Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Dance notation'

It is important that scholars not only research African dance culture but that we find new ways to gather information. It is a formidable task but one that must be undertaken if we are to ever document as many of the dances as possible to increase out knowledge and expand our appreciation of African dance (Glendoal Yhema Mills, 1996). The full use of Benesh Movement Notation in recording African dance is long overdue. This syllabus is a notation handbook to be used in the African dance notation lectures by students majoring in African dance. It comprehensively constitutes the most important aspects of Benesh Movement Notation (BMN) affecting African dance notation at a beginners level. It will therefore serve as the introduction and hopefully an inspiration to a much more involved study of BMN.

This research will examine the various techniques of writing stage directions for choreography or dance action within a feature film script. I will discuss and analyse two methodologies for annotating choreography, both developed by experts in dance notation. I will also examine and interpret the observations made by film director, dancer and choreographer Bob Fosse about the purpose and objectives of dance action in feature film scripts. I will examine two case studies of contemporary feature film scripts that contain dance action. The selected scripts are Strictly Ballroom (Australia, 1992) and Flashdance (USA, 1983). These scripts do not use a published system of dance notation to write dance action. I will analyse and investigate the stage directions for choreography and dance action used within both scripts. The exploration of these various approaches to film choreography may form the basis for writing stage directions for choreography or dance action in my own feature length screenplay titled Learning to Dance. As a screenwriter with particular interest in dance I intend to employ dance sequences at different stages throughout my script as a story telling mechanism. It is important to me to be able to clearly communicate and translate choreographic direction into my script in a manner that ensures its eventual interpretation fulfils its original purpose in the story. Therefore I am seeking a methodology for translating and expressing dance sequences in an accurate and concise written form. One key outcome of my research may be the development of a structural and technical framework for providing choreographic direction appropriate to the conventions of screenplay writing. I therefore intend to contribute to the screenwriting field by attempting to develop a framework for providing stage directions for choreography within a film script and then applying this framework within my own screenplay, Learning to Dance. In addition to the study of choreographic notation I will explore the observations made by film theorists such as Adrian Martin, Jerome Delamater, Rick Altman, J.P Telotte and Steve Neal about genres that contain dance action as a defining characteristic. It is my intention to write a screenplay that in part, borrows from the customs and codes of an established genre or subgenre. Therefore my objective is to understand, appreciate and reflect upon the genre the best fits my vision of Learning to Dance. Learning to Dance is the story of Giselle Williams (18) who aspires to be a professional dancer. When Giselle's father is arrested for fraud Giselle is forced to abandon her wealthy surrounds to live and work in one of Melbourne's tough, inner city, high-rise public housing estates. Here Giselle meets her key support roles, Muslim siblings Yasmina (21) a talented belly dancer and her handsome brother and Giselle's future love interest Ali (20) who welcome Giselle into their humble, tight knit and family oriented community.

This mini-thesis investigates some of the nineteenth century socio-cultural ideals that have structured a connection between virtuosic aerial skill and bodily aesthetics. It views the emergence of a style of aerial kineticism that is structured from the gender ideologies of the period. It investigates the continual recurrence of this nineteenth century style amongst contemporary aerial dance works and outlines the possible frictions between this Victorian style of kineticism and contemporary aerial explorations. From this observation, a possible catalyst may be observed with which to relocate and inspire a study of aerial kinetics sans the nineteenth century aesthetic component. This kinesiological catalyst may be viewed in conjunction with the theories of ground-based kinetic theorist, Rudolph Laban’s choreutic study of the body in space. Thus, it may be possible to suggest and introduce a possible practical dance scholarship for aerial dance. This mini-thesis includes an introductory choreological investigation that draws on and integrates the disciplines of kinesiology; choreutic theory; existing aerial kinetic technique; musicology; and the physical sciences.

The aim of this creative project is the search for an alternative path of spatial understanding and the implementation of an complementary way that seeks to communicate new spatial ideas in the real of architecture.By introducing the hypothesis of a consolidated unit that consists of the triptych space, movement and the perceiving human being, one is necessary to create a media that can potentially help the expression of multidimensional structures.For this purpose dance is introduced in the field of architecture. Choreography and movement notation are structured and interpreted in order to inform the field of architecture on a theoretical as well as on a practical level.By analyzing components of dance, useful elements that can help to "render" architectural ideas can be identified.The second part of this thesis project, provides a way of how to implement the unit space, movement and the perceiving human being, into the field of architecture. A synthesis of elements existing both in the field of architecture and dance, constitute the base for an architectonic artefact. The introduction of an artefact as such, "moves" beyond the expected understanding of architectural space, commonly portrayed as something static and absolute, while it offers new possibilities to spatial perception.
Department of Architecture

