Dance notation

What it is

Labanotation uses a staff of three lines that runs up the page and is read from the bottom. A centre line divides left from right. Columns stand for the supports, legs, torso, arms and head. Each symbol's shape gives the direction of a movement, its shading gives the level, high, middle or low, and its length gives the duration. Benesh notation is written on a five-line staff, read left to right like music. The lines mark the head, shoulders, waist, knees and floor.

Where it comes from

In 1700 the Paris dancing master Raoul Auger Feuillet published a system that traced the floor path of a dance with signs for the steps along it. It spread the French court dances across Europe. In Saint Petersburg in the 1890s, Vladimir Stepanov devised a notation based on musical notes, and the great ballets of that theatre were recorded in it. Rudolf Laban published his system in 1928. Rudolf and Joan Benesh published theirs in England in the 1950s.

How it works

A notator sits in rehearsals and writes the dance as it is made, checking with the choreographer. The finished score includes floor plans, timing against the music and notes on style. Years later a trained reader can teach the work to a new cast from the score. Ballet companies often use Benesh, and its specialists are called choreologists. Labanotation is common in modern dance and in research. Video has not replaced either. A film shows one performance, mistakes included. A score records what was intended.

If you go

1. Look at a page of each system online. Institutions that teach them publish samples.
2. Try reading a simple walking pattern in Labanotation. The basics can be learned in an afternoon.
3. When a company revives an old work, check the programme for the name of the notator or stager.
4. Ask a dance library about its score collection. Many are open to the public.

Good manners

• A score is protected by copyright like any other. Staging a notated work needs permission.
• Credit the notator alongside the choreographer when a score is used.
• Treat a score as a guide. Dancers who knew the work still matter.

What is danced

BalletA highly technical stage dance with its own steps and styles, shaped in France and RussiaClassical balletA formal stage dance using turnout, pointe work and precise, flowing movementBaroque danceCourt and social dances from Europe’s Baroque era, 1600–1750Contemporary balletA ballet form blending classical technique with modern dance movement

Sources and further reading

• Dance notation on Wikipedia
• Dance Notation Bureau
• Britannica: Dance notation