The absence in the West of any reliable form of notation until the 20th century resulted in a relative paucity of dance traditions when compared to other art forms. While the music, art, and literature of many centuries past is available today, either in the original or in a reproduced form, there is no complete record of any of the ballets choreographed before the 19th century. Even those works that form the backbone of ballet’s classical tradition (Swan Lake, Giselle, and The Sleeping Beauty, for example) have not survived in forms that fully resemble the original choreography.
During the Renaissance dances were recorded through a simple form of verbal abbreviation, with one letter standing for each individual step—as in B for branle or R for révérence. This method was adequate because the dances of that time were simple and the individual steps were well known. By the 17th century the increasingly complex floor patterns of certain dances, particularly those of the court ballets, led to the emergence of track-drawing systems, the most sophisticated of which was published in 1700 by Raoul-Auger Feuillet in his Chorégraphie, ou l’art de décrire la danse (“Choreography, or the Art of Describing the Dance”). Feuillet’s work recorded foot positions and combinations of steps as well as floor patterns, but it was unable to register movements in the upper part of the body.
Subsequent ballet masters turned to a form of notation using stick figures, the first of which was La Sténochorégraphie (“The Art of Writing Dance”), published in 1852 by the French dancer and choreographer Arthur Saint-Léon. The disadvantage of this system was that it could not record the timing or musical coordination of movements, so that later attempts to produce a system were based on musical notes that would give not only anatomical detail but also the duration of the movement. In the 19th century the most advanced system of this kind was published in Alphabet des mouvements du corps humain (1892; “Alphabet of Movements of the Human Body”), by Vladimir Stepanov, a dancer at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg. Stepanov’s system was used to record many ballets in the Mariinsky’s repertoire; the recordings were the basis of subsequent reconstructions of those ballets by the Sadler’s Wells Ballet in London.
Stepanov’s system still had many disadvantages, one of the most significant being that it was strongly geared toward ballet and could not accommodate the wider range of movements being developed through modern dance techniques. In 1928 Rudolf Laban, a Hungarian dancer, teacher, and choreographer, developed a complex series of principles for analyzing the full range of human movement. His system for recording movements in dance—widely known as Labanotation—had the advantage of being able to record not only the positions of the body and the pattern of the steps but also the way in which movements should be executed (i.e., whether they should be relaxed or forceful and where the accent of the movement should lie).
Key to labanotation symbols.Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Choreology, developed by Joan and Rudolf Benesh in 1955, is based on a more clearly visual rather than symbolic form of notation. It is written on a five-line stave, recording the dancer’s position as viewed from behind. The top line shows the position of the top of the head; the second, the shoulders; the third, the waist; the fourth, the knees; and the fifth, the feet. Special symbols such as lines, dots, and crosses indicate what each part of the body is doing—for example, whether a limb is straight or flexed and in which direction (to the side or front or in a circle) each part is moving. Other symbols show the quality or dynamics of the movement, its rhythm and accent, and the group formations of the dancers. In 1958 Noa Eshkol and Abraham Wachmann proposed a mathematical system in which movement (of the joints, for example) was analyzed anatomically, in degrees of circular movement in either positive or negative directions, with positions of the body being fixed in relation to two coordinates.
An example of the dance notation system devised in the 1950s by Rudolf and Joan Benesh. Courtesy of the Benesh Institute, London
Video recording is more readily accessible than written notation, though it fails to represent the three-dimensional nature of dance and is unable to record movements when one dancer is concealed behind another. It may be useful when used in tandem with some form of written notation, particularly as it can provide a record of how individual dancers interpret particular roles. Difficulties of notation
The problem with all systems of dance notation is that few choreographers—and even fewer dancers—are literate in them. As currently practiced, dance notation is mostly used only for the recording, rather than the creating and learning, of dances. Given the present method of creating in the studio, it is impossible for a choreographer to take an overall view of the work; it is difficult to make changes or to experiment in the way a composer can, because the choreographer is limited by the relatively short period of time allowed for rehearsals and by practical considerations such as the dancers’ availability and fatigue.
Even the best system of notation cannot succeed completely, because it cannot alter the fundamental nature of dance. Like any other performing art, dance is essentially ephemeral, existing only at the time of its performance. It can never be properly recorded or preserved, since the way in which dancers interpret a work—their styles, technical abilities, and physical appearance—always change the work each time it is performed. Theatrical elements
Music, design, and drama have all played important roles in the evolution of dance, and in many cultures dance has actually been inseparable from these arts. The Greek word mousikē, for example, referring to music, poetry, and dance as one form, reflected the integral relation between these three arts in classical Greek drama. In the early European ballets, dance, music, drama, and spectacle were equally inseparable.
Even where dance is perceived as an independent art form, most choreography is still accompanied by one or more of these elements. Choreographers generally regard them as integral parts of the works. Sound and visual effects, for example, can clarify the dramatic effect of a dance movement and can also help the spectator to perceive more fully its aesthetic qualities. In a general way, music, design, and drama also work together to heighten the experience of dance as something removed from everyday experience, inspiring a special attention in the spectator.
The most important element of dance is music, and it is rare for dance of any kind—social, theatrical, or religious—to develop without musical accompaniment. The close relation between dance and music is based on the fact that both are organized around rhythmic pattern; thus, the rhythm of the accompanying music may be used to determine the rhythm of the dance, to give it emphasis, or to help the dancers maintain the same beat. Rhythm
Nearly all physical activity is done rhythmically, as in the beating of the heart, the flow of the breath, and the actions of walking and running. Work activities such as digging, sawing, scrubbing, or planting also tend to fall into a regular rhythm, because that is the most efficient and economical way of working the muscles and pacing the effort. When the rhythm is perfectly even, a regular pattern of time and force is established—each inhalation and exhalation of the breath and each stride or stroke of the saw taking the same amount of time and using the same amount of energy. In dance, too, the setting up of regular, efficient rhythms may also be important in allowing the dancer to continue dancing for a long time, whether the dancer be a Ṣūfī dervish or a disco dancer.