Dissertação de Mestrado em Design, com a especialização em Design de Comunicação apresentada na Faculdade de Arquitetura da Universidade de Lisboa para obtenção do grau de Mestre.
A comunicação visual desempenha um papel fundamental na compreensão de múltiplas realidades, sobretudo quando esta tem a capacidade de modificar a perceção das mesmas. Na dança, este tipo de comunicação torna-se essencial para interpretar corretamente as diversas obras, bem como os movimentos que lhes são inerentes. O presente projeto de investigação tem como objeto de estudo a notação de dança. A dança não possui um sistema de notação de universalmente padronizado, fator que condiciona o seu desenvolvimento a nível criativo, educativo e profissional, bem como a documentação de movimento coreográfico que assegure a sobrevivência do trabalho desenvolvido neste âmbito e a sua preservação histórica. O principal objetivo desta investigação consiste em compreender os sistemas de notação de dança considerados casos de referência, identificando os principais problemas e qualidades dos mesmos. O processo investigativo segue uma metodologia não intervencionista de base qualitativa. A abordagem tomada no processo da revisão da literatura abrangente de diversas áreas de conhecimento do campo investigativo do design de comunicação, como a semiologia e a semiótica, o design gráfico, a notação, bem como as áreas da música e da dança, conduziu a uma compreensão das mesmas. Por sua vez, esta permitiu realizar uma análise de casos de estudo relevantes, possibilitando a recolha de informações fundamentais para percecionar a realidade e o contexto do ambiente e do espaço em investigação, assim como as principais problemas e qualidades dos mesmos. Deste modo, foi possível avaliar os resultados obtidos. O principal resultado desta investigação consiste num contributo para o desenvolvimento da comunicação visual na dança, bem como para o conhecimento da área em questão.
ABSTRACT: Visual communication plays a fundamental role in the comprehension of multiple realities, particularly when it has the capacity to modify their perception. In dance, this type of communication becomes essential to correctly interpret the multiple works, as well as the movement inherent to them. This investigation project’s subject of analysis is the notation of dance. Dance does not have a universally standardized system of notation, a factor which conditions it’s development on a creative, educational and professional level, as well the documentation of choreographic movement which would ensure the survival of the work developed in this context and its historical preservation. The main goal in this research is to understand the dance notation systems considered as reference cases and identifying their main problems and qualities. The investigative process follows a non-interventionist, qualitative based methodology. The approach taken in the process of literature revision, which spans multiple areas of knowledge from the investigational field of communication design, like semiology and semiotics, graphical design, notation, as well as some fields of music and dance, has led to comprehension of these.In turn, it has allowed a relevant case study analysis to be made, enabling the gathering of information vital to perceiving the reality and the context of the environment and the space being investigated, as well as the main issues and qualities of these. This allowed for the analysis of the obtained results. The main result of this investigation consists of a contribution to the development of visual communication in dance, as well as to the knowledge of the field in question.
N/A

Les Millions d’Arlequin est un ballet créé en 1900, fruit du talent et de la passion pour leur métier de deux figures significatives de la scène du Théâtre Mariinski à Saint-Pétersbourg à la fin du XIXe et au début du XXe siècle : le chorégraphe français Marius Petipa et le compositeur et chef d’orchestre italien Riccardo Drigo. 1900 est une date symbolique, la fin d’une époque et le début d’une autre, l’aboutissement du style académique dans le ballet classique russe et l’apparition de nouvelles tendances dans la chorégraphie qui vont triompher avec Les Ballets russes de Diaghilev. Nous connaissons bien les grands ballets de Petipa comme La Belle au bois dormant, Raymonda ou La Bayadère, mais une partie de l’œuvre de ce grand chorégraphe, ses ballets créés dans les années 1900, reste dans l’oubli. C’est aussi le cas pour la musique de Riccardo Drigo, qui comme la plus grande partie de la musique de ballet, est souvent reléguée au second plan. Par notre travail, grâce à une analyse détaillée de la dramaturgie musicale et à l’aide de nombreux documents que nous avons réussi à découvrir, nous aimerions faire sortir cette œuvre de l’oubli et montrer son importance pour l’histoire de la danse et l’évolution de la musique de ballet. Ce travail sur Les Millions d’Arlequin invite aussi à réfléchir sur le rapport envers les chorégraphies du passé, y compris les œuvres de Petipa, sur la nécessité et les moyens de les reconstruire, et sur la place qu’elles devraient avoir dans le répertoire actuel des troupes de ballet classique
Harlequin’s Millions is a ballet created in 1900, the fruit of the talent and a passion for their craft of two major figures of the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg in the late 19th and early 20th century: the French choreographer Marius Petipa and the Italian composer and conductor Riccardo Drigo. 1900 is a symbolic date, the end of one era and the beginning of another, the culmination of the Academic style in Russian classical ballet and the emergence of new choreographic trends that will triumph with the Ballets Russes of Diaghilev. We are familiar with Petipa’s great ballets such as The Sleeping Beauty, Raymonda or La Bayadère, but a part of the work of this great choreographer, the ballets created in the 1900s, remain in oblivion. This is also the case for the music of Riccardo Drigo, which like much ballet music is often relegated to the second class.Through our work, based on a detailed analysis of musical dramaturgy and drawing on many documents we discovered, we would like to bring this work out of oblivion and to demonstrate its importance to the history of dance and the evolution of ballet music. This work on Harlequin’s Millions also invites reflection on the place of the choreography of the past, including Petipa’s works; on the need and the ways to revive it; and on the place it should have in the current repertoire of classical ballet companies

This thesis explored ways of coding and reinterpreting physical movement data from sport to create movement responses within a choreographic practice context in the field of contemporary dance. The study consisted of the notation and analysis of the physical dynamics and sequential body patterns of the high impact sport of rugby union to inform and influence the creation of movement scores that resulted in the creation of a new contemporary dance work and contributed to furthering the knowledge, understanding and practice of choreographic approaches to dance.

