Graphic notation (dance)

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Graphic notation for dance is analogous to musical graphic notation. Using abstract symbols, words, colour or any other method of visual representation to document dance movement. Differing from other forms of dance notation by its lack of a set Lexis or syntax it is sometimes referred to as choreographers scribbles or drawings.

Graphical dance notation is used as an alternative to other dance notations for speed of writing, the ability to represent abstract and complex ideas, and the retention of the choreographers conceptual process.

Mostly used by choreographers making contemporary dance, avant-garde, experimental, generative, conceptual, and dance technology performance works, it serves as dance script rather than as a method for documentation and reconstruction. Graphical dance notation is also used by dance scholars as a method for examining a choreographer's creative process.

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[edit] Further reading

  • Cage, J. and Knowles, A. (1973) Notations. Reprint Services Corp. ISBN 0-685-14864-5
  • Banes, S. (Ed) (2003) Reinventing Dance in the 1960s: Everything Was Possible. University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 0-299-18014-X
  • Forsythe, W. Sulcas, R. and the ZKM Karlsruhe (2000) Improvisation Technologies: A Tool for the Analytical Eye. Hatje Cantz Publishers. CD-ROM ISBN 3-7757-0850-2
  • Foster, S, L. (Ed)(1995) Choreographing History (Unnatural Acts: Theorizing the Performative). Indiana University Press. ISBN 0-253-20935-8
  • Reynolds, N. and McCormick, M. (2003) No Fixed Points: Dance in the Twentieth Century. Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-09366-7