Dance Notation Bureau

Dance Notation Bureau
Name	Dance Notation Bureau
Formation	1940
Founder	Hanya Holm, Ann Hutchinson Guest, and others
Purpose	Dance notation, preservation, reconstruction
Headquarters	New York City
Region served	International

Contents

Dance Notation Bureau is an organization devoted to the preservation, notation, reconstruction, and dissemination of choreographic works through graphic and symbolic systems. The organization engages with choreographers, ballet companies, opera houses, museums, and academic institutions to transcribe, archive, and revive repertoires from Romantic ballet to contemporary modern dance. Its activities intersect with leading figures and institutions in Martha Graham, George Balanchine, Merce Cunningham, Pina Bausch, Rudolf Nureyev, Anna Pavlova, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Béjart and companies including New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Royal Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.

History

The organization was founded in 1940 amid efforts by practitioners associated with Hanya Holm, Ann Hutchinson Guest, Agnes de Mille, Ted Shawn, and Doris Humphrey to systematize dance memory and authorship using notation comparable to Labanotation and earlier systems. Early alliances involved exchanges with institutions such as Benesh Movement Notation proponents, Juilliard School, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Lincoln Center, and New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, while responding to repertory demands from American Ballet Theatre, Joffrey Ballet, Martha Graham Company, and touring troupes tied to Sadler's Wells Theatre and Bolshoi Ballet. Through mid‑century projects the bureau worked on reconstructions for premieres at venues including Metropolitan Opera, Sadler's Wells, and festivals like the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and Spoleto Festival USA.

The bureau's mission entails documenting choreography for use by companies, conservatories, and researchers associated with Royal Academy of Dance, Council of Dance, International Theatre Institute, Smithsonian Institution, and Getty Research Institute. Core services include notation commissions for choreographers such as Jerome Robbins, José Limón, Paul Taylor, Isadora Duncan estates, and preservation services requested by National Endowment for the Arts, UNESCO, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and foundations supporting Performing Arts. The bureau supplies consultants to productions at La Scala, Opéra National de Paris, Teatro Colón, and collaborates with archivists from Library of Congress and curators at Museum of Modern Art and Victoria and Albert Museum.

The organization specializes in systems including Labanotation, Benesh Movement Notation, and hybrid transcriptions developed in dialogue with analysts like Rudolf Laban scholars, Katherine Dunham researchers, and notation theorists linked to Yvonne Rainer and Pina Bausch. Publications include annotated scores, critical editions, and pattern books used by Royal Opera House répétiteurs, and have been cited in scholarship from Harvard University, Columbia University, New York University, University of California, Los Angeles, and Oxford University Press monographs. The bureau has issued catalogs and journals that reference choreographies by Anna Sokolow, Moses Pendleton, Twyla Tharp, Christopher Wheeldon, and archival projects for Isadora Duncan notation and reconstructions of Ballets Russes works.

The archives hold notation scores, photographic sequences, film elements, and production materials connected to artists including Anna Pavlova, Vaslav Nijinsky, Michel Fokine, George Balanchine, Paul Taylor, Merce Cunningham, Martha Graham, Alvin Ailey, Rudolf Nureyev, and companies like Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. Holdings are used alongside holdings at New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Bates Dance Festival Archives, Dance Heritage Coalition, Smithsonian Archives of American Art, and regional repositories in Tokyo, Moscow, Paris, and London. The bureau supports digitization projects funded by National Endowment for the Humanities, Europeana, and philanthropic partners to facilitate access for researchers at University of California, Berkeley, Yale University, and University of Michigan.

Training programs, workshops, and fellowships prepare répétiteurs, notators, and scholars in collaboration with conservatories such as Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Codarts Rotterdam, Royal Ballet School, Juilliard School, and university departments at New York University Tisch School of the Arts, University of Surrey, and Goldsmiths, University of London. Courses cover score preparation for repertory by Balanchine, Graham, Cunningham, and methodologies used in reconstructions presented at venues including Sadler's Wells Theatre, Kennedy Center, and Sydney Opera House. Fellowships have been supported by grants from Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Guggenheim Foundation, and partnerships with film archives like British Film Institute.

Prominent contributors include notators and scholars tied to Ann Hutchinson Guest, Rudolf Laban schools, répétiteurs associated with George Balanchine Trust, conservators from Museum of Modern Art, and choreographers such as Jerome Robbins, Merce Cunningham, Martha Graham, Paul Taylor, Twyla Tharp, Pina Bausch, Alvin Ailey, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Christopher Wheeldon, and David Dawson. Collaborative reconstruction projects have involved New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Royal Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, Bolshoi Ballet, La Scala, and interdisciplinary teams from Harvard University, Yale University, Columbia University, and Smithsonian Institution to stage historically informed revivals and scholarly editions.

Category:Dance