La thèse définit ce qui pourrait être une saisie du mouvement et interroge la possibilité d'écrire et de lire la danse. La belle danse, dont l'origine, la contextualisation, et la définition en tant que style sont présentés dans le premier chapitre est prise comme cas d'école. Le second chapitre est rédigé dans la perspective du scripteur et il présente une analyse de la notation Beauchamps-Feuillet. Le troisième chapitre, qui adopte le point de vue du lecteur, définit les règles implicites de la belle danse, déductible de l'analyse des sources, et propose une analyse de la "Türkish Dance" (c.1725), due au chorégraphe Antony L'Abbé et au notateur François le Roussau. La thèse se réfère aux recherches de Guillemette Bolens pour la compréhension de l'usage de l'empathie kinesthésique pour l'écriture et la lecture, comme à des recherches cognitivistes récentes (Alva Noë). Elle se réfère aux recherches d'Etienne Darbellay et à leur cadre théorique, par exemple la théorie de la métaphore (Jakoff & Johnson; Zbikowski pour son usage en musicologie) et la compréhension des processus mémoriels (Croisile). Elle prend en compte certaines études, cruciales pour la compréhension de la belle danse, de son écriture et de sa lecture (Francine Lancelot et Marina Nordera par exemple)
This thesis defines if dance could be grasps, and how. Belle danse is taken as a "cas d'école" for unswering this question. Belle danse's origin, contextualisation and definition are given in the first chapter. The second chapter embraces the scriptwriter perspective to analyse Beauchamps-Feuillet notation. The third chapter adopts the reader's perspective (if "reading" can mean "decode", " analyse", "interpret" and "perform".) This chapter explicits some of belle danse's rules that are implicitly explained in the sources. It analyses the "Türkish Dance" (c. 1725). This score —and this dance— has been choreographed by Antony L'Abbé, and notated by François le Roussau. This thesis is written in reference to Guillemette Bolens researches that takes in acount the use of kinesthesis for writing and reading actions. It points to Etienne Darbellay's research based both on "théorie de la métaphore" (Lakoff and Johnson) and memory's process understanding (Croisile), and to crucial researches on belle danse writing and reading, particularly those of Marina Nordera

