DANCE JOURNAL OF NIGERIA (DJN)

Volume 2, June 2015

Journal of the Association of Dance Scholars and Practitioners of Nigeria
(ADSPONL
ISSN: 2315-6317

i
DANCE JOURNAL OF NIGERIA (DJN)
Editorial Consultants
1. Prof. Dele Layiwola - University of Ibadan
2. Prof. Zikky Kofoworola - University of Ilorin
3. Prof. (Mrs) FolaboAjayi- U.s.A
4. Prof. Francis Nii Yartey - University of Ghana.
5. Prof. Emurobome Idolor - Delta State University, Abraka
6. Prof. Ayo Akinwale - University of Ilorin

Editorial Board
Editor in-Chief: Prof. Ojo Rasaki Bakare, Department of Theatre and Media Arts,
Federal University, Oye
Editor: Dr. Arugha A. Ogisi, Department of Music, Delta State University,
Abraka
Associate Editor: Dr. Daniel Omatsola, Department of Theatre Arts, University of
Abuja, Abuja.
Associate Editor: Dr. Cyrus Damisa Suru, Department of Theatre and Cultural
studies, Nasarawa State University, Keffi.
Associate Editor: Dr. Felix D. Emoruwa, Department of Creative Arts, University of
Lagos, Lagos.

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VISION AND MISSION STATEMENTS
Vision
Dance Journal of Nigerians strives to become the flagship journal of dance in Africa
and an authoritative scholarly journal in dance globally.

Mission
To be a medium for intellectual discourse relating to the Dance Art in
Nigeria.
To provide a forum for the dissemination of research findings pertaining to
the Dance discipline in Nigeria and Africa.
To be a means of promoting the Dance Art in Nigeria

BRIEF NOTES TO CONTRIBUTORS

Dance Journal of Nigeria publishes two issues a year: in January and in July. Papers
are expected to be between 4,000 and 6,000 words using the MLA reference style.
The title page should contain the title, name(s), affiliation, email and telephone
number of author(s). The paper should begin in the second page with the title,
abstract, keywords and followed by the entire paper. Sections of a paper should be
clearly separated by headings. Enquiries about details format should be directed to
the editor at: madamedun@yahoo.com

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 T ABLE OF CONTENTS

1. One Hundred Years of Nigeria's History:

Dance and Society in an Era ofInstability. - Prof. LAYIWOLA 1
2. A Ritual for Survival: Questions of Identity and Politics
in One Hundred Year of Nigerian Dance - Kene IGWEONU 19
'
3. African Contemporary Dance In Nigeria: History And Praxis
_ Casmir E. ONYEMUCHARA & Chris NW ARU 38
4. African Dance, Choreography and the Process of Evolving
an Applicable Dance Notation Model- Adeiza Peter BELLO 52
5. An Exposition of Contemporary Dance - Rudolph KANSESE 63
6. Challenges Of Dance Practice And Studies In Nigeria
- Cyrus Damisa SURU 74
7. Dance And The Child's Cognitive Development
_ Temitope Bunmi ADEDOKUN-RICHARDS 84
8. Dance As A Creative Strategy For Television Advertising:
A Semiotic/Structuralist Reading And Analysis Of Guinness
Televisual Commercials - Daniel OMATSOLA 97
9. Dance, The Female Body And Power In African Societies
_ Gladys Ijeoma AKUNNA & Mariam Asabe IYEH 114
'
10. Development Of 'Stick Figure Notation For African Dances
- Felix A. AKINSIPE 131
11. Managing the Challenges and Prospects of Dance as a Profitable
Vocation in Nigeria.- Stanley OHENHEN 145
12. Preliminary Observations On The Role Of Nta 24 In Preserving
And Promoting Nigerian Dance - Sunday Akpobo EKERIKEVWE 156
13. Reality Tv Shows And The Commodification Of Dance In Nigeria
_ Ofomegbe Daniel EKHAREAFO & Oghenemudiaga
Praise AKPUGHE 169
14. Dance Education and Child Development
- Joseph Agofure IDOGHO 183
15. The Sono- kinetic Interface of Popular Dance In Nigeria: 1945 - 2015
_ Arugha Aboyowa OGISI 201

