Documenting A Ballet Dance?

Subject: Documenting A Ballet Dance?
From: Geoff Hart <ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca>
To: TECHWR-L <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>, Tony Markos <ajmarkos -at- yahoo -dot- com>
Date: Mon, 12 Dec 2005 14:54:18 -0500

Tony Markos wondered: <<For a ballerina, the dance is her product. Tech comm is about documenting a product - it is not the ultimate product in itself.>>

That's arguable. In terms of what we do, our product is a combination of tools, theory, and the skills to combine the three to produce documentation. I don't think you can separate them.

<<By the way Bonnie, what is the best way to document a ballet dance? To quote Ed Yourdon: "Procedure is like dance: It defies written description".>>

I know that you asked the question facetiously, but there is indeed a way to document dancing. In fact, there are many. See Edward Tufte's "Envisioning Information" for a summary, and Ann Hutchinson Guest's 1985 "A brief survey of 53 systems of dance notation" for details. There are similar things for the martial arts, but they're not (in my limited experience) as sophisticated or nuanced.

Yes, I _am_ a veritable font of nearly useless information. Why do you ask? <g>

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Geoff Hart ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca
(try geoffhart -at- mac -dot- com if you don't get a reply)
www.geoff-hart.com
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Documenting A Ballet Dance: From: Tony Markos

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