Music Division Dance Notation Collection

Dance Notation Collection

Collection

Identifier: ML31.D35

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 and Benesh. This collection began as a set of copyright registrations submitted to the U.S. Copyright Office. The modern dance, ballet, cultural dance, and musical theater 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.

Dates

Creation: 1893-1983
Creation: Majority of material found within 1947-1983

Language of Materials

Collection material in English

Access and Restrictions

The Dance Notation Collection is open to research. Researchers are advised to contact the Music Division prior to visiting in order to determine whether the desired materials will be available at that time.

Certain restrictions to use or copying of materials may apply.

Copyright Status

Materials from the Dance Notation Collection are governed by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U.S.C.) and other applicable international copyright laws.

Extent

48 items
6 containers
4.5 linear feet
5 microfilm reels

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Additional Description

Abstract

The Dance Notation Collection consists of scenarios, scores in codified dance notation, and descriptions of dance dating from 1893 to 1983, many of which originated from copyright deposits submitted to the U.S. Copyright Office to register rights for choreography. Most of these scores are recorded in Labanotation (also known as Kinetography Laban), the system of dance notation that Rudolf von Laban (1879–1958) developed. George Balanchine, Doris Humphrey, Kurt Jooss, Léonide Massine, and Antony Tudor are among the distinguished choreographers whose works are represented in this collection. The collection also includes publication of traditonal folk or historic dances rendered in Labanotation, and one of Balanchine's dances is recorded in Benesh notation.

Arrangement

The collection is organized in three series:

Acquisition Information

This collection of dance notation, descriptive scenarios of dance and movement, and dance scores originated from copyright deposits submitted to the U.S. Copyright Office to register rights for choreography. The collection remains open for future additions through the U.S. Copyright Office and by direct submission from choreographers or dance notators.

Accruals

Additional copyright deposits, dance scores notated using codified symbols, and other dance notation items given to the Music Division will be added to this collection.

Microfilm

The complete Labanotation scores of five dance works in this collection are available only on five reels of microfilm shelved as Microfilm 2021/02436 (Mus). These materials are described in the finding aid and may be requested using the call number and reel number listed with the item.

Related Material

The Music Division holds a wide range of dance-related collections with notated dance scores. Notably, the American Ballet Theatre Archive houses scores notated in Benesh dance notation. The Julia Vincent Cross Papers contains a bound choreography notebook with detailed hand-written descriptions of 29 dances attributed to Alexandre Volinine, Isadora Duncan, Mikhail Mordkin, and others, as well as Cross's own choreography. The Erick Hawkins and Lucia Dlugoszewski Papers includes scores exhibiting a unique choreographic notation devised by Hawkins, as well as music scores that are annotated with choreographic notes and cues. Tap dance routines of virtuoso Leon Collins are documented by a unique system of notation developed by his accompanist, pianst Joan Hill, in her set of tap manuals of the Joan Hill Tap Notation collection.

The American Folklife Center has examples of researchers' use of diagrams, notation, and field notes to record dance and movement they witnessed. One example is the Gheorghe and Eugenia Popescu-Judetz collection of Romanian folk dances.

The Library of Congress as a whole has an extensive collection of books devoted to dance notation and dance scores that record works of many genres.

Other Repositories

Outside repositories containing significant collections of dance notation include the Dance Notation Bureau, which houses the largest collection of dance scores written in Labanotation, as well as the Dance Notation Bureau Collection at Ohio State University and Benesh International at the Royal Academy of Dance in London.

Processing History

Elizabeth Aldrich inventoried and processed the Dance Notation Collection in 2012. In 2020, Libby Smigel reassessed, processed, and rehoused the collection, and Rachel McNellis coded the finding aid for online access. Revisions to the finding aid and publications of additional notated dances were incorporated in 2025. The finding aid will be updated to accommodate additional dance notation documents and scores that the Music Division obtains.