STEPANOV, Vladimir Ivanovich.

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Alphabet of movements of the human body: a study in recording movements of the human body by means of musical signs. First edition in English, number 132 of 175 copies printed for sale, of this guide to a notation for recording dance. Based on anatomical analysis, it is able to encode any type of movement. This is done through musical notation on modified staves. The system was central to the innovative choreographies of Léonid Massine and Vaslav Nijinsky.Vladimir Stepanov (1866-1896) was a dancer at the Imperial Ballet in St Petersburg. Following his death aged 29, his successor Nicholas Sergeyev (1876-1950) took notations of performances by the Imperial Ballet, from which he was able to reconstruct works such as Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty for the first time in England and France.

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