DanceWriting for Modern and Jazz Dance Textbook [Paperback]

Valerie J Sutton (Author), Jayne Gunderson (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 2, 1979 | ISBN-10: 091433610X | ISBN-13: 978-0914336105

DanceWriting for Modern and Jazz Dance is an instruction textbook teaching the reading and writing of modern and jazz dance in Sutton DanceWriting. It is a reference textbook for writing any kind of movement with Sutton Movement Writing. Spiral Bind. 245 pages. It includes a workbook in the back. 1979.

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About the Author

Valerie Sutton is the inventor of Sutton Movement Writing, also called the International Movement Writing Alphabet (the IMWA), divided into five sections: 1. DanceWriting, which records dance choreography 2. SignWriting, which records signed languages 3. MimeWriting, which records classic mime and gesture 4. SportsWriting, which records such activities as gymnastics, ice skating, skateboarding and karate 5. ScienceWriting, which records physical therapy, body language, animal movements, and other forms of movement DanceWriting was first developed in 1966, when Sutton was only 15, training as a professional ballet dancer. She invented a stick figure notation for her own personal use. Four years later she went to Copenhagen, Denmark to train with the Royal Danish Ballet. Over the next two years she applied her system to recording the historic ballet steps of the Royal Danish Ballet, which were in danger of being forgotten from lack of recording. The first DanceWriting textbook, Sutton Movement Shorthand, The Classical Ballet Key, Key One, was produced in December, 1973. Within a year, it became outdated as Sutton improved her system. In the fall of 1974, by special invitation, she taught Sutton DanceWriting to the members of the Royal Danish Ballet. In 1974, articles about Sutton's DanceWriting system came to the attention of sign language researchers at the University of Copenhagen, and they asked for a demonstration. As a result, Lars van der Leith and others at the Audiologopædisk Forskningsgruppe of the University of Copenhagen requested Sutton to develop a version of her movement notation adapted to the recording of sign languages. As a result, SignWriting was developed. SignWriting was first developed to write Danish Sign Language, but it quickly expanded to write any sign language in the world, and is now used in 50 countries. Software specially developed for SignWriting spread the writing system. It is also used on a daily basis, as a daily writing system, by sign language users. SignWriting became an established world script by the International Bureau of Standardization (ISO) in 2006, and is becoming the written form for sign languages. Sutton founded the Center for Sutton Movement Writing, a 501c3 non-profit educational California-based organization in 1974 and continues to direct the Center in 2009, 35 years later, working with the Deaf Action Committee for SignWriting (the DAC), founded by Lucinda O Grady Batch in 1988. Deaf people work with Ms. Sutton to provide feedback from Deaf Communities to improve and expand the use of a written form for their native sign languages. Sutton DanceWriting continues to be used by individual dancers. It was a requirement for graduation as a Dance Major at the Boston Conservatory of Music s Dance Department from 1976 to 1986. Sutton Movement Writing is also used for writing sports, such as gymnastics, ice skating and skate boarding, and in scientific studies of gesture analysis, such as writing the movements of the body while carving the Norweigan Viking boats, to give historic perspective on how the repetitive motion created such excellent vessels.

Product Details

• Paperback: 245 pages
• Publisher: Center Sutton Movement Writing (April 2, 1979)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 091433610X
• ISBN-13: 978-0914336105
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.4 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,832,142 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)