Lucinda Childs est une figure majeure de la danse au XXe siècle. Au début des années 1960, elle participe à la fondation du Judson Dance Theater, un collectif de danseurs, danseuses, chorégraphes, artistes et compositeurs qui renouvellent à New York les formes et les pratiques de la danse. Avec sa compagnie crée en 1973, elle devient l’une des cheffes de file de la danse minimale et de la danse postmoderne américaines, tout en collaborant à partir des années 1980 avec les plus importantes compagnies de ballet en Europe et aux États-Unis. Dans le processus de création, répétition et représentation que Childs met en œuvre seule, avec sa compagnie, ou des compagnies de répertoire, l’écriture et la lecture jouent un rôle déterminant pour concevoir et incorporer ses danses. Grâce à une enquête anthropologique au cœur des studios de danse, Lou Forster montre que le geste technique consistant à danser page à la main se construit à l’intersection de deux histoires parallèles. Au cours des années 1950, John Cage et Merce Cunningham inventent un ensemble de pratiques de lecture et d’écriture afin de s’opposer, détourner et reconfigurer des approches académiques dans lesquelles l’écrit constitue un support pour assoir des partages disciplinaires et des hiérarchies. Cette approche néo-avant-gardiste joue un rôle primordial au Judson ; et parmi les membres de ce groupe, Childs est l’une des chorégraphes qui se montrent la plus attentive à ces pratiques lettrées car elles rejoignent un aspect méconnu de sa formation de danseuse. En effet, elle étudie la danse moderne de 1955 à 1962 au sein de l’important réseau de la diaspora allemande de New York. Elle suit en particulier la formation dispensée dans l’école de la chorégraphe Hanya Holm (1893-1992) où est enseignée une forme américanisée de danse d’expression (Ausdruckstanz). Childs y découvre la cinétographie Laban ou Labanotation, le système d’analyse et d’écriture du mouvement développé par le chorégraphe austro-hongrois Rudolf Laban (1879-1958), dans lequel les danseurs et danseuses répètent page à la main. C’est vers cet événement de lecture atypique pour le monde de la danse que Childs se tourne quinze ans plus tard pour travailler avec sa compagnie. L’histoire de l’art et l’histoire de la danse ont dissocié ces deux versants des modernités chorégraphiques lorsqu’à partir de 1933 une partie de la danse d’expression se compromet avec le régime nazi. Aux États-Unis se construit alors le mythe d’une originalité de la danse moderne américaine, qui s’accentue encore dans le cadre de la guerre froide. La position privilégiée que Childs occupe dans cette histoire connectée la conduit à faire des pratiques graphiques une matrice du postmodernisme. À partir de 1973, elle aborde l’ensemble des techniques canoniques de la danse occidentale, passant au fil des années de la danse d’expression aux activités piétonnières, au ballet néoclassique puis baroque. Se positionnant comme une appropriationiste, elle développe une perspective historique et critique sur ces techniques d’emprunt. Dans ses pièces, elle tend ainsi à rassembler des genres et des histoires de la danse qui ont été séparées et disjointes, élaborant une véritable poétique de la relation
Lucinda Childs is a major figure in twentieth-century dance. In the early 1960s, she was one of the founding members of the Judson Dance Theater, a group of dancers, choreographers, artists and composers in New York City who reinvigorated dance forms and practices. With the establishment of her company in 1973, she emerged as one of the leading figures of American minimal dance and postmodern dance, while collaborating from the 1980s onward with major ballet companies in Europe and the United States. Whether with her own company, with repertory dance companies, or at Judson, literacy plays a crucial role in the conceiving, embodying, and performing of her dances. Through an anthropological investigation within dance studios, Lou Forster demonstrates that the technical gesture of dancing, page in hand, is constructed at the intersection of two parallel histories. In the 1950s, John Cage and Merce Cunningham devised a range of reading and writing practices in order to oppose, divert and reconfigure academic methods in which literacy serves as a foundation to establish disciplinary divisions and hierarchies. This neo-avant-garde approach played a crucial role at Judson. Among the members of this group, Childs was one of the choreographers who paid the most attention to these literacy practices, as they tied in with a lesser-known aspect of her dance training. From 1955 to 1962, she studied modern dance within the extensive network of the German diaspora in New York. Specifically, she attended the school run by the choreographer Hanya Holm (1893-1992), where an Americanised form of dance of expression (Ausdruckstanz) was taught. There Childs discovered Kinetography Laban or Labanotation, the system of analysing and writing movement developed by the Austro-Hungarian choreographer Rudolf Laban (1879-1958), in which dancers rehearse with page in hand. Fifteen years later she turned toward this literacy event, unusual for the dance world, to work with her company. Art history and dance history dissociated these two aspects of choreographic modernity when, from 1933, part of the dance of expression became involved with the Nazi regime. In the United States, the myth of the originality of American Modern dance began to take shape, further emphasized during the Cold War. Childs' unique position in this connected history meant that graphic practices became a matrix for postmodernism. Since 1973, she embraced all canonical techniques of Western dance, moving over the years from dance of expression to pedestrian activities, to Neoclassical and then to the Baroque. Positioning herself as an appropriationist, she developed a historical and critical perspective on these borrowed techniques. In her pieces, she seeks to bring together practices, genres and histories of dance that have been separated and disjointed, crafting a genuine poetics of relation

La danse dont il est question se rencontre à Tunis dans les nombreuses fêtes familiales que sont les mariages, les circoncisions, les anniversaires, ou dans les réunions entre amis, et peut être décrite comme la danse de tout le monde. Après un état des lieux du développement de l'anthropologie de la danse, il s'agit ici de comprendre dans un premier temps la dimension technique de l'événement en visitant celui-ci à la lumière des concepts échafaudés par l'ethnologie des techniques. La difficulté principale rencontrée lors de cette démarche tient à la nature propre de la technique danse, qui est une technique du corps. Dans un deuxième temps, l'observation de l'événement danse permet de remarquer que celui-ci organise l'espace et donne lieu au déploiement de véritables stratégies de mises en scène individuelles et collectives des acteurs sociaux. La gestuelle de danse réalisée par les femmes et par les hommes est décrite littéralement et schématisée par l'utilisation du système d'écriture du mouvement Laban. Il apparaît que contrairement au caractère aléatoire que le discours des informateurs accordent à l'événement danse, la manière dont se déroule ce dernier répond non seulement à une constance dans l'enchaînement des étapes de la soirée mais également met en scène des éléments de gestuelle collective récurrents ainsi qu'une gestuelle individuelle normalisée et codifiée selon les sexes. Ce travail souligne la place que tient la danse au sein des relations sociales, notamment des relations de genre, et explique quel rôle elle joue dans la redéfinition des rapports sociaux à Tunis. Espace de rencontre entre hommes et femmes la piste se révèle être un endroit stratégique d'exposition qui évoque un marché matrimonial. L'analyse de l'événement danse montre que celui-ci contribue à structurer, définir et réactualiser l'organisation sociale.

