2005
Dance Notation
This work offers an approach to teaching kinetic literacy through Laban Motif Writing. This research was conducted over a two-year period in both New York and New Jersey Public Schools. It advocates a form of symbolic learning called Motif Writing, a literacy tool for children in dance making, dance analysis, and dance inquiry. Symbol systems such as mathematics and music are comparable to Motif Writing, as they entail movements, pictures, signs, and sounds and provide a “language” with which to describe and elicit ideas. Symbol systems guide the development of intelligence, present children with numerous choices for communicating, and can greatly expand children’s capabilities to think. This research examines the acquisition and development of symbolic modes of representation using Motif Writing, which provides a foundation for intellectual perception.