 2-2-3-2-2), the second count mark would be two squares above the first, the third count mark two above the second, the fourth three squares above the third, and the fifth two squares above the fourth (the staffline itself will extend two squares above the fifth count mark). When the solid stafflines are drawn, the bottom end is count "1", unless otherwise indicated. If one wishes to show that an action occurs before the count begins, the stafflines should be extended as dotted lines, as needed. Starting positions are shown below the staff. Since, by definition, a starting position is not an action, instead of using solid strokes, use dotted strokes. 1.5 The General Section: The Dancer as a UnitThe general section typically comprises, from left-to-right, one or more of the following columns.>>A "count" column presenting the counts of the step, aligned with the count marks on the staff. If you wish to give both the number of the measure and the number of the beat within the measure, use the format "b/m", as in "2/3" (meaning count 2 of measure 3), or "m,b", as in "3,2". >>A "travel" column setting forth the direction in which the dancer is moving within the room or stage, and the distance traveled. The travel arrows may be connected by a sign showing a circling action. Please note that this travel column is less often used than the reader might first suspect, as directions of movement in a "body-defines-front" frame of reference are given above the step action strokes. Thus, thetravel column is used in situations where the two directions are different, e.g., when the dancer is walking backward in a downstage direction. >>a "facing" column indicating the direction the dancer faces at various times. The facing signs may be connected by a sign indicating the direction and speed of rotation from one facing to the next. 1.6 The Leg and Arm Staffs: The General Representation of the Movement of a Body PartA movement of a part of the body may be represented in a very general way by placing an "action stroke" in the appropriate column of the staff. The column identifies what part of the body is acting, the type of action stroke identifies the type of movement, and the vertical position of the action stroke indicates its timing within the motif.A more detailed description of the movement may be provided by placing appropriate symbols above, below and to the side of the action stroke. Together, such a cluster of symbols is termed a movement glyph. While it is not usually necessary to do so, the leg and arm staffs may be identified by placing, just above the staffline, the appropriate body part symbols (left and right leg signs for the legs, left and right arm signs for the arms. The signs are plced inside a square so they are not mistaken for a part of the score itself. 1.7 The Leg and Arm Staffs: Movements of the LimbsThe left leg, right leg, left arm and right arm are each assigned two columns. The inner column holds the action stroke and its "touch" descriptors. The outer column describes the limb's posture when it reaches the destination of the action, usually relative to its base (the hip and pelvis for the legs and the should and chest for the arms).1.8 The Leg and Arm Staffs: Movements of the ExtremitiesThe left hand, right hand, left foot and right foot normally are each assigned a single column, further out than the two limb columns. This column states the posture of the hand, usually relative to its limb, when the action is complete. If the dance is the kind in which the hand moves independently (e.g., the handcircles of flamenco), the hand may be assigned an action stroke column as well. Thus, in extreme cases, the arm (or leg) staff could be eight columns wide. However, it is much more common to use a six, or even four, column staff. The latter, of course, would be one in which the movements of the extremities were not notated.1.9 The Trunk SectionThe trunk section may be any number of columns, depending on how frequently there are noteworthy movements of the head, neck, chest, stomach or pelvis. Each column is labeled at the top with the appropriate body part symbol.1.10 The Notes SectionIf it were not for the use of "notes", it would not always be possible to convey the nuances of a complex movement, or a rapid sequence of movements, without use of an inconvenient timescale or a confusingly cluttered score.Just as an article may be footnoted, so, too, may a score. The footnote signal is a circled number placed either in the "notes" section or directly on the appropriate action stroke. The footnote text, beginning with the same circled number and followed by a "relationship statement" or by a "mini-score" with an enlarged timescale, is placed to the right of or after the score. The "notes" column is usually placed at the extreme right side of the score because notes could pertain to any part of the body. However, the notator may provide separate notes columns for the leg and/or arm, in which case they lie just to the right of the staff in question, and are defined by dotted vertical lines. 1.11 Shoulder MovementsThe shoulders are something of a special case, as the left and right shoulders can be moved independently. There are three principal notation choices. First, a shoulder staff may be placed between the arm staff and the trunk section. Second, the arm staff may be modified by using three parallel stafflines. The shoulder action strokes are then attached to the central staffline, and the arm action strokes to the outer stafflines. Finally, the movements of the shoulders may simply be notated somewhere in the trunk section. |
The
general section is set apart from the leg section by a dotted vertical
line. A solid vertical line (the leg staffline) runs down the center of
the leg section, dividing it into left and right regions (representing
left and right leg movements, respectively). Another solid vertical line
(the arm staffline) runs down the center of the arm section, serving an
analogous purpose. Each staff is marked off with short diagonal "count
marks" to show the beats. Count numbers may be placed in the count column
of the general section.