Longtemps ignorés, les systèmes de notation chorégraphique du XIXe siècle attirent depuis trois décennies l’attention des historiens de la danse et des spécialistes de notation chorégraphique, mais, jusqu’à présent, ils n’ont jamais été étudiés dans le cadre de l’histoire culturelle. Le but de notre thèse est d’étudier les relations entre la théorisation de la notation chorégraphique comme instrument de rachat et de régénération du ballet français, et les conditions de vie, de travail et de considération sociale des danseurs – et surtout des danseuses – du XIXe siècle, afin d’expliquer les raisons de l’échec des systèmes de notation chorégraphique de l’époque, malgré leur valeur et utilité potentielles. Cela nous a menée aussi à une réflexion sur les enjeux de la notation de la danse et de la reconstitution du répertoire du XIXe siècle
After having been ignored for a long time, the 19th-century dance notation systems are drawing, since the last three decades, the attention of dance historians and dance notation specialists, but they have not been considered yet as a culture history phenomenon. Our PhD thesis intends to study the links between the theorisation of dance notation as a way of redeeming and regenerating French ballet, and the conditions of life, work, and social reputation of (mostly female) dancers in the 19th century, in order to explain why the dance notation systems of this period failed, in spite of their value and usefulness. Moreover, we consider the aims of dance notation and reconstruction of the 19th-century repertoire

A partir des échanges culturels entre l'Occident et l'Asie depuis début de 20eme siècle, la danse coréenne a intégré tout en les transformant des figures de la danse classique. Nous avons retenu un figure centrale de la danse classique la pirouette en dehors, qui dans la danse coréenne est connu sous le nom de Hanbaldeuleodolgi. L'intérêt de cette figure dansée est qu'elle relève d'une esthétique différente selon le contexte culturel dans lequel elle est réalisée tout en répondant à des principe mécaniques analogues. Notre recherche vise donc à saisir d'une part comment est exprimé dans ces deux cultures (France, Corée), un mouvement dansé qui relève de contraintes mécaniques similaire (créer des forces de rotation) et d'autre part comment cette figure dansée est apprise par les jeune danseuses. Pour mener à bien ce projet nous avons intégré diverses approches complémentaires entre différents cadres disciplinaires. Nous proposons deux manières de décrire le tour pivot qualitativement étudié à l'aide de la théorie de Laban et à partir d'entretiens semi-directifs de professeurs pour savoir comment chaque culture perçoit les propriétés du tour pivot d'une part et d'autre part comment l'apprentissage est envisagé. Par ailleurs une analyse biomécanique du tour pivot a permis de montrer comment chaque culture maîtrise les paramètres de mouvement. Ces analyses mises en perspective avec une certaine philosophie coréenne de la personne nous permet de saisir, du moins en partie, le processus de transformation et donc d'assimilation d'un mouvement dansé de la danse classique par la danse coréenne
From the cultural exchange between the West and Asia since the beginning of the 20th century, the Korean dance has integrated quite a few aspects of classical dance while transforming its figures. The transformation itself is what we are interested in. We focused on a central figure in ballet la pirouette en dehors, which in the Korean dance is known as the Hanbaldeuleodolgi. Our research aims to understand how a dance movement which comes under similar mechanical stresses (producing rotational forces) is expressed in both cultures (France, Korea). To complete this project we believe that an overall approach between different academic fields was necessary. We propose two ways to describe the pivot turn qualitatively, a detailed description of the dance figures with the theory of Laban and semi-structured interviews of how high level teachers from both cultures perceive the pivot turn properties and how they view the learning process. In addition, a biomechanical analysis of the pivot turn has enabled to show how each culture finely tune motion parameters to give both dance its cultural artistic dimension. These analyzes set in perspective with some aspect of Korean philosophy of the person enables us to capture, at least partially, the process of transformation and therefore assimilation of ballet dance movements by Korean dance

En partant de la question de l’être-ensemble et de sa visibilité, cette thèse vise à souligner la multiplicité des discours et pratiques que sous-tend l’appellation « chœurs de mouvements Laban » [Bewegungschöre Laban] et à saisir ce que cache cette hétérogénéité. Elle tente d’expliquer comment cette pluralité s’accompagne d’un déplacement de certaines catégories qui implique une redéfinition du champ esthétique et de ses effets politiques. Les pratiques chorales que le groupe de danseurs et pédagogues constitué autour de Rudolf von Laban déploie surtout dans l’Allemagne de l’entre-deux-guerres s’appliquent à investir l’espace entre : entre danse et gymnastique, entre amateurs et professionnels, entre écrit et oralité, entre pluralité et uniformité… L’examen de ces tensions s’effectue essentiellement à partir du fonds d’archives Albrecht Knust déposé au Centre National de la Danse de Pantin. Il accorde une attention toute particulière aux partitions de danses chorales en cinétographie Laban et s’efforce de faire dialoguer observations théoriques et questionnements issus de la mise à l’épreuve en studio de ces partitions. Il s’efforce ainsi de donner à voir les pratiques chorales labaniennes et de montrer qu’elles témoignent de politiques à l’œuvre à différents niveaux : de l’individu, du groupe, de la chorégraphie de groupes, des discours, du contexte. Finalement, il s’agit d’interroger le poids de ces politiques face à l’emprise nationale-socialiste. Peut-on aujourd’hui, à l’heure où certaines danses chorales composées sous Weimar sont régulièrement recréés, défendre ces chœurs de mouvements Laban et à quelles conditions ?
Starting from the question of being-together and its visibility, this thesis aims to emphasize the multiplicity of discourses and practices that underlies the term "Laban movement choirs" [Bewegungschöre Laban] and to understand what is hidden by this heterogeneity. It attempts to explain how this plurality is accompanied by a shift in certain categories that implies a redefinition of the aesthetic field and its political effects. The choral practices the group of dancers and teachers formed around Rudolf von Laban developed mainly in Germany during the inter-war period were set out to invest the space between: between dance and gymnastic, between amateurs and professionals, between writing and orality, between plurality and uniformity... The examination of these tensions is mainly carried out from the Albrecht Knust archives deposited at the Centre National de la Danse in Pantin. He particularly pays attention to the scores of choral dances in Labanotation and strives to make a dialogue between theoretical observations and questions alike stemming from studio experimentations of these scores. He thus strives to show the Labanian choral practices and to explain that they bear witness to policies at work at different levels: the individual, group, choreography of groups, speeches and context. Finally, it is a question of considering the weight of these policies in the face of national socialist domination. Is it possible today, at a time when certain choral dances composed under Weimar are regularly recreated, to defend these Laban movement choirs and under what conditions?

