Two essays on Stepanov dance notation.

<p>The Russian dancer and teacher Vladimir Stepanov<br />(1866 – 1896) developed a system of human movement<br />notation based on the principles of music notation<br />details of which he published in French as Alphabet des<br />Movements du Corps Humain in Paris in 1892. It was<br />accepted as a system of notation in both the Mariinsky<br />and Bolshoi ballet schools and much repertory was<br />notated in it.<br />The dancer choreographer and teacher Alexander<br />Gorsky was a friend of Stepanov and an advocate of his<br />system. In 1899 he published two long essays explaining<br />the system in considerably more detail and with specifi c<br />relevance to the notation of classical ballet for use as<br />textbooks by the students in the Mariinsky and Bolshoi<br />schools. It is these two essays translated and edited<br />by the Russian ballet historian Professor Roland John<br />Wiley which are reproduced here.</p>