Klarinet Archive - Posting 000201.txt from 2002/12

From: "Denise Wilson" <dew@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Notation -- of a different sort
Date: Mon, 9 Dec 2002 09:59:21 -0500

Bill Wright wrote:
>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.
>

Mark Charette wrote:
>A quick search on Google brought forth the 2 most popular dance notation
forms: labanotation and benesh. Time to start imagining more ...
>

In the eighteenth century, Beauchamp-Feuillet Notation was used for notating
court dances (formal dances done as performances, as opposed to social
dances). Social dances, or country dances, were sometimes notated this way,
but more frequently, they were notated by listing steps by name and giving
counts or numnber of repetitions. The music was written above the dance for
both methods of "writing a dance". There were treatises written that tell
dancers how to properly perform the steps, etc.

An example of Beauchamp-Feuillet notation is used as background image at
http://www.mindfulnewmedia.com/atlantabaroquedance/

Denise Wilson

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