On Choreography

Based on its original Greek words, choreography is the designing and writing of circles.  In contemporary use, choreography emphasizes design – in particular, the composition of dance steps and sequences.

While acknowledging this common understanding of choreography, Laban adds that the term has been employed “to designate the drawings of figures and symbols of movement which dance composers jotted down as an aid to memory.”  In this sense, Laban’s own efforts to find a way to record movement in symbols is choreography, although he preferred the term “kinetography.”

In The Art of Making Dances, Doris Humphrey noted that while “man has composed dances throughout the ages,” it was only in the 1930s that “theories of dance composition were  developed and taught.”  Once the word “theory” is introduced, we move towards another branch of choreosophy – choreology.

Find out more in the next blog.