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 DEVELOPMENT OF 'STICK FIGURE'
NOTATION FOR AFRICAN DANCES

Felix A. AKINSIPE
Department of the Performing Arts,
University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Kwara State,
Nigeria.
felisipe@yahoo.com

ABSTRACT
Although some notations have been evolved and used to take care of some Western
dances successfully, none of them has been found to be adequate in notating African
dances. Therefore, the problem of an adequate notational system for African dance has
persisted up till now despite the robust and regular practice it has enjoined over the years.
Almost all the dances created through the years cannot be recorded by the means of
notation. There is therefore the need for a form of documentation that can serve as a
precise reminder and preservation of the movements done. This paper thus takes a new
look at the 'stick figure' which was first discovered in 1852 as published by Arthur
Saint-Leon and had been put to use by such people as Albert Zorn in recording a whole
body movement. Identify timing and direction of movements as its major limitation. The
paper thus filling the gap of timing and direction of movements suggests how to apply
them to the peculiar nuances of the African dance and concludes that these suggestions
can be further developed by choreographers and choreologists through conscious effort
and collaboration to become perfect for notating African dances.

Keywords: Notation, Stick figure, Development, African dance

INTRODUCTION
Dance notation as defined by Craine and Mackrell, (2002:349) is the" system of
recording movement through writing it down in figures and symbols". It is the recording
of movements on paper by means of coded signs or symbols for prescription,
preservation and recreation purposes that can be decoded. Dance notation according to
Jeschke (2013), "approaches the body movement in an analytic, abstract, and systematic
way using specific symbols for documenting movement."

Unlike music which has through time evolved a universally acceptable notation system
there is yet to be a dance notation that is accurate, simplistic and

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 Felix A. AKINSIPE

unambiguous to record all forms of dance across the world irrespective of change and
emergence of new dances. The notation that almost captured classical ballet was not
adequate for modem ballet and the one that was developed for modern ballet failed
completely to work for Modern Dance.

This paper documents these attempts and found the 'stick figure' worth developing for
universal usage. Two problems associated with the 'Stick Figure" notation are the facts
that it has not been able to indicate the direction of movement and the timing of the steps.
All these are usually writing as commentary notes and attached to it. This paper attempts
to address the last two problems. It is believed that the attempt which has been tested
personally by the writer should be discussed and further worked upon by all interested
persons towards more modifications or total evolving of better options that will capture
not only African dances but dances all over the world.

The efforts to provide a notation system for dance had commenced before the writing age
when men draw pictures on stones. All through the years, various notation systems have
been discovered and developed form mere memorization to painting, carving to
electronic and computer notations nowadays. While some have been found useful and
modified to a standard level for some specific dances others have been inadequate to help
the dancers or the choreographers in recording (some) dances or certain details about
them. Paintings and carvings found on stones, rocks, caves and monuments were the
earliest forms of attempts at notation available. They provide a unidirectional
representation of a dance movement in a static form. They at least, showed that people
have danced and to some extent shown also the postures of the dances even though they
cannot supply the direction or tempi of the movements.

Memorization was probably the first and unofficial method of recording movements. It is
a process where the dance movements are stored in the dancers' memories and many of
the dancers who had taken part in a dance before will have to come together to try to
remember, recall and recount the previous movements that they did in order to reproduce
them. Therefore, to re-create a modern dance performance, one will have to recall the key
dancers, in the previous performance to rely on their remembrance which might not be
detailed enough. Later, the emphasis shifted to having periodic rehearsals so as to keep
the dancers attuned with the dances. This is what; Menosky (1983:60) explains that the
choice available in reviving a modern dance is to keep previous works stored on the
bodies of the dancers themselves. The dance captain of a modem dance company

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Development of' Stick Figure' Notation For African Dances

is generally a senior dancer responsible for periodically rehearsing the company in

order to maintain the repertoire created by the founding choreographer. In the
absence of a recording method, if and when the company folds or the choreographer
dies, the carefully maintained repertoire has no alternative but historical oblivion.
This modem dance approach to keeping dance alive, is however unreliable since it is
just natural for dancers and choreographers to forget their previous movements.

