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Dear ICKL Members and ICKL Friends,
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Here is some news from the ICKL organization, as well as some reports from our members.
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Partial elections for the Board of Trustees were held online from January 20 to January 31, 2026.
71 people (members in good standing for 2025) were entitled to vote, 49 ballots were submitted. Those elected are: Valarie Williams (Vice Chair), Ambre Emory-Maier (Secretary), Estelle Corbière (Treasurer Europe), Foteini Papadopoulou (Member-at-large).
Also, the Research Panel elected Siân Ferguson as its next Chair, to follow Julie Brodie’s tenure. Ferguson is becoming an “ex officio” member of the Board of Trustees.
Note that Mei-Chen Lu was elected member of the Research Panel during the General meeting in July 2025.
The names of the Board of Trustees and Research Panel members for 2026 can be found at:
https://ickl.org/ickl/organization/
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The Proceedings of the ICKL Conference 2019 in Mexico, delayed for several reasons, are now available online in PDF on ICKL website. We plan to produce a printed version as soon as we can.
You can download the PDF here: https://ickl.org/publications/proceedings-2010s/
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The membership call for 2026 will be issued soon to ICKL members.
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Scores and Stagings from Scores
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Notation and Staging of a “lost” Doris Humphrey work. In 1945, Doris Humphrey and José Limón formed a small performing company they called The Limón Trio. The original dancers were Dorothy Bird, Beatrice Seckler and Limón. Among the collaborative works they created were three solos titled An American Folk Suite. One section of that suite was called “Ef [sic] I Had A Ribbon Bow” which Humphrey choreographed for Dorothy Bird. The excerpt survived only in the memory of Bird who recreated it at Adelphi University sometime in the 1980’s. Present at those rehearsals was Joyce Greenberg, Bird’s close professional and personal friend. Greenberg was Leslie Rotman's first formal notation teacher at Adelphi in the 1970’s.
When Bird passed away she left her memorabilia to Greenberg. Among the material was a VHS video of the 1980’s recreation along with extensive notes and supporting information. So, when Greenberg called Rotman in 2024 asking if she would consider creating a Labanotation score, she was happy to accept. The information she needed was good and Greenberg, like many notators, had the memory and artistic sensitivity-a feel for the piece-to fill in some gaps. By the end of 2024 Rotman had a completed score.
A crucial, but frustratingly rare, final step for any notation score is the checking process which should include a staging to test the score. This time Rotman saw a possibility. The work is a solo for one woman. The theme remains relevant and the materials were accessible. A good audio recording was all that were needed. She contacted our colleagues in Ohio who expressed interest. Julie Brodie at Kenyon College took charge and followed through-performance in December, 2025. In her talented and capable hands, alongside a few remote rehearsals with Rotman, an experienced piano accompanist and a coach from Kenyon’s theater department, the work came to life. Brodie generously provided Rotman with a few notes to clarify the notation for future stagers. And, voila, a score is born!
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Reconstructing Renaissance Dance at Kent State University. In the fall of 2025, a historical dance restaging project took place at Kent State University, focusing on the reconstruction and performance of Renaissance dances. This initiative was conducted by Assistant Professor of Dance, Ambre Emory-Maier, who drew upon the notated research of Dr. Julia Sutton, a renowned scholar in Renaissance dance. Dr. Sutton’s research is preserved in the Dance Notation Bureau Archives at The Ohio State University. These archives along with the original fifteenth century dance manuals provided detailed guidance for reconstructing the dances as they were performed centuries ago during the Renaissance period.
The reconstructed dances were presented as part of a theatrical suite titled La Danza é Paciere.
The suite consisted of three distinct Renaissance dances: Alta Regina (Caroso), Tourdion (unknown), So Ben M’i Cha Buon Tempo (Negri). Four students from Kent State University were selected to perform these dances. Their participation involved mastering choreography, acting, and adapting to the stylistic nuances of Renaissance dance as reconstructed from the archival notation. The suite was featured in Kent State’s Fall Faculty Dance Concert, with performances held from November 21st to November 23rd, 2025.
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Remy Charlip's Twelve Contra Dances (1979, notation by Lynne Weber in 2017) was performed at Cabrillo College in December 2025, staged by Siân Ferguson with a cast of 10 students. Due to concert time constraints, this was presented as 9 Contra Dances. This provided the occasion to do syntax (symbol) and semantic (movement) checking of the score for Certifications.
