Dance Notation for the iPad? There’s an App for That
By Jie Jenny Zou
August 5, 2011
When Reed College in Oregon invited faculty members last fall to submit app ideas for the iPad tablet, Hannah J. Kosstrin immediately thought of what she knew best—dance.
Ms. Kosstrin, a visiting assistant professor of dance at Reed, is now working with the college’s chief technology officer, Martin Ringle, and Ohio State University to develop an app that allows dancers to easily read and write complex choreography. The project received a $25,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, which awards money for innovative digital programs.
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When Reed College in Oregon invited faculty members last fall to submit app ideas for the iPad tablet, Hannah J. Kosstrin immediately thought of what she knew best—dance.
Ms. Kosstrin, a visiting assistant professor of dance at Reed, is now working with the college’s chief technology officer, Martin Ringle, and Ohio State University to develop an app that allows dancers to easily read and write complex choreography. The project received a $25,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, which awards money for innovative digital programs.
“It’s very much like a piece of music,” said Ms. Kosstrin of the dance-notation system called Labanotation, which was developed in the 1920s and is commonly used by dance professionals and students. A series of intricate, rectangular symbols placed on staffs relay specific directions to dancers on how and which body part to move, for how long, and where in relation to the ground. The notation system is also used to document human movement in theater and live performance.
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Complete notated dances, called scores, are usually printed out and bound into books like scripts. Ms. Kosstrin said that bringing Labanotation to the iPad made sense, since the tablet computer allows users to draw freely and interact as they would with pen and paper. Dancers can also use the tablet’s camera to record video of choreography as they notate.
The iPad app will build upon notation software called LabanWriter, developed at Ohio State University.
Ms. Kosstrin is currently reading a 50-page score that translates into a half-hour-long dance. (Score lengths vary depending on the complexity and speed of the dance.)
The app is still in development, but a test version will be distributed among interested universities this fall. The college plans to release a freeware version of the app in the spring.