The Journal of California Anthropology

Given the inadequacies of narrative description and filming, dance notation is singularly efficient as a mode of recording movement for future analysis. It allows the maximum in clarity and detail with the minimum expenditure of time and energy.

In deciding which of the movement notation systems in current use might be the most practical in recording Kashaya Pomo dances, I found both Labanotation (Hutchinson 1954) and Benesh notation (Benesh and Benesh 1969) to be too complex for my purposes, and the system devised by G. Kurath in her work with the Tewa (Kurath and Garcia 1970) to be too simplified. Therefore, the obvious alternative was to devise a system of my own which could be especially tailored to Kashaya Pomo dances.