Basics of Laban Kinetography for Traditional Dancers

Fügedi, János (2016) Basics of Laban Kinetography for Traditional Dancers. MTA BTK Zenetudományi Intézet, Budapest, Hungary. ISBN 978-615-516-707-2

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Abstract

The book introduces the basics of the Laban kinetography, the most prevalent system of dance literacy today. Kinetography uses abstract symbols for notating dances however the system is more than a set of signs. Its conceptual foundation is movement analysis which defines the classified movement events in systems of references; the results are formulated by abstract signs whose use is determined by rules; the interpretation of symbols follows conventions. The complexity of the system may raise difficulties to those who intend to learn it. The multitude of movement concepts and special terms are new and unusual, as the bulk of them are usually missing from the dancers’ training. However, the effort required gradually bears its fruit. By learning the system’s analytic approach and using it in practice, competent users of kinetography can possess a high level of movement consciousness. The skill will enhance the articulateness of their dance, their movement recognition ability will increase, they will judge the features of performance more lucidly, and their pedagogical work will be more effective. The book is primarily concerned with—and its scope of notation use is limited to—the movement phenomena of the original traditional dances in the Carpathian Basin, saliently those of the Hungarians. The motif examples are selected from kinetographic transcription of films in the Traditional Dance Archive of the Institute for Musicology, Research Centre for the Humanities, Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

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