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DNB is announcing that over half of Kenneth MacMillan’s Romeo and Juliet has now been notated. Contributors include Lynne Weber, Siân Ferguson, Noëlle Simonet, and Leslie Rotman.
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Another news from DNB is the reconstruction of Katherine Dunham’s Afrique by April Berry at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and notated by Lynne Weber. Permission for the project was granted by Marie-Christine Dunham, and funding for the Labanotation score was secured by Sarah Hook, head of the Department of Dance at UI Urbana-Champaign.
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Research
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Karin Hermes defended February 12, 2026 at Anton Bruckneruniversität (Linz, Austria) her doctoral dissertation with summa cum laude. Thesis title: “Tanz-Erbe re-interpretieren. Zwischen choreografischer Praxis und Notationstheorie” [Re-interpreting Dance Heritage. Between Choreographic Practice and Notation Theory]. In this thesis she explores the theme of reinterpretation through her analytical and artistic examination of notated choreography.
More information: https://hermesdance.com/kuenstlerische-forschung/
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Olivier Bioret defended September 16, 2025 his Master’s thesis “Explorer et cartographier la partition de Partita (Doris Humphrey)” [Exploring and Mapping Partita's score (Doris Humphrey)], under the direction of Julie Perrin, Université Paris 8 (France).
In April 2025 Judy Van Zile presented (by invitation) at Honolulu’s, Hawai‘i' Shinshu Kyokai's Spring Seminar on Bon Dance in Hawaii. Past, Present, Future. Titled "What Makes a Dance a Bon Dance," her remarks centered on using Labanotation scores to try to answer the question posed in the title of her presentation.
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Henrik Kovács completed a successful Fulbright residency at Kenyon College in the fall of 2025, teaching Elementary Labanotation as well as Hungarian Folk Dance. Ten students took the elementary course and eight successfully passed the DNB Elementary Certification exam.
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Publications
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The latest issue of Dance Research (2025), the peer-reviewed journal of the Society for Dance Research, published Sinibaldo De Rosa’s article titled “Sampling the Mevlevi Sema: Circulation of a Sufi Practice within a Queer Nightlife Event in Milan”. The article includes a notated sketch in Kinetography Laban documenting the sema performance hosted at the venue, demonstrating its value as both an analytical and documentary tool within interdisciplinary dance research.
https://www.euppublishing.com/doi/10.3366/drs.2025.0455
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Mei-Chen Lu, “The Short-Lived Labanotation Technology – The IBM Electric Element,” published in the Journal of Laban/Bartenieff Movement Studies, Vol. 2 (November 2025).
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The Library News from the Dance Notation Bureau (Fall Issue - November 2025), featured “The History of Joseph Pilates’ Contrology in Labanotation” by Sean P. Gallagher and Elaine Ewing, and an article by Lucy Kudlinski on Trio Con Brio at Jacob’s Pillow. https://www.dancenotation.org/dnb-library-news/
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The invited review by Judy Van Zile of an important English-language text by János Fügedi was published: Van Zile, Judy. 2025. “János Fügedi. 2023. Signs of Dance. Laban Kinetography for Traditional Dancers. Solo and Circle Dances. Budapest: Institute for Musicology, Research Centre for the Humanities, L’Harmattan. 540 pages.” Martor 30, 188-190.
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Education
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Since January 2025, 15 students have passed the DNB Elementary Labanotation Exam, and one has passed the Intermediate Exam.
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Noëlle Simonet directed the "E-Training Kinetography" program within Labkine, in which she conducted a 60-hour beginner training and two advanced-level sessions totaling 50 hours. The program provides guidance to individuals drafting dance scores and includes professional proofreading for notators to ensure technical accuracy.
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Other News
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Patty Harrington Delaney and Julie Brodie created notation for the exterior of the new Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble building in Denver, CO, with a Grand Opening on January 15, 2026. The notation is of Robinson’s work, Mary Don’t You Weep, which is a tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and to her brother, John Whalon Parker Jr. While an artistic rendering of the score, information about Labanotation and a QR link to the actual notation will be provided at the site.
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In January 2026, the Odette Blum officially gifted her archival materials to the Lawrence and Lee Theatre Research Institute at The Ohio State University. The new collection contains approximately 12 linear feet of papers, Labanotation scores, and publications from Blum’s work as a notator, Ohio State Department of Dance Faculty member, Dance Notation Bureau Extension Center for Education and Research Director, and Fellow of ICKL. Some highlights include Blum’s manuscript Labanotation score of Leonide Massine’s Le Tricorne and extensive film and audio recordings produced by Odette during her research at the University of Ghana. Blum’s papers join the papers of other Labanotators including Lucy Venable and Billie Mahoney along with the Dance Notation Bureau Collection at Ohio State. The collection will be available for research after initial accessions and processing are completed. Contact libthospcol@osu.edu for information about accessing the collections.
