Submitted by Ann Hutchinson Guest - June 15, 2018
Legal Problems
Following John Martin’s announcement on the forming of the
Dance Notation Bureau we had a letter from Universal Publishers stating that we
must in no way infringe on their copyright.
The background to this was the experience that Irma Bartenieff and Irma
Betz had in 1937 in publishing their book of Studies in Laban’s Dance Script.
They were not allowed to give any explanation on the meaning of the
symbols, that information was given as a leaflet insertion with Universal
Publishers’ copyright.
In 1940 we replied that our activities did not infringe on
their copyright. This limitation did
pose problems for publishing a textbook in the future. We
sought information from Laban but he was unable to help. All that our investigations produced was the
strange information that the copyright had been requisitioned by the American
Army when in Vienna after the war and then resided in Washington D.C. I fear that all correspondence concerning
this no longer exists in the DNB files.
As with the letter from Ninette de Valois expressing interest in having
Labanotation at the Royal Ballet School (a very valuable document) these
documents may have been turfed out when Herb Kummel took over as director of
the DNB, his attitude being that nothing of the past was of value.
Because at that time a copyright extended for 27 years and
then had to be renewed, in 1954 we were hoping that Laban would not be aware of
this and the copyright would expire. He did become aware of it and hastily put out a publication Principles
of Dance and Movement Notation by Rudolf Laban. It was so full of mistakes that it was
rapidly withdrawn. I happen to have two
copies of this publication. In it he stated:
NOTICE
This book is copyrighted in the United
States of America and in all countries
signatory to the Berne Convention. No
part of it may be reproduce in English
or in translation unless my written
permission and that of my publisher has
been obtained
RUDOLF
LABAN
N.B.
The signs for the notation of chore-
Graphic
or other movements may, with due
Acknowledgement,
be freely used. – R.L.
In 1956 Laban published a more impressive hard cover book
with the same title published by Macdonald & Evans. It contained the same notice as above. In it we found signs and usages that were
unfamiliar to us. Laban considered it his system, he did not need to confer
with anyone else. However, in the early
1930s, he had given the system to the
world, he was no longer interested in developing it, nor did he establish a
body to oversee its development. Were it
not for Albrecht Knust, who made it his life work, Sigurd Leeder and Ann
Hutchinson with her colleagues at the Dance Notation Bureau, the system could
well have died away. More than once
Laban was keen to take it all back.
My first Labanotation textbook was published in 1954 by New
Directions. How did we cope with the
copyright situation? The copyright
statement was as follows:
Copyright 1954 by
The Dance Notation Bureau, Inc.
“Alphabet of Basic Symbols,”
Copyright 1954 by Rudolf Laban.
At the back of the book these appendices were given:
Alphabet
of Basic Symbols
Copyright 1954 by Rudolf Laban
Variations in the drawing of certain symbols as used by some
European colleagues have been included in this alphabet in order to facilitate
reading scores. These have been marked
“alternate version.”
Following this came:
Glossary
of Supplementary Symbols which also gave alternate
versions.
In his 1958 Kinetography Laban publications Albrecht
Knust made similar statements.
The 1970 edition of Labanotation, published by Theatre Arts
Books gave the following:
Copyright © 1954, 1970 by The Dance Notation Bureau,
Inc. “Alphabet of Basic Symbols”
Copyright 1954 by Rudolf Laban.
However, in the pages of Glossary of Symbols (page 499 on)
there is no separation.
For the enlarged 2005 edition it states: Copyright © 2005 by Ann Hutchinson Guest. The appendices include: A – Alternate
Versions. B – Old Versions. C – Orthography and Autography. D – Upper Body Movement. E – Terminology.
Compiled by Ann Hutchinson Guest on December 8th, 2016.
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