We recently looked at Kurt Jooss' The Green Table, the first ballet fully notated using Labanotation. This system for recording human movement originated by Hungarian-born dance theorist and researcher Rudolf Laban.
Learning more about it can provide us with inspirations in different creative disciplines that involve body movement: Labanotation is indeed a non-verbal way to describe, classify and note down any form of human movement.
Actually, this wasn't the very first method to record choreographies and dance movements. Two manuscripts from the latter half of the 15th century, preserved in Spain, provide an early attempt at recording movement. Despite subsequent systems, Labanotation is considered modern and efficient, as it allows for the recording of patterns of movements rather than individual motions. It operates indeed like an alphabet, with symbols representing movement components to create a comprehensive pattern.
Laban originally studied architecture and philosophy in Paris, but then developed an interest in the performing arts. His architectural studies played a pivotal role in his analysis of the spatial structure of movement. In 1926, Laban introduced a shorthand system for his theories in "Choreographie," subsequently developing the concept further in the 1928 book "Schrifttanz" ("Written Dance"). This work laid the foundation for his Labanotation system.
In standard Labanotation, a vertical three-line staff represents the performer's body. The center line denotes the body's central axis, while the lines on the left and right represent the main body parts. The staff is read from bottom to top.
Movement for legs and feet is notated within the three-line staff, while movement for the torso, arms, and head is recorded beyond the outer staff lines. Additional columns can be added to the staff for more space. Direction symbols indicate forward, backward, left/right side, left/right forward diagonal, and left/right backward diagonal. Shading in a direction symbol signifies the level of movement - upward, downward, or horizontal. The length of movement symbols indicates the duration of each action.
Families of signs represent minor body parts, and additional symbols like pins and hooks denote details modifying the main action.
In the decade that followed, the system was refined, given a more universal basis, and developed to a high level by research practitioners in Germany, England, and the United States.
Albrecht Knust, a prominent German dancer, choreographer, and pedagogue, published "Das Handbuch der Kinetographie Laban" (The Manual of Kinetography Laban), between 1946 and 1950. However, Labanotation and Kinetography Laban took separate evolutionary paths in the 1930s through the 1950s, with Labanotation predominantly advancing in the United States and England, and Kinetography Laban in Germany and other European countries.
Due to their distinct trajectories, Kinetography Laban has remained largely unchanged since its inception, while Labanotation has evolved to meet new requirements.
Labanotation expanded to convey the motivation or meaning behind movements, while Kinetography Laban practitioners tend to work within the existing notation system, relying solely on spatial descriptions to articulate movement.
Institutions like the Dance Notation Bureau, founded in 1940 as a non-profit educational center for movement research and analysis, is committed to notation education within the dance community.
Since the 1950s, Labanotation has been incorporated into dance studies at colleges and universities globally, with the Department of Dance at Ohio University offering various resources on the topic. Ongoing global development is facilitated by the International Council of Kinetography Laban, established in England in 1959, which convenes biennially to explore new ideas and applications.
Technology has actually helped the system: in the last few years computer-aided Labanotation programmes were developed, among the others Labanotation editors such as Labanotator and LabanWriter, the latter for Macintosh and developed by the Ohio State Department of Dance.
There have also been attempts at creating software useful for choreographers and dancers who do not have adequate knowledge in writing and/or reading written Labanotation language, in particular LabanDancer that turns Labanotation patterns into 3D human figure animations an LabanEditor (Download LabanEditor). Developed a while back by Ritsumeikan University, this interactive graphic editor for editing and writing Labanotation scores allowed the users to edit dance movements and display the Labanotation score via an animation of human body models in 3D graphical notation.
As some of these applications are not available anymore, hopefully there will be further researches along these lines and Artificial Intelligence (AI) will be used one day in this field to translate the symbols into more refined human figure choreographies.
Laban's system is particularly intriguing for its unique connection with both architecture and life. Laban's passion for observing human interactions in various contexts, from the stage to the street, combined with his architectural background, guaranteed that his system had a spatial awareness that set it apart from others.
Labanotation has found application in recording physiotherapy exercises, and analyzing movements in sports like swimming and ice skating. Its use extends to zoological studies, and it has been employed to describe intricate movements such as the mating dance of a jumping spider or the flight patterns of birds.
In the context of fashion, Labanotation can be employed to create a choreography for models on a runway and maybe note down the movements in an essay accompanying the presentation notes or the press release.
Furthermore, the visual and graphic nature of Labanotation opens the door to more creative applications. Fashion designers might use Laban's symbols or dance notations as prints for garments or as patterns for knitwear.
Some dance notation patterns, as seen in the essay "On the Technological Conditions of the Representation of Movement: Dance Notation Systems & Annotation Practices as Gestures" (2018) by Danae Kleida, can be complex and visually captivating (the third and fourth images in this post are taken from this essay).
As Artificial Intelligence is not so precise yet when it comes to understanding the Labanotation symbols (as proved by my experiment with Midjourney at the end of this post that loooks more "Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" than Labanotation...) collaborating with a professional notator and a choreographer is a much better idea to enhance the creative process, offering a unique and inspiring fusion of fashion and movement.
This approach may actually offer a departure from the more superficial dance references in fashion collections (think pink tutus and ballerina shoes…) that generated the enduring ballet-core trend.
In previous seasons choreographers took center stage in fashion presentations, but utilizing Laban's system can bring a fresh and innovative dimension to the intersection of dance and fashion and you can learn more about Labanotation from the introductory notes on the Dance Notation Bureau site or in Ann Hutchinson Guest's book "Labanotation: The System of Analyzing and Recording Movement" (Routledge, 2005), which is a very approachable volume on the subject.
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