Notating African dance had suffered more than notating Western dances because of
the complexity of movements and variation in styles across the borders. All the
forms of notation developed so far are absolutely not valid for recording African
dances. Happer (1999:52) referring to Labanotation and Benesch notation - the
world most widely known notations says 'The present notation systems are further
unsuitable as a basis for analytical work in Africa because the assumptions on which
they are based result from the study of European dance and its derivatives and from
the acceptance of the cultural concepts of time and space implicit in these forms'.

Efforts in dance notation

The voyage to formulate a suitable notation for dance has been a long one. This is
evident in Hall, 1984's assertion that attempts to invent a satisfactory system of
dance notation can be traced back to the beginning of the fifteenth century - in fact to
the very beginning of ballet. Some inventors showed a great deal of ingenuity and
their inventions were used for a time, mainly by themselves; but they did not survive
the death of their inventors and there was no regular progress. (p.394)

Jeschke (2013), consolidates this when he asserts that 'During the history of Euro-
American dance since the Renaissance, more than fifty different systems of notation
have been developed. The high number of systems emphasizes the fact that dance
lacks the achievement of European music, where one system of notation has been
used since the sixteenth century'. (Britannica Concise
Encyclopedia)

Efforts to develop an enduring notation for dance to foster its development led to the
establishment of an Institute of Choreology. The Institute of Choreology was, in fact
formed in July of 1962, with a number of objects - among them the formation of a
library of choreographic scores (not only of important ballets, but also of traditional
classical and folk dances of the East and West), study of analysis of scores; and the
fostering of training in composition. (Hall,1984:398)

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 Felix A. AKINSIPE

Choreology, according to Craine and Mackrell (2002:104-105) was derived from the
Greek, and literarily translated as 'the science of dance' is a term most closely
associated with the system of dance notation. However, the attempts made in the
notation of dance before and since the establishment of the institute are yet to lead to
a precise and explicit notation for all dances. That is why Hall, (1984:394) concludes
that music notation became standardized and gradually developed from century to
century in harmony with the development of music - and in fact it made this
development possible. Music notation took its place at the very core of all study of
music and all composition, whereas dance notation remained on the fringe of ballet.

Thus diverse attempts that were made dating back to the late 15th century include the
'Letter Code' a type of notation in which "letters were used to denote various steps,
e.g. R for reverence, s for single, d for double" O. This form appeared in two Catalan
manuscripts from about 1468, in which combinations of vertical and horizontal
strokes plus signs resembling the numbers 9 and 3 represent five specific steps and
indicate directions of movement. A much more common method from this period
presupposes the knowledge of a vocabulary of steps, which are indicated by their
initial letters. Thus, the sequence Rbssdrb notates the following well-known steps:
reverence, branle, simple, simple, double, riprese, branle. It is possible to reconstruct
the meaning of these steps by looking at contemporary treatises. (Microsoft
Encarta 2009. 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation).

But a more elaborate description of the 'Letter Codes' with drawings showing the
whole body in certain steps and postures appeared in Thoinot Arbeau's
L'Orchesographie in 1588. It presented a fictional dialogue between a dancing
master and his student, in which dance steps are described intext, and reduced to
their initial letters and presented in temporal order in the so-called 'tabulation, which
are connected with the musical notes. (Jeschke, 2013)

Another system of notation featuring 'floor plans' invented by Pierre Beauchamp

appeared in Choregraphie ou L'Art de decrier la danse par caracteres, figures et
signes demonstratifs published by Raoul Auger Feuillet in Paris in 1700. It was a
system that "represents the spatial execution of the steps as seen from a bird's eye
view", thus establishing the 'floor plans'. In 1852, a notation system based on 'stick
figure' was published in Paris and St Petersburg by Arthur Saint-Leon. This notation
sought to capture the complexity of the whole body movement using a scheme
consisting of five horizontal lines for the movements of the legs and one

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additional line for the actions of the upper body. The figurative notation signs
appear directly above the musical score, relating them approximately to the musical
values.

