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Notating DuncanAnn Hutchinson GuestPublished online: 02 Jun 2008.

To cite this article: Ann Hutchinson Guest (1997) Notating Duncan, DanceChronicle, 20:1, 99-101, DOI: 10.1080/01472529708569270

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01472529708569270

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Review—Notating Duncan

Ann Hutchinson Guest

Isadora Duncan: The DancesBy Nadia Chilkovsky Nahumck. 532 pp. Illustrated. Labanotation

scores.Washington, D.C.: National Museum of Women in the Arts, 1994.

$165. ISBN 0-940979-23-3.

This book, Isadora Duncan: The Dances, is a milestone in dance litera-ture. Not only is it an attractive, beautifully produced book, publishedby The National Museum of Women in the Arts, but its author, Dr.Nadia Chilkovsky Nahumck, has given extensive thought to all that sucha book should contain. We are the richer that she has been able toinclude so much. Within the 532 pages we are presented with the searchfor primary sources, the links Nahumck found between Rudolf von La-ban's theories and Duncan's perceptions, the Duncan way of dance(drama through simplicity), staging Duncan dance, creating Duncancostumes, and a summary titled "What is Duncan Dance?"—all thisbefore the section on the dances themselves, presented in Labanota-tion. Valuable appendices and a bibliography conclude the book.Throughout, there are many carefully selected photographs illustrating

© 1997 by Ann Hutchinson Guest

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the style, the quality, and the dramatic content of the dances. Credit isgiven to Nicholas Nahumck, autographer of the Labanotation scores,and his assistant, Anne M. Moll. Hortense Kooluris and Julia Levienare credited for additional dance research and Harry Hewitt for assis-tance on music research.

Were it not for Dr. Nahumck's long experience in and dedica-tion to Duncan dance, this book would never have been produced. Inher preface she draws the reader into the book; her personal involve-ment makes it immediate. She provides an interesting picture of howshe turned to Labanotation to pinpoint the various aspects of Duncanmovement. She makes many telling comments on the value of notation,stressing the need, if fine details are to be captured exactly as the cho-reographer wishes them, for the choreographer to be also the notator.No one can speak more eloquently on this matter than Nahumck. Sheherself mastered Labanotation while already a successful teacher andchoreographer, diligently practicing its use until she could fluently re-cord her own choreographies. There now exist "younger generation"choreographers who can read Labanotation and hence can check whatthe notator has recorded and whether the choreographic vision hasbeen captured. At a further remove, the notator must strive to identifythe choreographer's aim, the intention of the movement, and from thischoose the appropriate way of expressing it through the rich movementanalysis provided in the Laban system. Nahumck once said, "If youvalue your choreography, write it down!"—a dictum to which she ad-hered.

But what does a series of symbols express? Many years agomembers of the Dance Notation Bureau met with Nadia ChilkovskyNahumck to undertake an experiment. A paper was handed out called"Secret Document No. 1." We reader-performers were to have no ideaof what kind of movement she had notated. With my Laban-basedJooss-Leeder dance training I was able to produce the successions inthe spine and arms, movements with which Graham- and Limón-baseddancers had no direct experience, but as the movements unfolded wecould see the results and recognize the Duncan style. Had we knownthis fact in advance the experiment would have lost its validity.Certainly, it proved to all present how well a desired style could becaptured.

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NOTATING DUNCAN 101

The dance scores in this book are divided into groups. First,basic exercises are given, then dances for children, followed by reper-tory dances grouped under the name of the composer—Brahms,Chopin, Gluck, Schubert, and so forth—with each piece of music clearlyidentified. The last section, "Homage to Isadora Duncan," presentsdances by Maria-Theresa Duncan and a suite of dances in contempo-rary style by the author.

Nahumck thoughtfully included information on the rudimentsof the Labanotation system, with explanations geared toward the ma-terial in hand. The claim is made that the book was fully reviewed bythe Dance Notation Bureau. Puzzled by what I found (e.g., the glaringerror on page 29 in depicting the marking of regular beats on the centerline of the vertical staff, and instances of ambiguity that should havebeen cleared up), I inquired and found that this section had not beensent to the Dance Notation Bureau for checking. In the notated glossaryof typical traits in Duncan dance—a very helpful exposition—there aresome unusual notation indications, making this section comparable tothe glossary of special usages frequently included in Labanotation pub-lications to provide scope for special needs. What had been reviewedby the Dance Notation Bureau were the dance scores. On studyingthese I raise the questions, What corrections were applied? Did theimportant second, follow-up checking take place to ascertain that allcorrections and comments had been applied? It clearly did not.

Despite these ambiguities, in the main the movement "leapsfrom the page." A rewarding amount of important and valuable mate-rial has been captured in notated form. Let us hope that there will bea second edition, for which time will be taken to make the correctionsneeded to bring the notation in line with current usage.

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