grace

sorry, mel. thanks for noticing that. i'll get it right now.

A LITTLE COMMENT this is just a little observation of my own. some people will read or accept all that i have put down about BMN (Benesh Movement Notation) without noticing this, but i'm going to say it, partly because i think it's interesting, and partly in case others are wondering about it. you may have noticed that the notated positions are just that: POSITIONS - rather than movements. movement happens FROM one position TO another, or IN positions. so BMN works principally by depicting the positions. this is in contrast to laban, which 'thinks' in terms of EFFORT - that is, the ACTION, rather than the position. BOTH systems will include ALL the information you need, ultimately. but they begin from a different 'point of view' , if you like. please, if anyone here is very knowledgeable about laban, and would like to comment on this here, do go ahead...

CONTACT referring to body contact or other contact (such as contacting the barre). the basic premise is that the level symbol is manipulated, - to point up 'to' the right (meaning something RIGHT is making a contact) - or up 'to' the left (meaning something LEFT is making a contact). this little diagonal line then becomes very useful. it can be placed at the knee to indicate a retire, at the waist to indicate a hand on the waist, at the hipline to indicate a hand on the hip, on the shoulderline to indicate fingertips touching the shoulder, or even joined to a level symbol below the floorline, to indicate one foot CLOSING (i.e. contacting) the other in(to) 1st position. remember: consider where the centre of the frame/centre of the body would be. then, if the symbol points up to the right, it's a RIGHT something (right hand or right foot). at this stage, it is the context which tells you which of these it is: hand or foot. (later, you will discover there are other aspects which make this clear.) i have brought in this 'teaching' of CONTACT at this point so that we can make a start on reading the exercise in the COMBINATIONS FOR ALLEGRO book (previously linked to). that's where i'll pick up this discussion next, so if there are any questions at this stage, fire away!

MOVEMENT LINES on THIS french website page, http://notation.free.fr/benesh/theorie/lecon1_1.html if you click on the little triangle in the circle, at the bottom-left of the image, to animate the dancer figure, you will see green lines appear as the dancer moves. this is a lovely illustration of movement lines, being created as the dancer dances. give it a go!

OK - you've had a few days to digest the first few 'lessons'. here's a bit more, to build on what's above. have a look at the benesh illustration on this page (the graphic with the vertical blue lines next to it): http://notation.free.fr/ the first picture is 5th position of the feet, flat on the floor, with the arms both coming DOWN via 2nd to bras bas. the circular lines are "movement lines" which graphically depict the movement pathway. bras bas is shown by two 'front' symbols, equidistant from the (body) centre, approx, one third of the way down from the waist line (towards the knee line) stand up and try it - that should be about right. OK? the second picture shows the left foot is supporting the body (level) the left knee is bent, turned out (level). the right foot is also level, but extended just ever so slightly below waist height, to the side. the movement line shows that it got there via a developpe (an inward curve) rather than by a straight lift (which would be depicted by an outward curve). you will see there are movement lines for the arms: the right arm has gone directly forward (via devant) to 5th (en haut). the left arm has gone (via devant) to 2nd. again, the movement pathways tell the story, as viewed from behind, of course. there are two more signs to discover: BELOW the stave completely, there is a curve which indicates a jump. in this case it is a jump sur place (no travel). between the two top lines of the stave is a vertical line, with a little mark on it. what 'section' of the body is this? it's the section between the top of the head (line) and the top of the shoulders (line). therefore, it's the head and neck. voila! the little mark on it can be considered a 'nose'. the head is turned slightly to look to the right (as if viewing that mark as a nose, from behind). so the whole thing adds up to: a jump from 5th with a developpe of the right leg to waist height, arms going from bras bas to 4th en haut. any questions? obviously, this example is using theory beyond what you have so far 'learned' - but i am just trying to take advantage of whatever images i find online...

in response to ann's post i am a bit amazed. i haven't thought of her as a choreographer - but then i haven't done MY research, either. but "taken seriously" as a dancer? - yes, of course. i've never, before now, heard anyone suggest otherwise...

a little bit more on MUSIC : we have talked above of main ("pulse") beats, and (ever so briefly) of sub-beats. the time signature is indicated at the commencement of the piece - by using ONLY the top number out of the musical time signature. for example, if the Benesh stave says 4, it's a 4/4, or a 12/8 if " " " " 3, it's a 3/4, or a 9/8 if " " " " 2, it's a 2/4, OR a 6/8 (please don't lets get into the 'why' of THAT, just now!!) legato lines are used over any section of benesh stave, just the same way as they are used in music - to instruct that what's underneath the legato line is to be performed smoothly and continuously. tempo indications, if necessary, are printed above the commencement of the piece, just as in music, i.e. crotchet = 64 (or whatever the crotchet speed IS). italian expressions, as used in music, are also used above the commencement of the piece, and anywhere else they may be needed, to indicate movement quality. examples: con espressione, largo, andante, fortissimo, , whatever... double bar-lines indicate the end of the piece.

