Dance notation

This collection documents the Imperial Ballet's (today the Kirov/Mariinsky Ballet) repertoire from the turn of the 20th century, including Marius Petipa's original choreographic designs for The Sleeping Beauty, Giselle, Le Corsaire, and Swan Lake, as well as Coppélia and the original version of The Nutcracker.

In 1934, the composer Joseph Schillinger created a highly accurate notation system based on the 3D bone rotation and translation of a moving dancer.

[1] With motion capture technology half a century in the future, there was no way to effectively measure and record this information at the time.

In 1948, Hanya Holm became the first Broadway choreographer to have her dance scores copyrighted, for her work on Kiss Me, Kate.

The piece was reconstructed from Saint-Léon's work, which was documented using his own method of dance notation, known as La Sténochorégraphie.