Labanotation

n.
A system of movement notation for dance that employs various symbols to record the points of a dancer's body, the direction of a dancer's movement, the tempo, and the dynamics: "Labanotation is specific enough to record the flutter of an eyelid" (Joseph Menosky).

[After Rudolph Laban (1879-1958), Hungarian choreographer + (N)OTATION.]

(lah-buh-noh-TAY-shun)
noun, also Labanotation
A system of notating details of a dance movement on a staff.

Etymology
After choreographer Rudolph Laban (1879-1958) who devised it

To see what a labanotation looks like, visit: www.rz.uni-frankfurt.de/~griesbec/LABANE.HTML.

Usage
"The full Labanotation of Gemmill's goal is also being published this summer by Finlay's Pocketbook Press, illustrated with time-lapse photographs of the dance steps." — Severin Carrell, The Nutmeg Suite, Independent on Sunday (London), Mar 25, 2001.

"According to Odette Blum, who restaged the work from a Labanotation score, `Everything is very simple and very clear. Humphrey knew how to develop a theme and to build up emotional states from quiet to transcendent.'" — Margaret Putnam, Dance Concert Offers a Swinging Mix of Moods, The Dallas Morning News, Nov 8, 1996.

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The English-American term for Kinetographie Laban, Rudolf von Laban's system of dance notation. The Kinetographic Institute at the Essen Folkwang School and the Dance Notation Bureau in New York are the two main centres of study. Ann Hutchinson's Labanotation: The System of Analysing and Recording Movement (New York 1954, 1970) is the best-known English annotation.

Note: click on a word meaning below to see its connections and related words.

The noun has one meaning:

Meaning #1: a system of notation for dance movements that uses symbols to represent points on a dancer's body and the direction of the dancer's movement and the tempo and the dynamics

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