Albert Zorn was also noted to have used the Stick Figures to record whole body
movements in his Grammatik der Tanzkunst around the same time.
(www.britannica.com).In1855 B. Klemm introduced an innovative approach to
dance notation using 'musical notes' to record movements on bars and staffs. This
was further developed in 1892, by Vladimir Stepanov who placed movement
symbols on a special stave while recording the floor pattern above it. He described
human body within a scheme consisting of nine lines, divided into three parts. The
top two lines are used for the movements of the head and torso, the three middle
lines, indicate the actions of the arms, and the bottom four lines the movements of
the legs.

Vaclav Nijinsky's notation system developed in 1910 was very similar to

Stepanov's. Only that he shifted his focus of movement analysis from the legs
toward the torso as his own three sections had five lines each.

The path towards notation through the use of "abstract signs" which was a major
shift from the "representational signs" thus far started in 1928 when Margaret
Moris, discovered her system based on abstract system in England and the same
year, Rudolf von Laban, discovered his kinetography Laban (Kinetographie) in
Europe. It is a "system that has since been refined and elaborated by many
scholars". (www.wikipedia.com). The American version came to be known as
Labanotation. Both kinetography and Labanotaion use "geometrical shapes as
symbols that indicate not only directions forward/backwards and left/ right as well
as the diagonal directions in between; the shading of the shape indicates the
direction upwards/ downwards, and its length shows duration" Geschke 2013).

Joan and Rudolf Benesh in 1956 began another system that was widely put to use.
The Benesh notation system was known as "choreology". It began as shorthand for
notating ballets. The system uses" a five-line stave running horizontally across the
page with abstract stick figures indicating the position of the body and special
symbols indicating timing, direction, etc". (www.wikipedia.com). In 1958, Noa
Eshkol and Abraham Watchman began their own notation system based on
"mathematical record of the degree of rotation made by each of the moving parts of
the body" (www.wikipedia.com). thus, starting a highly modem approach to dance
notation. This system shifts the focus of movement analysis from

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 Felix A. AKINSIPE

phenomenology toward mechanics. The approach is neutral and abstract, featuring

movement observation and composition, but not necessarily dance documentation;
it allows to describe movement beyond historical or stylistic definition of dance.
After these efforts, the computer based experiments, which are still ongoing, took
over. (www.wikipedia.com)

The Development of the "Stick Figure"

Over the years, the 'Stick Figure' system of dance notation has featured
recurrently among the attempts made towards evolving a unified notation for dance.
The stick figure is the representation of the frame of the dancer's body with a stick
figure drawing. It has not succeeded so far in giving a comprehensive notation. It is
also still considered intricate because the parts of the body are studied differently. A
notation that will record the entire body parts at one glance
is the ultimate.

African dance have been described as multifaceted and polyrhythmic, having

different parts of the body doing different movements at the same time and
responding to different musical instruments in some instances. Therefore, to capture
a typical African or Nigerian dance for notation, I do concur and follow Kaeppler,
(1972: 175) submission that in a dance tradition where several parts of the body
move at once, the most economic procedure is to analyze each gross part of the body
separately. Then we must discover which the significant elements are
for each of these parts of the body.

Even with the most popular Labanotation, "movements are observed and notated
separately and then synchronized in the notation score" (www.britannica.com). For
the purpose of notation, I have thus broken the study of dance movements
into three main categories;
a) The body category
b) The arm category
c) The leg category

The following illustrations will show how the Stick Figure has been put to use with
the aid of arrows located at the appropriate places around each stick figure to show
the direction of movement, and the time count inserted with along with these arrows
to indicate the tempo of movement.

