“d”

The project ‘notations under provisions’ was shown again this time at the theater of studio k in march 19th. Some of the audience tried out their choreographic skills in typing a dance while the dancers were executing the commands by listening and reading the projection. All of the evening’s choreographers chose to keep the rights of the notations which at the end of each typing session were printed out.

Dress code and audience guided by hiko uemura 
Dancers: sarah & mara
 this time some flyers in the form of a manual for how to type were spread to the public. Members from the audience spent quite some time to look up the index of the symbols with the indication of the movement they represent. And some “choreographers” had quite an inspiration. One of them copyrighted Hitler’s salutation.. rather perverted move but also absurd if one thinks that it was at the same time copyrighted :-) 

dancers: thomas & kees

more photos (by Rob)

video by Michael Murtaugh
4th July in WORM

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at last we will present the outcome of all our work. all this will be opened at W.O.R.M. Friday July 4th2008, starting 21.30h

the updated version of the open-source, python-based Laban typewriter will be open to the public for making up their own Labanotation scores. it is yet a very basic typewriter, but already more advanced than the first, we’ve added specification of the staff with basic body parts.

PLUS dancer Kees Lemmens for his simultaneously performed & very own interpretation of the notations, alongside with Thomas Körtvélyessy, both in costumes by Hiko Uemura

PLUS a video interview with Bertha Bermudez based on her collaboration with emio greco | pc on the issues of notation, authorship, and choreographic work.
the typewriter will remain available as an interactive installation for the entire weekend .

a big thank you to all collaborators!

see you there …

documentation
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procedure
The video shows a part of the prototype of the project, output of the presentation held in May. People from the audience tried out to compose movements by typing Labanotation on the keyboard of the computer. In the first step of their interaction with the application they were confronted with the question whether they wanted to copyright the notation or not. This somehow gave a strong emphasis on the copyright aspect of the choreography. Thomas performed live the symbols that were typed in.

ambiguity
This kind of control of the dancer raised ambiguous impressions. It was fun to see how the dancer was sometimes immobilized but in the same time this act of puppet play brought to surface questions of power and rigid systems. The sound is voice recorded that describes the meaning of the symbols. Therefore the notation can be interpreted by dancers that are not familiar with Laban’s notation. In the end of each typing, the notations were printed so that people could hold them as a piece of code.

discussion
After the performance, people were interested in the history of dance notation. How much it was developed as means of control or constrain, when copyright in choreography was introduced and how the project could develop further. Suggestions such as having more that one dancer, could give a nuance in the actual performance. A more detailed notation and a less descriptive sound. Also another idea was to have a small introduction of some basic steps before the public encounter with the computer.

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place & time
Karel Doormanhof 45, Rotterdam
start 19.00h

Location : near the Schouwburgplein, between Mauritstraat, Karel Doormanstraat, Van Oldebarneveltstraat and Oude Binnenweg.
Public transportation : Metro, Trams (4 & 7) & Bus (32 & 46), Eendrachtsplein Station.

description:
we are interested in trying out some ideas with an audience of people from different disciplines, who will have different expectations.

rather than hold a beginning-to-end presentation that is ready to be consumed and attended, we intend to create more of a workshop and discussion-situation.
our tool will be Labanotation and we are interested in enabling visitors to visually write their own dance-/kinesthetic text.
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thoughts >.
dance notation can serve as a great tool to become more conscious of how we move and what kinds of choices we make. however, as described in an article in ‘traces of dance’ (La Pensée de Feuillet, Dances Tracées, Éditions Dis-Voir, Paris 1991) it can also be used as a means of power and control: only if you had supplied the planned dance in writing to the Royal Academy of Dance in Paris, would they give approval for the dance to be performed. (by the way, the emergence of the notation itself began with a controversy on copyright / authorship, as Beauchamp claimed that Feuillet had stolen his original ideas and published them without mentioning him. the Royal Court of Louis XIV decided on a split verdict, giving both credit as originator & final developer…)

so, who is in control, and how far does it reach?

are copyright and authorship merely so-called tools of ethics, only for use to owning elites, or are there other ways of protecting each other from less social tendencies?

Labanotation is one of the methods to record and compose dance.

“At the time of passage of the 1976 Copyright Revision, the cost of a notated score in Labanotation ranged from $500 to $3,000.” Barbara Kibbee, Art & the Law, January 1976.

It is also a means to prove authorship of a dance piece. Choreographic works have been copyrightable in USA since January 1978. In case of infringement the copyright law requires proof of ‘sufficient’ similarity between the original work and the allegedly infringing work. Injunction may concern a very small amount taken from the protected work.
Broad Copyright Protection,
Harvard Law Review, June 1960.

Submission of the original choreography in a tangible medium, such as written notation/video should be able to demonstrate this similarity.

Problematic issues of this procedure:
-How the providing notation can be read and understood by an ordinary viewer in a court jury?

-The use of a video may be also misleading.

-How the amount of similarity is measured in the dancing steps?

“Traditional, folklore, ordinary and novel steps cannot be subject of copyright as words in writing or chords in music cannot be copyrighted neither. So how can one draw a line between a novel sequence of steps and an original combination of steps legitimate for copyright protection?”

Julie Van Camp,
‘Copyright of choreographic Works’, 1994.

Why a method of recording movement on paper is copyright?

the video is a first try-out of reading Labanotation and exploring its potential for interpretation by Thomas Körtvélyessy

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Having the art’s academy gym as a space for the rehearsals might not be always easy as it may happen to confront a bunch of people forming a basketball team that practices hard. Nevertheless the room is huge, though a bit cold if the body doesn’t jump around.

photo of gym

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In the early Renaissance dance was important part of the social deportment and one of the disciplines fought for supremacy among the fine arts.

“There was no better way to display wealth and position than by giving balls at which, during stately dances, elegance in dress and manner could be shown to advantage. Dancing masters, well conversed in the elaborate etiquette as well as the steps required on the ballroom floor, were both in demand and highly esteemed”. Ann Hutchinson Geust Dance Notation, 1984.
more history

In the post-modern dance, Steve Paxton did a series of performances with pornographic material and tried to circumvent the established notions of the body and its dancing techniques as well as the relation between the performers, the performers and the audience, and among the audience. He used pornographic film projections in some of his dances and once a documentary on Biafra in order to link various activities in unpredictable relations and force the audience to reflect their assumptions about their activities.

In the piece ‘Collaboration with Wintersoldier’ (1971), Paxton worked with the organization Wintersoldier formed by Vietnam veterans against the war. The film made by the organization was projected while two performers watched it by being suspended upside-down. In ‘Air’ (1973) he used a film of the Bolshoi ‘Swan Lake’ simultaneously projected with a blue movie, together with 2 TV sets, one screened a live telecast of Nixon’s ‘no whithewash at the White House’, and the other a videotape collage of the ‘Pacific Ocean’, Nixon’s 1952 Checkers speech, and dancing legs.

“Paxton views theater as a powerful machine, that gathers the energy of all the spectators and funnels it concentratedly to the performer.” Sally Banes Terpsichore in Sneakers 1980 USA, p.63-64.