# Labanotation (ラバノーテーション)

> A notation that turns bodily movement into one vertical staff read from the bottom upward. The shape of a symbol carries direction, its shading carries level, its length carries duration, and its position across the staff says which part of the body moves.

- IndexStyle No.388 — https://indexstyle.org/styles/labanotation
- Kind: Style · Family: Notation Systems · Era: 1928–
- Mood: Technique, Calm, Rebellion
- What this family collects: Systems that convert an action unfolding in time into positions on a page so another person can reproduce it, covering not only sound but dance and knitted stitches.

## Defining characteristics

- Symbols stacked without gaps on a vertical staff read from the bottom upward
- Symbol shapes giving nine directions, with the centre line separating right from left
- Shading inside each symbol standing for low, middle or high level
- Symbol length equal to duration, with tick marks for beats and bar lines crossing the staff

## Best used for

- Recording choreography so it can be revived without the original cast
- Analyzing movement in comparable symbols rather than on video

## Composition recipe

- Typography & lettering: Direction in symbol shape, level in shading, sizes held constant
- Layout & structure: Time climbs from the bottom, one column for each body part
- Material & texture: Symbol length equals duration, so run a beat scale down the edge

## Colour

Read off the reference works below, so a direction rather than a fixed palette.

- Ground: #fdf3c2
- The colour it is remembered by: #ab956f
- Text and outlines: #5f4b34

## What to avoid

Bending symbol length to capture how a move feels makes duration unreadable, and the revival comes out as a different dance.

## Application checklist

Work through this before calling a piece an application of this style.

- [ ] Visible in the piece: Symbols stacked without gaps on a vertical staff read from the bottom upward
- [ ] Visible in the piece: Symbol shapes giving nine directions, with the centre line separating right from left
- [ ] Visible in the piece: Shading inside each symbol standing for low, middle or high level
- [ ] Visible in the piece: Symbol length equal to duration, with tick marks for beats and bar lines crossing the staff
- [ ] The layout follows: Time climbs from the bottom, one column for each body part
- [ ] The lettering follows: Direction in symbol shape, level in shading, sizes held constant
- [ ] The material and surface follow: Symbol length equals duration, so run a beat scale down the edge
- [ ] The colour relation holds: #fdf3c2 as ground, #ab956f carrying the style, #5f4b34 for text and outlines
- [ ] At least one reference work below has been studied directly
- [ ] The caution above ("What to avoid") has been addressed

## Related styles

- **Graphic Notation (図形楽譜)** — The scores Cage and Cardew drew when they abandoned the staff: shapes, lines, map-like pages. Opening performance to interpretation rather than instruction, the score itself became visual art. → https://indexstyle.org/styles/graphic-notation
- **Bauhaus Stage (バウハウスの舞台)** — Schlemmer's stage workshop turned the body into geometry. Spheres and cones in the Triadic Ballet costumes set the human figure dancing as a form in space, and performance art traces its origin to them. → https://indexstyle.org/styles/bauhaus-stage

## Compose it with something else

The dictionary can put this entry in a structural role and another in an accent role, and report where the two fight: https://indexstyle.org/compose?ids=labanotation+graphic-notation

## Further study

- Feuillet notation, 1700
- Rudolf Laban
- comparison with Benesh notation

## Reference works

- Labanotation score (CC BY-SA 2.0) — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Myriam%20Gourfink%20(5925927642).jpg
- Feuillet notation 1700 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Feuillet%201700.jpg
- Page of Feuillet notation — Wikimedia Commons / CC0 — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Feuillet%20notation.jpg

## Source of record

- Dance Notation Bureau「Labanotation Fundamentals」 — https://www.dancenotation.org/labanotation-fundamentals/

## Machine surfaces

- JSON: https://indexstyle.org/api/styles/labanotation
- Image-generation prompt (legally clean): https://indexstyle.org/styles/labanotation/prompt.txt
- MCP: https://indexstyle.org/mcp (tools: search_styles, get_style, compare_styles, compose_styles, find_related_styles; prompts: image-prompt, apply-style)