A DANCING SYSTEM

For at least five centuries attempts have been made to devise a system of notation to record the sequence of movements in dances. Scholars believe that the ancient Egyptians made use of hieroglyphs to do this and that the Romans employed a method of notation for formal gestures.

However, the earliest known attempt, recorded in two manuscripts preserved in the Municipal Archives of Cervera, Spain, dates from the second half of the fifteenth century. Since that time, many other systems have been devised. Some were published and achieved a measure of popularity for a while, but almost all, until the present day, fell eventually into disuse.

It is significant that music notation, which opened the way for development in the art of music as we know it today, was first conceived in its modern form in the eleventh century, but was not established as a uniform system till the beginning of the eighteenth. Dance notation got off to a much later start and has undergone a long succession of false attempts. That so many unsuccessful beginnings were made is not surprising. Dance is more complex than music because it exists in space as well as in time and because the body itself is capable of so many simultaneous modes of action. Consequently, the problems of formulating a movement notation that can be easily written and read are numerous.