Scope and Content Note
The Dance Notation Collection consists of various documents used to record dance movements, sequences of dance steps, and stage arrangements. Items include diagrams, choreographic notes and dance notation, microfilm, descriptive scenarios and themes, and dance scores recorded in formal notation systems such as Labanotation. This collection began as a set of copyright registrations submitted to the U.S. Copyright Office. The modern dance, ballet, cultural dance, and musical theatre works among the 28 original submissions date between 1893 and 1981. They represent artistic works of major twentieth-century choreographers such as George Balanchine, Hanya Holm, Doris Humphrey, Kurt Jooss, Sophie Maslow, Léonide Massine, Agnes De Mille, and Antony Tudor. Two items in the collection were registered for educational purposes. Ray Cook’s Theme and Variations was intended as an introduction to Labanotation and the reconstruction of dance scores, and Ida C. Craddock's Danse du ventre described Egyptian belly dance as having instructional value for nineteenth-century marriage.
Note that the date included with the title of the choreographic work is that of the completed score, as most dance notation is completed after the premiere of the dance, sometimes long afterward and with different casts. The copyright number assigned by the U.S. Copyright Office may have another date, which corresponds to the date when the copyright registration number was recorded.