Conjuguant l'histoire des usages de l'écrit, l'histoire des transferts culturels et l'histoire du corps, cette thèse cherche à comprendre le phénomène éditorial qui se déploie en Europe, durant deux tiers de siècle, à partir de la Chorégraphie - « art de décrire la dance » dont les principes sont publiés à Paris en 1700. Grâce à cet art scripturaire sont publiées plusieurs centaines de « danses gravées », objets à la lisière de l'écriture et de l'image, dont le déchiffrage est destiné à mettre en mouvement le corps de l'usager. L'étude des danses gravées révèle des expériences novatrices quant à l'autonomie du lecteur-danseur postulé par ces objets. Elle éclaire également une pensée technique propre au premier XVIIIe siècle, alliant de façon originale l'abstraction et la culture artisanale : une conceptualisation du corps en mouvement s'invente au sein même des caractéristiques les plus concrètes d'ouvrages conçus comme des outils. Elle dévoile enfin un réseau d'échanges : il s'agit de faire circuler, dans des espaces géographiques et sociaux divers, des danses, mais aussi des idées et des innovations techniques. Pour les maîtres de danse qui y recourent, la Chorégraphie devient en effet une langue écrite internationale, au moyen de laquelle ils dialoguent avec leurs confrères. Investissant le monde de l'imprimé, instaurant les conditions d'exercice d'un esprit critique et collaboratif, ils reconfigurent leur statut et leurs activités. C'est l'ensemble de ce phénomène que nous appelons les Lumières chorégraphiques : un projet de mise en mouvement du corps, de mise en mouvement des frontières géographiques, institutionnelles et sociales, de mise en mouvement de pensée
At the crossroads between the history of the uses of the written word, the history of cultural exchanges, and the history of the body, this doctoral thesis seeks to understand the publishing phenomenon which spread in Europe from 1700 to c. 1760 about and through Chorégraphie (i. E. "the art of dancing by characters") - following the publication of its principles in Paris, in 1700. Thanks to this scriptural art, hundreds of "dances engraven in characters and figures" were published; they pertained both to writing and to drawing, and were meant to set the user's body into motion. A study of these "dances in characters" brings out novel paths towards the self-reliance of the typical reader-cum-dancer targeted by these objects. It also sheds light on a form of technical thinking typical of the early 18th century, and characterized by a combination of abstraction and craftsmanship: a conceptualization of the dancing body emerged from the most concrete features of the printed material designed as a tool. It also reveals a whole network of exchanges: the aim was to introduce dances, but also breakthrough ideas and techniques, into different geographical and social areas. Indeed, for the dancing masters resorting to it, Chorégraphie was becoming a kind of written lingua franca. By taking hold of the world of print, and setting the conditions for the exercise of critical and collaborative thinking, they were redefining their own assignments and statuses. What we call Choreographic Enlightenment encompasses the various aspects of this phenomenon - the project of getting the body to move, boundaries to move, whether they were geographical, institutional or social, and thoughts to move

Les trois ballets grecs de Stravinsky et de Balanchine s’unissent autour de l’agonisme − qui trouve son origine dans l’agôn, en grec « lutte » − que nous définissons comme étant la conciliation entre l’apollinien et le dionysiaque. Nous tentons de montrer comment le ballet manifeste la recherche d’un équilibre entre les qualités apollinienne et dionysiaque, essence même de la trilogie, par sa représentation et sa dramaturgie. Nous proposons pour cela une méthodologie afin d’étudier la coexistence des arts. Un mémoire sur les écritures du mouvement est joint à la thèse. Il part d’une réflexion menée sur les supports matériels qui conduisent au ballet – enregistrements vidéo, DVD, dessins, photographies, captures d’écran, dessins, partitions chorégraphiques, initiées dans ce travail. En dégageant la signification profonde de la trilogie, nous en proposons une interprétation et une production nouvelles
Les trois ballets grecs de Stravinsky et de Balanchine s’unissent autour de l’agonisme − qui trouve son origine dans l’agôn, en grec « lutte » − que nous définissons comme étant la conciliation entre l’apollinien et le dionysiaque. Nous tentons de montrer comment le ballet manifeste la recherche d’un équilibre entre les qualités apollinienne et dionysiaque, essence même de la trilogie, par sa représentation et sa dramaturgie. Nous proposons pour cela une méthodologie afin d’étudier la coexistence des arts. Un mémoire sur les écritures du mouvement est joint à la thèse. Il part d’une réflexion menée sur les supports matériels qui conduisent au ballet – enregistrements vidéo, DVD, dessins, photographies, captures d’écran, dessins, partitions chorégraphiques, initiées dans ce travail. En dégageant la signification profonde de la trilogie, nous en proposons une interprétation et une production nouvelles

