The Russian dancer and teacher Vladimir Stepanov
(1866 - 1896) developed a system of human movement
notation based on the principles of music notation,
details of which he published in French as Alphabet des
Movements du Corps Humain, in Paris in 1892. It was
accepted as a system of notation in both the Mariinsky
and Bolshoi ballet schools and much repertory was
notated in it.
The dancer, choreographer and teacher Alexander
Gorsky was a friend of Stepanov and an advocate of his
system. In 1899 he published two long essays explaining
the system in considerably more detail and with specifi c
relevance to the notation of classical ballet, for use as
textbooks by the students in the Mariinsky and Bolshoi
schools. It is these two essays, translated and edited
by the Russian ballet historian Professor Roland John
Wiley which are reproduced here.