Dance Notation Bureau

08/20/2026

Reading of the Week: Chinese Yangge (秧歌)

This week, we explore Yangge (秧歌), a lively Chinese folk dance traditionally associated with rural life, festivals, and harvest celebrations. With rhythmic steps, expressive movements, colorful costumes, and props such as fans and handkerchiefs, Yangge has many regional styles throughout China.

Dai Ailian (戴爱莲, 1916–2006), a pioneering Chinese dancer, choreographer, and teacher, recognized the importance of Labanotation in documenting and preserving Chinese folk dances. She and her students traveled to different regions of China to learn and notate traditional Chinese dances, helping preserve these movement traditions for future generations.

One of the wonderful things about Labanotation is that we can learn dances from different countries and cultures through written movement records. Dance notation can travel across time and borders, allowing us to study, reconstruct, and experience movement traditions from around the world.

This week’s reading invites us to discover Yangge and the important role of notation in preserving dance heritage.

Source: Eight Chinese Nationalities Folk Dances by Dai Ailian.

To explore other Chinese dances, visit: https://dnbtheorybb.blogspot.com/2021/05/chinese-folk-dances.html

#秧歌 #戴爱莲

08/19/2026

Why Is It Important to Document Dance in Notation?

Dance is an art form that exists through movement—and movement disappears as soon as the performance ends. So how can we preserve it for future generations?

Dance notation provides one answer.

Unlike ordinary written descriptions, a notation system such as Labanotation can record the details of movement, including direction, level, timing, weight, body parts, pathways, and relationships between movements.

Why does this matter?

* Preserve choreography — A dance can live beyond the choreographer and original dancers.

* Reconstruct and restage works — Dances can be performed again decades later, even when the original dancers are no longer available.

* Transmit knowledge — Notation provides a way to teach choreography to dancers who never saw the original performance.

* Support historical research — Notated scores become valuable primary sources for understanding dance history and movement traditions.

* Preserve movement details — Nuances that may be difficult to describe in words can be recorded systematically.

* Complement video — Video captures what a particular performance looked like; notation provides a detailed record of how the movement is organized and can help guide reconstruction.

Together, they create a much richer record of dance.

A dance documented today may become the key to bringing that work back to life 50, 100, or even more years from now.

What dance would you want to make sure future generations never forget?

08/14/2026

Reading of the Week: Hartford Ballet My Second Ballet Workbook, Part 2

This week’s Reading of the Week is an excerpt from Workbook 2, Part 2.

This excerpt contains a plié exercise incorporating head, torso, foot hook, folding, and contraction—many of the concepts covered in the Intermediate Labanotation Study Guide. Yet, despite the variety of movements included, the exercise is simple enough to read and follow.

Take a look and see how much information can be captured in a single exercise!

08/13/2026

Hartford Ballet School Workbooks & Labanotation

We are pleased to share, with permission from Enid Lynn, a set of four Hartford Ballet School Workbooks created for young ballet students, ages 8–12.

Directed by Enid Lynn, the Hartford Ballet School explored the idea of dance literacy through Labanotation. Working with Jill Beck, Judy Coopersmith, and Diane Fleming, Lynn developed these workbooks to introduce Labanotation as part of learning ballet. Teachers could use them alongside class instruction as students learned new steps and dances.

It is a wonderful example of how Labanotation can become part of learning to dance—not simply a way to record choreography.

https://www.dancenotation.org/theory-bulletin-board/hartford-ballet-school-workbooks-learning-ballet-through-labanotation/

Our thanks to Enid Lynn for granting permission to share the workbooks, Ambre Emory-Maier for arranging access, and Valarie Williams for scanning Workbook 2, Part 2.

We are pleased to share, with permission from Enid Lynn, a set of four Hartford Ballet School Workbooks, created for young ballet students beginning their study of dance.

08/11/2026

People often ask, “Why do you need so many symbols just to describe a dance?”

Well… because dancers do so many things!

A Labanotation score can tell you which body part moves, in what direction, at what level, with what timing, and in relation to what else is happening. In other words, it can sometimes feel like trying to fit an entire dancer into a page of symbols!

Reading Labanotation:
“Just one more little detail…”

Notating Labanotation:
“Wait… did the left arm move before or after the head?”

After finishing the score:
“I think I need to dance this myself to make sure I actually wrote what I think I wrote!”

And then there is the ultimate Labanotation experience:

The notator: “Wonderful! Let’s take a closer look.” 😅

Behind all those symbols is an amazing idea: dance can be recorded, preserved, studied, and brought back to life—even decades after the choreographer created it.

So yes, Labanotation can be serious business. But if you work with it long enough, you learn to laugh at the symbols, the corrections, the tiny details… and occasionally at yourself! 😂

08/07/2026

Reading of the Week: The Shakers by Doris Humphrey. (This posting is dedicated to the memory of Charles Woodford, Doris Humphrey’s son, who recently passed away on July 5th, 2026)

This week’s Reading of the Week takes us into Doris Humphrey’s iconic "The Shakers", a 1931 masterwork inspired by the religious Shaker communities of early America. In 1948, this was the first of many Humphrey works to be documented in Labanotation.