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One Document / One Story
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Index card: Hanya Holm's choreography for Kiss Me, Kate.
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Labanotation and the choreography of copyrighting dance in the US, by Raymundo Ruiz González
From the early 20th century until today in the field of Euro-American dance studies, several authors and choreographers have reflected on what constitutes a choreographic work and what lies at the core of a dance’s identity. These ways of understanding what dance is have even transcended the world of dance and had an impact on legal frameworks, questioning what kinds of works of dance can be considered as copyrightable. For example, a well-known unsuccessful attempt on gaining copyright of a choreographic work in the United States, was made by Loie Fuller in 1892, where the lack of narrative in her choreography prevented Fuller from gaining protection for her dance work.
Particularly in the United States, dance notation and copyright have had a continuous and dialogical relation that is directly related to the Dance Notation Bureau (DNB). Starting during 1940s, choreographers such as Eugene Loring, Hanya Holm, and George Balanchine, among others, asked the DNB to notate their works, as a strategy for attaining copyright.
Hanya Holm, for example, choreographed for the Broadway show Kiss Me, Kate (1948), the piece to which the index card above relates. Its trial run opened in Philadelphia and it premiered on Broadway in December 1948, the show was an important crossover between the worlds of concert and commercial dance. In June 1950, Holm involved Ann Hutchinson in notating most of its dances, seeking formal protection of her intellectual property. In August, Hutchinson started performing in the show and finished the score in September.(*1) This experience of notating and performing the show, allowed Hutchinson to become Holm’s assistant during its London reposition in 1951.
In 1952, when the Copyright Office accepted dance under the category of dramatic work, the race to copyright dances began. Holm became the first choreographer to be granted copyright for a choreographic work in the US. Holm’s success in copyrighting the dances of Kiss Me, Kate relied on the dramatic dimension of the show and its Labanotation excerpts.(*2) By contrast, George Balanchine was initially unsuccessful in copyrighting his choreography for Bizet’s Symphony in C due to its lack of story and abstract nature. The Labanotation score of Balanchine’s work was not accepted by the Copyright Office; nevertheless, according to Ann Hutchinson Guest (2015), it was later accepted with the addition of a simple written description in the form of a narrative, created by her at Balanchine’s request.
While the legal definition of a “dramatic composition” remained until the Copyright Act of 1976, which allowed for the protection of “nondramatic” choreography, several key issues related to the “ownership” of a dance remain the subject of debate. Yet, Holm’s successful attempt should also be considered as one of her contributions to the introduction and proliferation of Labanotation in the US. This can also be seen by her interest in offering classes in Labanotation at her studio from the end of 1930s, and by her support in the creation of the DNB, granting her studio as a place for the DNB meeting. Her triumph in gaining copyright also raises awareness on how commercial dance was able to obtain ownership before the dance as high art represented by Balanchine. The complexities evident in the relation of dance notation and copyright call our attention to issues related to who “owns” a specific work: the choreographer, the dancers, the community that practices the technique, or the institution that paid the choreographer. In a similar vein, the particular case of Holm, also invite us to ask whose choreographic identity remains in the Labanotation scores, who has the privilege to own dance, how does the legal framework of copyright relate to the identity of a choreographic work, and what role does notation have in the legal choreography of copyrighting dance. What is undeniable is that a deeper understanding of notation is required to comprehend the complexities from which these questions arise.
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(*1) Between 1943 and 1950, Ann Hutchinson performed professionally on Broadway, participating in pieces such as: One Touch of Venus (1943) by Agnes de Mille, Marinka (1945) by Albertina Rasch, Billion Dollar Baby (1945) by Jerome Robbins, Finian’s Rainbow (1947) by Michael Kidd, Great to Be Alive! (1950) by Helen Tamiris, and Kiss Me, Kate (1948) by Hanya Holm.
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Sungu Okan is the ICKL newsletter Editor, with contribution from Marion Bastien and Leslie Rotman.
If for some reason you are not involved anymore in notation activities and/or want to unsubscribe, send a mail to webmaster@ickl.org
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