yes, su-lian, it is the Conservatoire de Paris that offers a professional notators course in benesh, since 1995. if you are french speaking, you might also like to browse at this notation site (for basic benesh AND laban): http://notation.free.fr/

no - i'm not thinking of stopping. not yet, anyway! just, some days, my attention is directed elsewhere! i hope you have seen the other benesh thread (link below), where i am explaining some more general concepts which are applicable. http://www.balletalert.com/forum/showthrea...&threadid=11067

OK - have a look at the ALLEGRO book, previously mentioned in the "101" thread: http://www.dtol.ndirect.co.uk/bab7.htm look at bar 4. (the bars are counted, in this case, from the first set of vertical double-lines. those double lines have a meaning we will get to, later...;) the FIRST thing that looks like a bar is NOT a bar, but rather just the starting position. the (apparent) 2nd and 3rd bars are in fact the FIRST two bars - the musical Introduction.) in that bar 4 of the exercise (leaving aside the Intro), you will see a notated position on count 1, then a pulse beat above the empty space for count 2, then another notated position for count 3, and another empty space (withOUT any pulse beat symbol) for count 4. so: that's what a pulse beat looks like, and that's how it's used. down in bar 7, you will see a symbol for a half beat (the 'and' count) and another use of the pulse beat.

OK - another slant - TIMING timing of movement may or may not be music. obvious, really! however, for ballet, mostly it WILL be music, so i'll just talk about music, but the same principles apply to whatever else might be providing the timing. a single beat is referred to as a "pulse beat". this beat is a crotchet value, unless otherwise stated. a 4/4 will have 4 pulse beats, or 4 crotchet values per bar. a 2/4 will have 2. a 3/4 will have 3, and so on. within that structure, further divisions are indicated by sub-beats (which i won't go into, any further, right now). the basic rule is, that if there are equal numbers of notated positions in a bar, and crotchet values in that bar, then it will be one position per note (value), unless further information is provided to contradict that. here is an example where 'further information' WOULD be necessary: 1 tendu devant, (count 1) close 5th, (count 2) 1 quick tendu devant to 5th, (and 3) hold in 5th (count 4)... there will be 4 notated positions in that bar of 4/4: the tendu, the 5th, the tendu, the 5th. - but one position is on a sub-beat ("and') and another beat has NO movement on it. there are benesh symbols, to write above the stave, for the sub-beats, if and when you need to use them. and for the 1-count 'hold', you write the pulse beat symbol (a circle with a vertical line straight through it) above the relevant empty stave-space, to indicate that the beat occurs there - but movement doesn't. below, i will see if i can find you an example of the use of such symbols...

cliff wrote: A: online? - not that i've found yet, cliff. you are right, of course, that this is necessary. i suppose i was trying to see how far i could get, with words/withOUT pictures...more or less as an experiment.the answer is probably that, in theory, one could get quite a bit further without pictures - but it is inefficient (and NOT user-friendly) teaching... if there were really a significant group of people here, who seriously wanted to try to learn this stuff, i MIGHT put up some images on my homepage, and link to those - but at this stage only a small group of people have shown interest, and i imagine it's more a conversational interest than a real 'study' type of interest. which brings me to peregrin's Q: A: i studied at the benesh institute in london, which, at that time (and probably still) is the only place in the world where you can pursue this study to professional level. however, i have since seen mention of somewhere it is possible to study in paris (but i don't know to what level). also, the university of waterloo offers a basic course (see link from rhonda ryman's webpage, mentioned above).in australia, the VCA in melbourne USED TO offer a basic course - whether or not they still do, i have no idea. there are a couple of books, but they don't take you very far at all. you CAN do the basic course from the benesh institute by correspondence - but it is very expensive.

this thread accompanies Benesh 101 - The Basics, where an attempt is made to 'teach' in-stave information: http://www.balletalert.com/forum/showthrea...20&pagenumber=1 THIS thread will be an overview of some of the general concepts involved in notating with benesh. for starters, some of you may have questions about its historical development. HISTORY here is a page from alt.arts.ballet which answers some general questions about notation (and also, unrelated, about Life Forms software, and about Contact Improvisation). no responsibility taken by me for anything it says there - i haven't read it. : http://omicron.felk.cvut.cz/FAQ/articles/a1671.html here is a page which gives an abbreviated history of the benesh institute (in london) up to the late 1990's: http://www.benesh.org/history.html

i don't know her age, but looking at the list of her RBS contemporaries, i would guess that she must be in her early40s. i'm glad to hear that she is a happy person, as perhaps this indicates she is happy doing her teaching, now. she was a lovely performer - really radiant.