Quels sont les enjeux de la « danse à l'école », comme processus de transmission et de création artistique? Nous délimitons ce que l'on nomme communément la « danse à l'école ». Contrairement aux autres domaines d'enseignement, elle ne bénéficie pas d'une place importante dans les programmes scolaires. Nous en cherchons les causes, en interrogeant les concepts qui la génèrent. L'un, fondateur, concerne l'idiotie corporelle et le mouvement dansé. Le second entretient une dialectique forte avec l'école et correspond à l'art, comprenant à la fois le rapport culturel aux œuvres et le processus artistique de création. Ceux-ci nous conduiront à quitter ce mot valise « danse à l'école» pour élaborer le concept d'éducation chorégraphique, configuration spécifique, qui se bâtit par un processus identique aux « mondes de l'art» analysé par Becker dans un contexte favorisant « la dynamique des relations interindividuelles et ses dimensions matérielles et cognitives», permettant ainsi que « l'identité sociale de ceux qui prennent part à la production et à la consommation artistique soit spécifiée par la nature de leur engagement dans le réseau de coopération et de leur contribution à l'activité collective qui fait l'œuvre d'art. » Cette inscription de l'art chorégraphique en milieu scolaire, dans un contexte spécifique, d'interactions socio-cognitives et inter-individuelles donne à chaque acteur (élève, enseignant, artiste, médiateur culturel, formateur, institutionnel) la possibilité de se saisir du nœud de la différence et de l'identité proposé par Hacking, lié à la prise en compte des mondes pluriels entrant à l'Ecole, selon les analyses de Derouet et Boltanski. Ce concept émergera d'une configuration départementale de l'Ille et Vilaine, tel que l'élabore Elias, permettant de relativiser notre propos aux caractéristiques spécifiques de notre terrain de recherchi et permettant de mettre en évidence la construction identitaire des acteurs dans un cadre interactionnel
What are the stakes for "danse à l'école". There are two keys elements: 1. Transmitting the message and 2. Artistic development at school. To define what is more commonly named "dance at school" taking into account, unlike other teaching professions, it does not have the same advantage of an important place in the school programme. We are looking for the reasons, investigating the concepts behind it. One of the founders, looks at the corporal differences from one person to another and the dance movement. The second, is to have a strong argument to bring to the school so as they can agree to the art, taking into consideration at the same time the cultural relations to work and the process of artistic expression. Those who push us to move away from this expression "danse à l'école" and to develop the education al concept of choreography, a specific outline which builds an identical process to "the worlds of art" analysed by Becker in an encouraging context "the dynamics of inter-individual relations and his equipment dimensions and cognitive( knowledge construction) as weil as is "social identity of those who take part in production and artistic consummation whatever is specified by nature of their involvement in the co-operation network and their contribution to the collective activity which makes it a work of art". This interpretation of choreography in a school environment in a particular context of social therapeutic interaction and inter-individuals gives each player ( student, teacher, artist, cultural mediator, trainer and institutes) the possibility to seize the opportunity of difference and the identity proposed by Hacking, linked to the plural worlds inside the school system, according to the analysis of Derouet and Boltanski. This concept will emerge from a departmental outline from Ille et Vilaine, such as Elias, who allows you to relativise our grounds for research and also to display the development of the players identities in an interactive framework

Dances consist of bodies moving through space and time, a concept established by the great choreographer Merce Cunningham. Dance notation is the recording of these movements on paper. This multidisciplinary research aims at bridging the gap between the sciences and the arts. We mathematically investigate an existing system of dance notation, and use mathematical tools to generate new ones. The arts of dance and dance notation contain numerous mathematical concepts, mostly relating to Euclidean geometry. The first objective of this research is to identify these mathematical structures present in Labanotation. The second is to characterize dances using algebra. In one section, positions of partners in contradancing are defined by matrices and calculated through matrix multiplication using Homogeneous Coordinates. In another section, body movements are encoded into 4 x 6 matrices; the rows represent the four-dimensional coordinate space, and the columns the different body parts. After raising into 5 x 7 matrices using the concept of homogeneous coordinates, summing a sequence of matrices provides a choreography matrix representing the final position of a dancer as dictated by the sequence. The third objective is to choreograph using crystallographic groups (or wallpaper groups). Geometric shapes are designed to represent the basic steps of certain ballroom dances, and each group is applied to each symbol using Artlandia's SymmetryWorks in Adobe Illustrator. A brief discussion explains why only five groups are relevant, and the ensuing results illustrate that these groups applied to the dance symbols generate mostly feasible choreographic routines.

