Labanotation

 1n 1928,  Laban published his kinetographie. This and subsequent expositions of his system for recording dance have made possible the collection of a literature and materials for dance. The system is logical since it is based upon fundamental laws of human motor activity. It's functional since it has been used to record dance and non-dance movement in many styles including balle, gymnastics, exercises, time motion studies in industry, movements of spastic patients to medical records and national dance styles ranging from the subtle movements of the dances of India to the improvisations in America jazz dance.

The actual notation signs are abstract in design differing in shape from Feulliet symbols. In principle, however, Laban avows in his book: Principles of Dance and Movement Notation (1956), that: " Our movement and dance notation makes use of the principles on which Beauchamp and Feulliet's choreography was built up some 300 years ago. The graphic principles which have been kept intact in our notation, are the following:

1. The central line separating movements of the right side of the body from those of the left. 

2. The partitioning of this middle line by bar-strokes indicating a metrical division of time. 

3. The use of directional signs and shape symbols guiding the dancer or person in space.

4. The indication of basic body actions such as gliding, hitting etc., by special stress signs.

Laban added an expanded analysis and additional signs for representing movements of the torso, the separate body areas and joints. These signs are placed on a vertical staff of three parallel lines. The center line represents the vertical center of the body and divides the right side from the left.(Fog 1).

Tiny equidistant lines placed along the center line of the staff indicate rythmic beats. Horizontal lines drawn across the entire staff signify the musical measures. (Fig 2). 

The dance signs are placed on the staff in the appropriate columns. The particular column in which the signs are placed, denotes the parts of the body to be used. Thus, the part of the body that supports the weight( usually the feet) is represented in column one along either side of the central staff line. Leg gestures are in column two and so on.(;Fig 1).

The basic dance signs is a rectangular symbol that dedignates in place. (Fig 3) Variants of this shape are used to indicate eight basic directions of movement such as forward and backward (Fig 4).

The type of shading in each symbol indicates the level of support or the level of gesture. This level is judged for each limb according to whether the limb is above at, or below the joint to which it is attached. ( Fig 5). The duration of each movement is given by the length  of the signs. (Fig 6). A simple excerpt of a dance in 3/4 meter is shown in (Fig 7). The notation is read from the bottom of the page upward.

The flexibility of, and the universality of this notation system are evident in the extensive archives of recorded dance accumulating in libraries, principally at the folkwaschule, Essen, Germany; the Laban Art of Movement Center in Surrey, England; the Dance Notation Bureau in New York City, and the Philadelphia Dance Academy in Philadelphia Pa. USA.

Note: For diagrams, consult Encyclopedia International Vol.5. 1982 Article: Dance Notation written by Nadia Chilkovsy, Philadelphia Dance Academy, Philadelphia, Pa. USA.