First of all I must say that I regret that János cannot be here. I will try my best to explain this theme which is more complex than we thought before. This is a continuation of a paper that was presented at the ICKL conference in Mexico City. I am sorry that a formal technical paper has not been written but our research is interrupted in a certain point. We have a handout which contains an A3 sheet and two A4 sheets. Please let me start with a few historical remarks, since touching gestures can be indicated in various ways.

The key point in the history is cited from Hutchinson Guest’s booklet, A History of the Development of the Laban Notation System, page 56. Quotation: “Originally a hook attached to a gesture or a support symbol modified the whole sign, thus placement did not have to be exact. … Knust established that the hook had time significance, … This rule also applied to hooks on sliding gestures; adopted by ICKL in 1963 the rule brought with it the need to distinguish between unit timing and specific timing.”

In Hungary, the first dances notated with Kinetography Laban were published in 1947. The notators used specific timing only from 1965, though a well-known Hungarian ethnochoreologist György Martin did not use that in his manuscripts. While Hutchinson uses ST and UT as two alternatives, Mária Szentpál in the second edition of her book uses ST&UT in a mixed way. If you look at the A3 handout, you will see that she wrote a terminating touch as ST, a sliding gesture as UT. In 2007 János Fügedi suggested a modified use for UT where contact bows and hooks are drawn at the same line. This suggestion was discussed in the Open Theory Meeting in New York. Fügedi and Hutchinson also commented this topic on the internet. In this paper, we will suggest a third name for it, Rhythm Timing, and later we will see what kind of notation it is.

You can see some old notation examples here from the Szentpál book, 1st edition. If we examine the first figure, it is strange for us because not only hooks but the space measurement signs are also placed in the middle of the direction signs. Our eyes would focus on the lower part of the beats or direction signs, where the support rhythm is shown. In the first part of the presentation I would like to deal with only the graphical indications, and in the second part we will study the meaning, and how several movements can be recorded in an easily readable way.

The direction sign should be placed in the proper time unit, because the direction sign should help the rhythm recognition. The hook should be placed at the beginning of the proper count, because the hook should indicate the moment of the touch. The hook should be attached at the end of the direction sign, because the hook should reflect the inner structure of the movement.

The hook is placed at the beginning of the proper count and at the end of the direction sign.

I would like to underline that it is just a third visual approach, and the criterion a) comes from UT satisfied, and criterion b) comes from ST satisfied. The criterion that is not satisfied is c), and I would like to mention that it is a requirement inherited from Knust.

The problem is that this version does not really express the rhythm. János calls the third notation as Rhythm Timing because the rhythm can be easily recognized in it.

Rhythm recognition. Please try to recognize the rhythm here. I can show you the movement. The fourth notation is strange, as if the short direction signs would express some quick, abrupt gestures. RT is good, your eyes can focus on the beginning of the beats. I would like to mention that at the second touch the space measurement sign, which means the distance of the touch, is placed close to the hook.

In the ICKL Proceedings 1997 Carl Wolz notated stick hits in a similar way, in which the direction bows were notated in UT, contact signs as ST. When János wanted to integrate this indication for UT, he met the problem of transient touches.

The form in the right upper corner cannot be introduced to UT, because in UT the transient touch is indicated that way. To solve this contradiction, János questioned whether a transient touch is physical possible. It was not part of Szentpál’s movement analysis either. Later János was convinced by DNB representatives that a transient touch can exist as an intention. Charlotte Wile suggested a solution in the Open Theory Meeting in New York on 7th of April, 2008.

The release sign can be used to distinguish the terminating and the transient touch. When this is done, UT and RT are two kind of notations. In UT the placement of the hook distinguishes the terminating and the transient touches, while in RT the existence or absence of the release sign achieves the same goal. In the latter case the hook has no time significance, the timing is indicated by the direction sign.

The indication by Charlotte Wile is similar when you use a retention sign to distinguish sliding and passing sliding in the case of arm gestures. Let’s examine the possible use of contact signs together with retention or release signs.

We have three columns: in the first column a release sign, in the third column a retention sign, and in the second column none of them is used. If we want to distinguish two movements, we have to choose kinetograms from two columns, and we can use the kinetogram in the third column as a synonym. For example in last row, to distinguish sliding and passing sliding, we can choose the right column with retention sign for sliding, the left column with release sign for passing sliding, and the centered column will be a synonym for left or right. We like to use few sings, therefore we will choose the centered column and the right one.

If we use UT, the left column, in which release signs are applied, and the centered kinetograms mean the same, because the placement of hooks already mean transient or passing gestures. Therefore we can put equation signs between the left and the centered columns. In accordance with the previous slides, the first and the second kinetograms are not equal, therefore we should rather move the equation sign between the centered and the right columns.

In RT the left column and the centered column do not mean the same movements. In the left column a release sign is used always for transient touch or passing sliding, see the last column in your A3 handout. I would like to repeat that hook placement don’t have time significance. If timing is not indicated with hook placement in the centered column, there are further consequences on sliding gestures. The use of the release sign means passing sliding. The lack of the release sign means sliding, regardless of where two hooks are attached.

After the elimination of the time significance of hooks, we have to use the release sign for passing sliding. In RT sliding can be indicated in many ways, because it does not matter where the hooks are placed. Two application of hooks are presented in these figures, which are surprising comparing to UT: one of them means the passing sliding in UT, and the other one means the sliding in UT.

Let’s compare some kinetograms, where hooks are used on support and gesture at the same time. The 1st row contains a support & a gesture, the 2nd row contains a sliding support & a gesture, the 3rd row contains a support & a sliding gesture, and the 4th row contains a sliding support & a sliding gesture. The first column contains the forms which were presented in ICKL 1997 by János Fügedi, and indicate sliding springs. The double hooks are placed in the gap of the spring. You can see ST, UT, RT in three columns. All three are simplified versions comparing to the first column.

When reading and trying to understand the meaning of the kinetograms, it is strange for the eyes to see the vertically shifted signs. In ST, see the 2nd and the 4th rows, the shifted direction signs and the shifted hooks do not reflect that two limbs finish the movement at the same time. In UT, see the 1st and the 3rd rows, the shifted hooks do not reflect that two limbs finish the movement at the same time.

Please think about the possible indications to continue the discussion on touching gestures later. I have one more remarks. Indications of arm gestures is more difficult than in the case of leg gestures, because the contact bows are not attached to direction signs, if we want to eliminate the time significance. This is how far we got in our research, and therefore no formal paper has been completed yet. It turned out that when János wanted to return to the easily readable Hungarian notations, it might mean a return to the indication of simple touch as it was before Knust established that the hook had time significance.