I feel that this is a good subject to investigate as my main plan regarding work after dancing life is to Study Benesh and become a dance notator. Benesh Notation is very relevant to my profession as it is a tool used by many ballet companies to keep record of choreography and to use in the process of teaching choreography to new dancers. On the other hand, it's also something that's not necessarily widely used within the dance world. This inspired a few questions for me to explore on the matter.
How has Benesh affected the dance world?
How relevant is Benesh Notation in this day and age?
Prior to Benesh Notation, how did dance companies approach rehearsals? Did they just rely on the memory of the choreographer or a repetiteur? Once notation was introduced, did it have a tangible effect on the productivity of a company for example? I feel this is the most vague question of mine but it raises a lot of questions about the influence Benesh has had on the dance world and could prove to be very interesting in showing the difference between those who do and those who don't use it.
With the development of technology over the years, most notably digital video recording, many dance companies may feel that there is less need for Benesh. To use Benesh in practice, a company would need to hire a notator. Some companies may not deem it worthy enough to spend their resources on when choreography could be learnt from a DVD for example, which is a much cheaper and accessible alternative. One could argue that the use of videos isn't as accurate at documenting choreography as Benesh so my investigation could weigh up the pros and cons of different methods of documentation.
How does the use of Benesh affect how a company operates?
One of the cons of Benesh is that recording choreography can be potentially very time consuming. Could the use of Benesh affect a company's scheduling for example in order to accomodate it's use? Another point I thought of was can harnessing Benesh actually affect the performance standard? Benesh is a very accurate method of recording dance so I was thinking could that transparency transfer over to the dancers and create a stronger corps de ballet perhaps?
As I've thought about my questions so far I've realised that I've already limited myself to one style of notation. Perhaps I could explore different forms and their popularity amongst different companies, dancers, choreographers etc. This is only the start of my line of inquiry and I know my questions can certainly do with development but I feel quite happy with the area I wish to explore.
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