Finding Aid for The Dance Notation Bureau Collection

History

The Dance Notation Bureau (a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization) was founded in 1940 by Ann Hutchinson Guest, Helen Priest Rogers, Eve Gentry, and Janey Price. The DNB mission is to advance the art of dance through the use of a system of notation, creating dance scores using the symbol system called Labanotation, named for Rudolf Laban who first published the system in 1928. In 1942, choreographer Eugene Loring requested a notation score of his Billy the Kid, the first ballet recorded in the United States, in order to establish his intellectual property rights to the choreography. Over the years, hundreds of works have been notated, representing choreographers including Doris Humphrey, Hanya Holm (her notated Kiss Me Kate was the first score accepted for copyright registration by the Library of Congress), George Balanchine, Paul Taylor, Antony Tudor, Bill T. Jones, William Forsythe, José Limón, Laura Dean, and many others. Each year DNB assists in notating works and in staging performances from score. In 1968, the DNB Extension for Education and Research was founded as part of the Department of Dance at The Ohio State University with a mission to promote and implement research, develop curriculum, and expand dance notation literature and archival materials. Three software programs, LabanWriter, LabanReader, and Labanlink, have emerged under the umbrella of the Extension, as well as LabanLab, a website for learning Labanotation.

Scope and Contents

The Dance Notation Bureau Collection contains original manuscripts of dance scores (primarily in the symbol system of Labanotation); teaching materials on notation; photographs of dance notators, notation sessions, notation conferences, and other related events; microfilms of dance scores; publications including newsletters and journals such as the Dance Notation Record and the Dance Notation Journal; audio/visual materials including moving image resources taped by Helen Priest Rogers; collections from or about individuals including Helen Priest Rogers, Carl Wolz, Richard Holden, and Albrecht Knust; and other materials that contribute to the DNB mission to advance the art of dance through the use of notation.

Arrangement

Restrictions on Use

Please ask repository staff for details if you are interested in obtaining photocopies or scans of the collection. If you are interested in restaging works from score, please consult the Dance Notation Bureau, http://www.dancenotation.org/.

Restrictions on Access

Restrictions may apply to certain scores. Please consult with repository staff.

Oversize materials, books, and journals are housed separately.

Index Terms

This record series is indexed under the following controlled access subject terms.

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Custodial History

The Dance Notation Bureau Collection was transferred to The Ohio State University by the Dance Notation Bureau in 1968 where it was housed in Rare Books and Manuscripts as a deposit collection until 2005-2006 when it was transferred to the Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee Theatre Research Institute and made a gift on 10 October 2006. Additions to the Collection have been made periodically by the Dance Notation Bureau and by DNB affiliates including Lucy Venable, Odette Blum, and Sheila Marion.

Preferred Citation

SPEC_TRI_DNB_[series]_[box]_[folder]_[item], The Dance Notation Bureau, The Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee Theatre Research Institute, The Ohio State University.

Acquisition

Gift

Processing Information

These records were organized and catalogued by Mara Penrose, Michael Morris, and Crystal Fuller. These project archivist positions were funded by the Dance Preservation Fund and supported by the OSU Department of Dance. Additional information and assistance is supplied by Mei-Chen Lu, Director of Library Services, Dance Notation Bureau. Earlier processing and cataloguing was done by Department of Dance faculty Lucy Venable, Odette Blum, Sheila Marion, Valarie Williams, and graduate students.

Detailed Description of the collection.