BACKGROUND

There are many forms of movement notation in existence, however they all share a common goal – to express the ‘essence’ of 3-dimensional movement (often dance, although not always), graphically in 2-dimensions.

Annotating differs from recording in that it is not meant to accurately replicate the experience, rather the information is filtered and only the most important elements are mapped or traced. Unfortunately, not all forms of notation are useful or appropriate for all forms of movement. It is up to the annotator to chose a method that is suitable for what he or she feels is the ‘essence’ of the dance.

As evidence of this fact, one can look at history to see how dance notation has developed to meet the needs of a changing dance climate. Specifically, one can compare Feuillet’s Method (15th century) to Labanotation (20th century).

ANNOTATING GRANVILLE

As there was no existing form of dance notation specifically designed for swing dance, the dance was broken down into its key elements:

Rhythm and Change of Weight
Connection (Tension/Compression)
Movement (Speed, Direction,)
Form (Shape, Space)

Tools were borrowed from both Feuillet’s Method as well as Labanotation to formulate a way of annotating the Granville Dance in such a way as to preserve the essence of ‘swing’.

Rhythm

Since it is less important how the foot lands or the type of step taken in swing dance, the rhythm was annotated simply as a series of lines representing each weight transfer from left to right foot or vice versa. As there is a basic rhythm structure in swing – 1, 2, 3&4, 5, 6, 7&8 - syncopation or variations from the norm are an indication of expression or improvisation. The footwork of the lead and follow were mapped separately as each individual dancer elaborated on different counts in the dance.

Connection

Connection is an element not discussed by Feuillet or Laban since both methods appear to concentrate on documenting solo or group dance. However, it is an important concept in partnered dance. Connection exists in swing dance as periods of tension and compression between partners. This is what creates the ‘swing’ in swing dance and allows for the lead to ‘lead’ the follow. For the purpose of this study, it has been graphically annotated as zones within the rhythm pattern. As it can be seen, there is never constant tension or constant compression, rather alternating periods of ‘direct’, ‘catch’ and ‘redirect’.

Movement

Initial attempts at mapping dance movement concentrated on mapping the footwork itself, first by tracking footsteps in powder and then in paint. However, it became clear that by concentrating only on footwork, it failed to illustrate the essence of swing movement.

As partnered dance is about moving your ‘core’ or ‘centre’ in order to lead or follow your partner, second attempts at mapping the dance movement plotted the path of each dancer’s torso or ‘centre’ instead of their feet. The resulting image can be likened to Laban’s ‘traceforms’ with the paths of the two dancers orbiting each other. (See Appendix A.1 for more examples of movement mapping.)

Form

Lastly, the term ‘space form’ has been adopted as an extension of Laban’s idea of ‘trace form’. Instead of merely tracking the pathways created by specific points of the body over time, the space occupied by the body was mapped. The result was a fluctuating cloud, rather than a series of lines and points. This method appeared to be effective in illustrating the expansive and contractive nature of swing dance.

LIMITATIONS OF THE DANCE

However, the limitations of swing dance previously mentioned continued to be apparent in notation. Since the dance itself was performed off site, the resulting notation also lacked any site presence and the dance seemed to float in space, rather than be grounded in Granville Street. However, this experiment in notation proved to be a useful exercise in grasping the fundamentals of movement notation. As it can soon be seen, many of the methods explored in mapping the Granville Dance were revisited in the notation of the Tunnel Dance.

ANNOTATING THE TUNNELS

For the Tunnel Dance notation, the presence of the site could not be ignored. The method used had to show the relationship between the dancing body and its surroundings. As well, it became apparent that no only did the dance itself need to be mapped, as did existing movement on the site.

In order to achieve this, the dance and the existing everyday movement were mapped through methods that once again drew from both Laban and Feuillet. The key elements annotated arose from Laban’s ‘Categories of Movement Motivation and Analysis.’ Of the eight listed by Ann Hutchison Guest in her book, “Labanotation: The System of Analyzing and Recording Movement,” the four which are dealt with in this project are:

Visual Design (Path)
Rhythmic Patterns
Relationship (Connection)
Centre of Weight (Balance)
(Hutchinson Guest 12-13)

Space-based and time-based forms of notation were then used to record these elements. The space-based notation drew from the planimetric scheme of Feuillet’s Method and concentrated on the path of movement and physical location of actions. The time-based methods emerged from Laban’s egocentric timeline and proved effective in recording rhythm of movement and when various parts of the body were acting or engaged. Attempts were also made to combine space and time in a composite form of notation where all four elements were dealt with simultaneously.

Visual Design

This diagram is of the dance path. The circles represent periods in the dance when the dancer did a full turn. It should be noted that the location of the dancer is shown but the duration of time spent at each point in the path is not.

Rhythm

The ebb and flow of people moving through the site could be considered a characteristic of rhythm. Having experienced the site during both the regular school year as well as the spring/summer session, some interesting observations were made about activity density on the site.

This chart is an example of how the number of people passing through certain points on the site and the direction that they were heading at certain points in time was documented. A few conclusions were be made from this data. Firstly, more people used the site during the school year, specifically during class changes when students were using the tunnel system to get from class to class than during the spring and summer months. Secondly, during the colder months, the majority of movement occurred in interior spaces as compared to the summer months when there was more activity outside than inside. Lastly, despite the high level of traffic both inside and outside at various times of day and year, very few people stayed on site for extended periods of time.

Rhythmic changes in the dance could also be characterized by ‘pause’. In this drawing the circles represent the points where pauses occurred in the dance, the size of the circle representing duration and the location of the circles the relative placement on the site that it occurred. The lines connecting points together indicate the order of occurrence.

Relationship

Observing the everyday, most relationships between body and site were purely functional – walking, sitting, pushing or pulling a door, going up stairs. As it has already been established, there was a dominant walking path and a few smaller lesser-used paths. The other program elements on the site: seating and storage (lockers) existed away from the dominant path and failed to encourage people to use the site as anything more than a way of getting from on building to the next.

Balance

To explore balance, the left and right sides of the body were looked at separately and then together. As well, the body was broken down into its limbs and these diagrams explored how they worked together during an everyday movement such as walking. To maintain balance through movement, the two sides of the body need to work together and move in tandem (one after the other).

COMPOSITE NOTATION

The next step was to find a way to annotate both space and time together. One way was to represent movement through stop motion. The notation used to analyze walking movement was applied to the dancing body in this series of slides.

This same technique was also used to create a drawing in perspective. Each fraction of a second was traced and as it can be seen, although the drawing was in 2-dimensions, the 3-dimensional nature of the dance can clearly be seen.

These straw and elastic models were the result of an experiment in modeling 2-dimensional notation in a 3-dimensional way. The vector lines connecting each stop motion position and connecting the the movement points of the arms and legs became the structure of these objects.

APPLYING LABANOTATION

With the intention of becoming more familiar with the inner workings of Labanotation, the Tunnel Dance was annotated in Laban’s method. Represented here is the first page, showing the first 20 seconds of the dance. The middle line represented the centre of the body and each side of that line represented the corresponding side of the body. Each side was then divided into lanes, where foot or arm movements were annotated in designated columns. Each square on the page represented one second. (See Appendix C for full score.)

Since Labanotation as a method does not include provisions for site, the Laban notation of the Tunnel Dance was then combined with the dance path and applied to the site plans and sections.