How is choreography/dance preserved?

May 1, 2016 5:15 PM

Not too long ago I saw a production of West Side Story and as you might expect, the choreography was similar to what was in the film, what the other revivals have done, etc. I presume that it was being true to the original choreography as well, but now I'm very curious about how dance/choreography is preserved and passed on. How is it generally done? I assume that film/video recordings preserves a lot of choreography/dance, but what what was done before film and video recordings?

I guess I've always assumed that in the cases of famous ballets such as Swan Lake, it's just passed down from one generation of dancers to the next. How is choreography that isn't currently being "used" preserved? Is there a notation for choreography similar to music notation? Are there different methods of "preserving" different types of dance?

posted by modesty.blaise to Media & Arts (7 answers total)

Dance notation. Also How to Write a Dance.
posted by xyzzy at 5:20 PM on May 1, 2016 [3 favorites]

Prior to film, it wasn't preserved very well! And a lot of it was passed down in person, yeah. When I took a ballet appreciation class I felt like this was the most shocking thing I learned -- that there just wasn't really a universal way to record great dances if nobody was dancing them!

There have been several attempts at written notation, which the Paris Review details here, which more or less worked, but have fallen out of fashion since film and video.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 5:22 PM on May 1, 2016

Here's an example of dance notation for some court dances in 1705, for example.
posted by jessamyn at 5:23 PM on May 1, 2016

If you are interested in the history of performative dance, you might read *Apollo's Angels,* which is about the history of ballet. There is very little Western choreography preserved from before the 19th century; notated dance moves exist, but the information is fragmentary and sketchy, and you could not recreate a complete ballet or full performance based on what we have. For that reason, dance is often considered the most ephemeral of the arts. That is part of its beauty.
posted by Atrahasis at 5:29 PM on May 1, 2016 [3 favorites]

I was recently listening to an interview with a dancer who worked with Balanchine, and the dancer said that while Balanchine's choreography is "preserved," in the sense that there are notes and videos and living dancers who danced the parts, the nuances are missed because he demonstrated so much of the choreography to the dancers himself to get the exact effect he wanted. I think there's just always going to be a difference between "Choreographed by X" and "Based on X's choreography."
posted by lazuli at 5:49 PM on May 1, 2016 [1 favorite]

An Austin theater company recently did a 17th century style King Lear, including the elegant stylized choreography from productions of the time. Per this review, they did extensive research of contemporary sources ("prompt books, reviews, anti-theatrical diatribes, and paintings and engravings of the era's famous actors in the "poses" for which they were known") - and then a lot of guesswork to fill in the gaps.
posted by backstitch at 6:18 PM on May 1, 2016 [1 favorite]

Also, the Dance Notation Bureau has a library of dance scores.
posted by unknowncommand at 4:10 AM on May 2, 2016 [1 favorite]