Movements of th torso and how Stepavov abbreviated it symbolically.

Movements of th torso and how Stepavov abbreviated it symbolically.

How Stepanov choreographed the Five Positions.

How Stepanov choreographed the Five Positions.

Detail map of Sankt-Peterburg, Russia,Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States

A: Sankt-Peterburg, Russia, B: Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States

Stepanov System of Dance Notation

1892

In 1892 Vladimir Ivanovich Stepanov, dancer at the Imperial Ballet in Saint Petersburg, published L'Alphabet des mouvements du corps humain. The pamphlet was issued in Paris. Stepanov's system of dance notation

"encodes dance movements with musical notes and not with pictographs or newly invented abstract symbols. Stepanov breaks complex movements down to elementary moves which single parts of the body can make. These basic moves are then enciphered as musical signs" (Wikipedia article on Vladimir Ivanovich Stepanov, accessed 04-05-2009).

The Stepanov method of dance or choreographic notation archive is preserved in the Sergeyev Collection at the Harvard University Library Theatre Collection.

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