The body category

In the body category, I have identified four major types of variations of

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Development of' Stick Figure' Notation For African Dances

movements done with the body;

(i) Standing in upright position. This is when the dancer stands erect without
bending either the trunk or the knee. (Figure 1)

(Figure 1)

(ii) The bend (to the front) position. This is when the dancer bends the trunk
forward way downward. (Figures 2 and 3)

(Figure 2) (Figure 3)

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 Felix A. AKINSIPE

(iii) The bend (to the front) position; when the dancer bends the trunk forward
half or from the waist level. (Figures 4 and S)

(Figure 4) (Figure 5)

(iv) The kneeling or squatting position; when the dancers get down to squat or
kneel on the floor. (Figures 6 and 7)

(Figure 6) (Figure 7)

138

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 Felix A. AKINSIPE

(viii) The tumbling position; when the dancer is standing on the hand or head. (Figures
13)

(Figures 13)

The arm category

I have also identified three major types of variations of arm movements. They are; (i)
Above the shoulder. This is when the arms are raised above the head. (Figures 14 and
15)
or

(Figure 14) (Figure 15)

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Development of' Stick Figure' Notation For African Dances

(ii) At shoulder level. This is when the arms are held straight at the shoulder
level to the front or sideways. (Figures 16 and 17)

(Figure 16) (Figure 17)

(iii) Below the shoulder. This is when the arms are dropped towards the earth-
beside or around the body. (Figures 18 and 19)

(Figure 18) (Figure 19)

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Felix A. AKINSIFE
The leg category
Three major types of variations occur at this category. They are:
(i) Stepping forward/backwards. This is when the dancers move from either
stepping forward or going backward. (Figures 20 and 21)

1
3
(Figure 20)
(Figure 21)

(ii) Stepping up; when the feet are raised up and brought down so that the
dancer remains on a spot. (Figure 22)

~ It
(Figure 22)

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Development Of,Stick Figure' Notation For African Dances

(iii) Stepping sideways. This is when the dancer moves or shifts to the right or

o
left. (Figure 23 and 24)

..

..

(Figure 23) (Figure 24)

CONCLUSION
This paper has taken a look at the various attempts at notation in dance and had
tried to document as much as possible these efforts. The peculiar nature of dance
has made the evolution of an accurate notation system that will capture the
recording of dance like it is in music difficult. The efforts are however still
ongoing. It was noted that almost all attempts so far had been made on Western
dances. That is why the paper looked at notation for the African dances and way
forward through the modified Stick Figure which is now been put forward for
trials. It is expected that in a few years' time that there will be improvements,
modifications and probably an outright replacement of the proposal here, that will
survive the next hundred years in the Nigerian/ African dance studies.

REFERENCES
Craine, Debra and Mackrell, Judith (2002). Oxford Dictionary of Dance Great
Britain: Oxford University Press.

Hall, Fernau. (1984). "Dance Notation and Choreology". In: Copeland and Cohen
(eds.) What is Dance? New York: Oxford University Press. pp.390-399.

Harper, Peggy. (1999). "Dance Studies". In: A Handbook of Methodology in

African Studies Dele Layiwola (ed.) Ibadan: John Archers (Publishers)
Limited. pp. 43-70.

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 Felix A. AKINSIPE

Kaeppler, Adrienne L. (1972). "Method and Theory in Analyzing Dance Structure with
an Analysis of Tongan Dance" ETHNOMUSICOLOGY Journal of the Society
forEthnomusicologyVol.16.No.1.

Jeschke, Claudia. (2013). "Dance Notation". In: Britannica Concise Encyclopedia

www.encyclopedia.com/doc 1101281 dancenotation.html

Joseph Menosky, (1983). "Recording for the Future". In: Dialogue, No. 59; 1. pp.
Microsoft Encarta 2009 [DVD]. "Dance Notation". Redmond, WA: Microsoft
Corporation.

"

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