The Shakers were known for their simple, disciplined way of life, pacifism, communal living, craftsmanship, and deep religious devotion. Their worship included vigorous shaking and trembling as a way of symbolically “shaking off” sin.

Humphrey transformed these movements into a powerful choreographic language—from small quivers and tremblings to increasingly intense shakings, twistings, runs, and jumps. The dancers’ controlled movement gradually builds into a collective expression of spiritual fervor.

This reading is a simple aerial work, with groups moving in lines.

Explore the Labanotation score of The Shakers in the DNB collection (https://www.dancenotation.org/catalog/the-shakers-dance-of-the-chosen/) and discover how Humphrey’s remarkable movement design is preserved in notation.

08/05/2026

DNB History Spotlight | The Beginning of the Dance Notation Bureau

Spring of 1940 – an encouraging conversation helped shape dance history.

On May 15, 1940, New York Times dance critic John Martin told the founders: "You girls ought to start a dance notation bureau as a center for information..."

Less than a month later, on June 9, 1940, Martin reported in The New York Times that they had done exactly that.

From those early beginnings, the Dance Notation Bureau continued to grow:

1940–1947 – The theory of Labanotation was refined and matured in the United States.

1942 – The first full dance score was written: Eugene Loring's Billy the Kid, demonstrating that choreography could be accurately documented and preserved.

1946 – The Dance Notation Bureau expanded its educational reach by opening a Philadelphia Extension under the leadership of Nadia Chilkovsky, bringing Labanotation training to a wider community of dancers and educators.

1947 – Choreographer George Balanchine invited the DNB to notate his ballets, beginning a remarkable collaboration that lasted for decades. From 1947 through 1990—even after Balanchine's death—the DNB produced a total of 44 Labanotation scores of his works, preserving some of the most influential ballets of the twentieth century.

1947 – Notation was added to the curriculum at the High School of Performing Arts in New York, marking another important step in bringing Labanotation into formal dance education and introducing young dancers to the art of recording movement.

1948 – Labanotation was taught at the Summer Dance School and Festival at Connecticut College, where the Dance Notation Bureau also completed the notation of Doris Humphrey's The Shakers. This landmark score was the first of 35 Humphrey works to be recorded in Labanotation, playing a vital role in preserving one of America's greatest modern dance legacies for future generations.

Photo: Mr. B with Ann Hutchinson

07/30/2026

Call for Proposals: 2027 ICKL Conference.

The 2027 ICKL - International Council of Kinetography Laban Conference will be held at The Folkwang University of the Arts in Germany.

Researchers, practitioners, teachers, and enthusiasts of Kinetography Laban/Labanotation are invited to submit proposals for presentations and contributions. The deadline for submissions is September 10, 2026.

For proposal guidelines and additional information, please visit the ICKL - International Council of Kinetography Laban FaceBook page.

We look forward to sharing ideas, research, and discoveries about dance notation and movement studies with the international Labanotation community!

Pre-Conference with Embodied Introduction July 9–10, 2027 Led by teaching staff and alumni·ae of the Institute for Contemporary Dance at the Folkwang University of the Arts (Arrival on Thursday July 8th)

07/30/2026

I recently compared two ways of recording the basic Cha-Cha steps: a traditional footprint diagram and a Labanotation score.

I'll admit—it took me a while to figure out the order of the steps from the footprint illustration! 😄 While footprint diagrams can be visually appealing, they don't always make the sequence or weight changes immediately clear. Labanotation, on the other hand, records the movement, timing, direction, and body actions in a precise, readable system once you know the language.

Which would you rather learn from—a page of footprints or a Labanotation score?

Share your thoughts in the comments! 💬



https://share.google/bL07USOrlyFXgaD5g

07/29/2026

Reading of the Week: Cha-Cha

This week's reading is Cha-Cha from Elementary Reading Studies, edited by Peggy Hackney, Sarah Manno, and Muriel Topaz, and published by the Dance Notation Bureau in 1983.

The Cha-Cha originated in Cuba in the early 1950s and was developed by the Cuban composer and violinist Enrique Jorrín. While playing the danzón-mambo, Jorrín noticed that many social dancers found the syncopated rhythms difficult to follow. He simplified the rhythm, and dancers responded with a distinctive triple step that produced the characteristic "cha-cha-cha" sound as their feet brushed across the floor. The dance quickly became popular throughout Latin America, the United States, and around the world.

Known for its lively rhythm, playful character, and crisp footwork, the Cha-Cha is danced in 4/4 time with a pattern often counted as "2, 3, cha-cha-cha" (or "4-and-1"). The dance combines quick weight changes, compact steps, hip action, and a spirited interaction between partners.

As you work through this week's reading, notice how Labanotation clearly records the timing, direction, and weight changes that give the Cha-Cha its distinctive style. Even a social dance full of energy and personality can be precisely preserved and studied through notation.

Happy reading—and maybe you'll be inspired to dance a few Cha-Cha steps yourself! 💙