notation du mouvement http://notation.free.fr |
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CONTEXTE QUESTIONS A SANDRA ABERKALNS |
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Sandra, which projects did you work on in 2001? For me, projects are always overlapping. Rarely do I have the luxury of completing one project completely before beginning the next. 2001 was no exception. Last year I finished the "master score" to Alvin Ailey's Quintet, which I had begun in 2000. I also attended rehearsals to notate Choo-San Goh's Beginnings, when it was staged for DanceGalaxy (a New York-based ballet company), and Jerome Robbins' Dances at a Gathering at the San Francisco Ballet. Other projects included going to the University of Oklahoma where I coached Doris Humphrey's Soaring; guest teaching at Barnard College in New York; and publishing several articles on dance and notation. |
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Before giving the "master copy" of a score to the DNB you work through different stages. Could you describe this process? The first thing I do, before rehearsals begin, is to find any information I can about the choreographer or work that may help me with the score. I search for videos, reviews, articles, and photographs, among other things. My first stop is usually the Performing Arts Library at Lincoln Center. I then go to the Dance Notation Bureau (DNB) to see if the choreographer has any works notated. The Internet is another valuable tool for locating material that may not be found at either the Performing Arts Library or DNB. If I'll be notating a work that requires a music score or special recording I prefer to find these items before I go into rehearsal. Sometimes it's easy to find the music scorebut how do you know which of the fifteen versions in front of you to buy? At other times, I'm able to find the music score at the Performing Arts Library but special permission is required from the publisher to photocopy it. It's also possible that the score or recording is out of print. If that's the case I hope the stager will have one, or both to give me. If the music is unpublished I'm out of luck. The rehearsal process is usually intense. You have a stager sharing a lot of information, and dancers trying to learn the choreography, steps, and style of a choreographer with which they may not be familiar in a very short period of time. The notator is responsible for writing down the steps, how the choreography relates to the music, drawing floor plans (how dancers move across the stage), and listening to what the stager is saying about the dance (which can include imagery, emotional motivation, and historical information). At the end of the day I've written a lot of information, but my notes are a mess. Notation symbols, word notes, dancer counts are mixed up all over the page. Twenty-four counts may be squeezed onto two pages or spread out over six pages. For a given section of ballet the soloist's movement may be written on one legal pad and the corps on another. So at the end of each day's rehearsal I create the first draft of the score. This draft is very important, as it becomes the foundation for the rest of the notation process. The first thing I check is how the dancers are phrasing the movement (are they dividing the 24 counts as three sets of 8, or perhaps as 6 x 12 x 6), which determines how I'll set up each page. Once I understand the phrasing I can organize the other material. Staffs are written for the notation symbols; word notes are grouped together; floor plans are drawn; and information from several pads can be coordinated. I need to be able to see clearly what information I have and what I'm missingwhere there is certainty and where there are questions. If I have a music score I begin marking it with the dancers' counts. More than once, while marking the music, I've discovered that I'm missing an entire movement phrase. The next rehearsal it will be easy to watch for that phrase and insert it into the draft. As it's not always possible to finish a score as soon as rehearsals are over it's even more important to have this legible draft to work from. Once rehearsals are over the notator begins work on the final manuscript. The first draft is written for the notator's benefitthe final score is written for the reader's. Layout is very important in the final manuscript. Transferring movement (going from a legal pad to 10 square per inch graph paper) might change how many counts can be written per page. If an entire movement phrase can't be shown on one page, then how should the phrase be broken? Are the dancers' staffs presented in the most logical order? Does a word note belong in the notation score alongside the movement or in the Introduction? Where is the best place for the floor plans to be writtenalong the bottom of the staff or "running" up the side of the page? Movement analysis needs to be closely scrutinized. Does the turn amount agree with where the dancer is facing at the end of the turn? Is a dancer stepping twice onto the same foot? Are the contacts between partners accurate? Notators rely on their instincts when writing movement in rehearsal but they also need to be objective about the choices they've made. For example, in Dances at a Gathering the only directions the dancers were given for a side-to-side bend was "to bend a lot". The analysis I chose by instinct may be entirely appropriate, but there are two other ways I could have chosen to write this movement. So before I make a final decision I have to consider which analysis best describes that action. Last but not least there's the Introduction. This section, which precedes the notation portion of the score, is considered a historical document in its own right and is a major source of information about the dance. Style Notes offer a summary of style, quality, and dramatic intent for that dance. In the Music Section the stager will find information about the discography and music score. Depending on the complexity of the work the Introduction may include any or all of the following topics: Libretto, Biography, Cast Lists (original cast and the notated score), Casting and Audition information, Historical Notes, Music, Style, Costume, Lighting, Set, Prop, Photograph and Video information, Notes to the Stager, and Glossary. |
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From my perspective the challenge was how to cue the stager visually
when she is looking at a task, a choreographer's directive, or movement
that is a directive but open to interpretation in ways other than what
is written. Color was the solution.
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For this same score you included a multimedia document. For you, what is the relationship between the various methods for documenting dance? All the new technology is exciting: CD-ROMs, digital photography and video, software programs that create 3-D imaging, movement capture. Multimedia documents can facilitate and enhance dance preservation and documentation, but it's important to remember that technology is only a tool. The Forsythe CD-ROM was possible because supplementary materials to the score were acquired when the work was notated. For the past 60 years the DNB archive has served as a repository of not just notation scores but a variety of materials. Along with the score the notator may submit photographs, costume designs, fabric swatches, props, lighting and set designs, music scores, audio recordings, articles, reviews, miscellaneous correspondence. The goal is to preserve the entire dance, not just the steps. For several years the DNB has been working on creating a multimedia database on which could be stored the LN score, music (both score and audio), video, photographs, production information, oral histories, etc. The database used by the DNB will be comprehensive, but also flexible. Each score is unique, and information needed for one dance's CD would not be necessary for another. |
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Besides notating, you also stage works from the score. You came to France to stage a work by Paul Taylor for the Opéra de Paris, and also a work by Hanya Holm for CNSMDP dancers. How do you define this role? As a stager working from a score I have a unique link to the choreography. Staging from a score provides insights into a work that are different from those available through reviews, video/film, photographs, or personal experience. Except for the method used to learn the choreography, my goals, once in the studio, are no different than any other stagera successful production. The responsibilities of the stager vary from situation to situation. If a coach is coming at a later date, the stager may only be required to set the choreography. However, more often than not the stager will both set and coach the work. When I was at the Opéra de Paris the stagers (I was with Christopher Gillis and Cathy McCann) were not responsible for production elements. The Taylor Company stage manager came to Paris to set the lighting and consulted on the prop and set construction, and the costume designer, Santo Loquasto, came to supervise costume construction. At CNSMDP, when I staged Hanya Holm's Jocose, I was responsible for staging the work and working with the in-house staff on production elements. |
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Interview by e-mail, March 2002, by Marion Bastien |
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