The Dance Notation Bureau was honored to be named to the Dance Heritage Coalition's list of America's Irreplaceable Dance Treasures: The First 100. The purpose of the initiative is to heighten public interest in the magnificence and range of of America's dance heritage and the need to document it and preserve it for future generations. The Dance Notation Bureau (DNB) documents dance on paper using a symbol system called Labanotation which describes the structure of movement (direction, level and duration) by the use of geometric symbols placed on a vertical staff representing the body. Dance scores function for dance in the same way music scores function for music. DNB has documented over 600 dances by more than 160 choreographers. Established in 1940 by Ann Hutchinson Guest, Helen Priest Rogers, Eve Gentry and Janey Price, the DNB celebrated its 60th anniversary this year. DNB, a non-profit organization, is the only American institution of its kind and assists dance companies and scholars around the world. The Dance Notation Bureau's mission is to keep dance alive. Each year, works by today's choreographers are notated and scored. In addition, 40 - 50 dances are restaged from the score. Past activities of the DNB include a project to notate 18 of Balanchine's ballets, the placement of a company notator with the Paul Taylor Dance Company, a series of Ballet Directors Courses to teach ballet masters from national companies how to use dance scores to stage works, and the creation of the Educational Performance Collection, a series of scored dances, with performance rights, available for purchase to universities and other educational institutions. 1992 saw the initiation of a new program, The Fund For Dance Notation. The program enables choreographers to apply to get their works notated at no cost to the artist. The DNB is currently working on a project with Credo Interactive, Inc. to create a translation interface between Life Forms, an animation program, and LabanWriter, a word-processor-like program for Labanotation. The completed first stage of the project allows notation of simple gestures and steps, written with LabanWriter, to be translated to Life Forms animation. During the fall of 1999, a wide spectrum of people and organizations were invited by Dance Heritage Coalition to nominate dance treasures. Some 900 nominations were received and went through a three-stage process of selection committees made up of experts throughtout the country. DNB was one of the first 100 treasures selected. For more information about the DNB, write, call or e-mail to: Dance Notation Bureau 151 West 30th Street, Suite 202 New York, NY 10001 Phone: 212-564-0985 e-mail: dnbinfo@mindspring.com ____________________________________________________ Ilene Fox, Executive Director Dance Notation Bureau 151 West 30th Street, Suite 202 New York, NY 10001 Phone: 212/564-0985; Fax: 212/904-1426 notation@mindspring.com www.dancenotation.org
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