Klarinet Archive - Posting 000192.txt from 2002/12

From: Bi6W@-----.net (Bill Wright)
Subj: [kl] Notation -- of a different sort
Date: Mon, 9 Dec 2002 03:19:07 -0500

Normally ballet and modern dance don't do much for me, but I was channel
surfing tonight and I saw a modern dance for two Mozart piano concerto
(sonata?) excerpts. 20 dancers or so, moving with pools of golden
light in a black void, very angular and muscular, done with rapiers and
other props.... it knocked me out, frankly.

...anyway, this list often discusses musical details that aren't (can't
be) specified precisely by notation. The dance made me think about
dance notation. Perhaps there is some method of 'writing' a dance, but
given all the details of how body parts can move, I find it difficult to
imagine.

How did they pass dance 'scripts' from one troup to the next before film
and videos? Memory, pure and simple?

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