you're a good thinker, cliff. answers to your questions: - yes, a pair of dancers IS represented by two parallel staves of notation. - if it is pas de deux/PARTNERED stuff, the two staves are connected, bar for bar, so that both dancers' movements can be read in sync. - the same CAN be done with many staves, if necessary. - however, often when many dancers are onstage - think swan lake -or bayadere or sleeping beauty - many of them are doing the same things as each other - OR half of them are doing the same thing "on the other side"/on the other leg - so this can be written much more compactly...(more on that one day, in the far far distance...maybe...) as to computerisation, i'm sure you will find other threads here about THAT topic, however there IS a program called MacBenesh, invented by Rhonda Ryman at the University of Waterloo in Canada, http://www.ahs.uwaterloo.ca/~rsryman/ to WRITE benesh scores with computer accuracy. here is it's website: strangely, i have just found a free download of a sample of Macbenesh. i have not yet tried it, but i will, and will let you know what i find out. it seems highly unlikely that this would actually be available free... http://members.rogers.com/dancewrite/MacBe.../macbenesh.html back at rhonda's page, if you click on the words 'Life Forms', you will see that this is another, different piece of software, designed to produce an animated figure for dance - but it has no connection to benesh notation. btw, i also notice that on THIS page, you can pay $435 to learn what we are learning here...of course, THAT is personalised instruction! ;)

i'm a Crisp fan too, marc - and i like that phrase "self-consciously curmudgeonly" - a quality the english are best at. i met clement once, in the opera house bar, but would never have been gauche enough to act like a 'fan', then. NOW, i might! - ;)

some very interesting posts here. in response to: i can tell you that when i began reviewing i was told this by my editor, on legal grounds - that you must be able to substantiate everything you write.now, of course, this 'rule' or guideline has a different meaning, when applied to the parts of a review which are OPINION, as distinct from FACTS (as alexandra mentions above). however, opinions CAN be substantiated too - that's the whole point. you can't just say 'this is crap' (even in polite language!) - you must say 'this is not as good as it might be BECAUSE.... 'etc. (or similar... - i'm sure you get my drift...) i too like the forest and the trees analogy (or is this a metaphor? - i always get those two confused...) however, i would caution you that sometimes you get a lot more pleasure looking at the forest...analysis can rob art of joy. at the same time, it may well be a pleasure, AFTER the fact - maybe the next day - to read a 'reminder' of your pleasure, and be helped to understand more about your experience, through insightful commentary of knowledgeable others... "a dollar each way".... ;) i too am impressed by that teacher cabriole mentions.

great, peregrin - i don't think we've 'met' before, online. there aren't that many of us 'ozzies' making regular use of the best ballet boards. the sun shone, here in western australia, for the whole of the anzac long weekend, so i 've been out gardening...more benesh to follow, later.

thumpinhippo - nice to 'meet' you - might i ask which publication you wrote this for?

thanks ari - sounds like i'm glad i missed it! ;)

no, no. sometimes i'm inspired with the next bit of content, and sometimes (like now at 1:15 am) i'm not sure which way to go next! ;)

i have found this thread rather overwhelming - probably because not all of these variations are known to me. i think it seems to be full of good ideas, and personal experiences and recommendations. i couldn't help wondering if there is a way to sort them out a bit - a way to make the information in here a bit more accessible, to students (or teachers), who might want this information, in future? i had thought to go through these posts and 'sort' them, somehow...but i'm not sure how, and i really don't have the time. maybe someone else has a bright idea how to do it, and maybe even the urge to follow-thru...? for example, if i were a student wanting to choose a variation, but not having seen many of them, where would i start to even think about them? i think it might help, to perhaps divide the many posts here into the comments about: - variations for the adagio, long-legged, lyrical dancer - variations for the shorter/ jumpy-type/faster dancer - variations for the good-turner - any other ideas of how to do it? of course, some variations might be on several lists... i realise that many such variations combine diverse skills, but i DO think (speaking as a teacher, anyway) that it IS possible to categorise many of them, according to the MAIN skills needed...has anyone got any thoughts about this, and/or an urge to try to do it? ;)

tough one treefrog! i'll be interested to read some answers here... ;)

interesting idea, treefrog. it sounds far more in-depth than anyone in the local audience (here) would tolerate. however, in a major city: london, new york, SF, whatever...maybe! it does occur to me though, that it might be a possible way to encourage and/or train potential critics...(in australia, people are most disinclined to become critics, so maybe something like this would help)...i might just pass on your suggestion to the dance magazine here...maybe they could arrange such a course, together with a ballet company, in order to draw out and/or train up some new potential writers...which i know they presently need. good thinking!

thanks, su-lian. hopefully: tomorrow!