La Sténochorégraphie

work by Saint-Léon

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July 14, 2026

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La Sténochoréographie was a method of dance notation invented by Arthur Saint-Léon and published in 1852. This system used a combination of abstracted figure drawings and musical note indications to record dance movements. Saint-Léon's work included the detailed notation of the pas de six from his ballet La Vivandière, which has been studied and performed into the 21st century. Dance notation is the written recording of dance movements, similar to how musical notation records music.12

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dance
Prominent notation methods
…the first of which was La Sténochorégraphie (“The Art of Writing Dance”), published in 1852 by the French dancer and choreographer Arthur Saint-Léon. The disadvantage of this system was that it could not record the timing or musical coordination of movements, so that later attempts to produce a system were…
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…the first of which was La Sténochorégraphie (“The Art of Writing Dance”), published in 1852 by the French dancer and choreographer Arthur Saint-Léon. The disadvantage of this system was that it could not record the timing or musical coordination of movements, so that later attempts to produce a system were…
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Arthur Saint-Léon
…own method of dance notation, La Sténochorégraphie (1852), in which the pas de six from La Vivandière was notated in detail. This was translated into Labanotation by Ann Hutchinson Guest in 1996.
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…own method of dance notation, La Sténochorégraphie (1852), in which the pas de six from La Vivandière was notated in detail. This was translated into Labanotation by Ann Hutchinson Guest in 1996.
Read More