Labanotation

thumb|Rudolf Laban presenting his notation system, circa 1929 thumb|Dance workshop based on Laban's notation system, circa 1929 Labanotation (grammatically correct form "Labannotation" or "Laban notation" is uncommon) is a system for analyzing and recording human movement (notation system), invented by Austro-Hungarian choreographer and dancer Rudolf von Laban (1879–1958, a central figure in European modern dance), who developed his notation on movements in the 1920s.

==History== Laban's first book on the subject was published in German in 1928 called Schrifttanz (Written Dance); a similar version in French and English appeared in 1930. A few years later Laban's interest turned to other matters and he gave his notation system to the world. The German dancer, choreographer and pedagogue Albrecht Knust, who by 1930 had together with Laban's daughter Azra (Azraela) established the Tanz-Schreib-Stube (the first Dance Notation Bureau), was the first-ever full-time kinetographer-movement notator. Between 1946 and 1950 Knust wrote his major work Das Handbuch der Kinetographie Laban (The Manual of Kinetography Laban) in eight-volumes in German, typed carbon copies appeared in 1951 in English. Ann Hutchinson Guest and former student of Sigurd Leeder, studied the system differences among and between the various practitioners taught by former Laban student Irma Betz, and had the opportunity to confer with Laban, Knust and Leeder personally on movement details and ideas, developed it further naming it Labanotation. The two systems differ somewhat.