碩士
國立臺北藝術大學
舞蹈理論研究所
97
The performing arts class of the Grade One-Nine Curriculum has been implemented for years. The purpose of this research is to integrate Motif Notation developed from Labanotation into the in-service dance curriculum for none-dance trained teachers in the junior high school in Taiwan. The research participants included six junior high school teachers with the training in drama, music, fine art and science who worked in Taipei area. The curriculum of this study included dance movement experience and dance teaching presentation in order to inspire the teachers’ creative thinking in dance curricular design and teaching. The researcher provided ten three-hour training lessons of Motif Notation for the teachers. Then the teachers taught the self-designed lessons to each other. The research methodology was Action Research. Through qualitative data collection and analysis, this study aimed for investigating the process of teaching/learning dance with the assistance of Motif Notation. The research results showed that Motif Notation could guide the teacher-participants to engage in movement exploration and creation, to increase their understandings of dance and to enhance their abilities to design and implement the integrated curriculum of dance that integrated Motif Notation.

abstract: From fall 2010 to spring 2011, the author was the pianist in twenty public performances of Wilderness, a site-adaptable dance and audio installation by choreographer Yanira Castro and composer Stephan Moore. Wilderness's music was generated as the result of an algorithmic treatment of data collected from the movements of both dancers and audience members within the performance space. The immediacy of using movement to instantaneously generate sounds resulted in the need for a real-time notational environment inhabited by a sight-reading musician. Wilderness provided the author the opportunity to extensively explore an extreme sight-reading environment, as well as the experience of playing guided improvisations over existing materials while incorporating lateral thinking strategies, resulting from a real-time collaboration between composer and performer during the course of a live performance. This paper describes Wilderness in detail with particular attention focused on aspects of the work that most directly affect the pianist: the work's real-time notational system, live interaction between composer and performer, and the freedoms and limitations of guided improvisation. There is a significant amount of multi-media documentation of Wilderness available online, and the reader is directed toward this online content in the paper's appendix.
Dissertation/Thesis
D.M.A. Music 2012

The idea that dance can be understood as an act of communication and a form of language has been already taken into account by scholars. The hypothesis that will be discussed in this MA dissertation concerns a more specific matter: a semiotic approach to different forms of dance improvisation, and notably the method traditionally labeled "intuitive dance". To understand this phenomena two main concepts will be conveyed: that of "quotation" understood via W. Benjamin's essays on Brecht, and that of "notation", as defined by N. Goodman in his Languages of art. Can we understand dance as a language - id est a quotable and notable code - even in its more intuitive forms? How is it possible to "understand", "quote" and "address" gestures, even in front of a wide heterogeneous audience and without any prefixed choreography but only on the base of a free and in-time creating process? Can we understand improvisation as a complex code? what and how does this code mean? Keywords: improvisation, Intuitive Dance, semiotics, notation, gesture, Nelson Goodman, Walter Benjamin, dance, code

Black choral music composers in South Africa, inspired by the few opportunities available to them until recent times, have nonetheless attempted to establish, perhaps subconsciously, some choral tradition and, in doing so, incorporate African musical elements in their works. My research traces the foundations and historical development of choral music as an art amongst Vhavenda, and the contributions made thereto by a number of past and present Venda composers that this researcher could manage to identify and trace, to the music of the people. The selected composers are Stephen Maimela Dzivhani, Matthew Ramboho Nemakhavhani, Derrick Victor Nephawe, Joseph Khorommbi Nonge, Israel Thinawanga Ramabannda and Fhatuwani Hamilton Sumbana. Through the application of multiple methodological lenses, the study sets out to analyse, describe, and interpret Venda choral music. Of particular interest is the exploration of the extent to which the ”formal” education that was brought by the Berlin Missionaries influenced Venda choral musicians, particularly the selected Venda choral music composers. Also crucial to this research is the exploration and identification of elements peculiar to indigenous Venda traditional music in the works of these composers. The question is whether it was possible for these composers to realize and utilize their potentials fully in their attempt to evoke traditional Venda music with their works, given the very limiting Western tonic sol-fa notational system they were solely working with. The project also briefly traces the place of Venda choral music within the South African music context and its role within the search for cultural identity. The research has found that the majority of Venda choral music written so far has generally not been capable of evoking indigenous Venda traditional music. Whilst these composers choose themes that are akin to their culture, social settings, legend and general communal life, the majority of the music they set to these themes does not sound African (Venda in particular) in terms of the rhythms and melodies. The majority of the compositions under scrutiny have inappropriate settings of Venda words into the melodies employed. This can be attributed to the limitations imposed by the tonic sol-fa notational system, which was the only system they were taught in the missionary schools established around Venda and which, itself, was flawed as well as the general lack of adequate music education on the part of the composers themselves. Despite these limitations and the very few opportunities available to them, Venda choral music composers nonetheless managed to lay a foundation for choral music as an art amongst their people (Vhavenda).
Art history, Visual Ars and Musicology
D. Mus