The Multi - person Benesh Movement Notation Score

Scores recording the related actions of a number of people executing different movement are recorded on the required number of linked staves, in a similar manner to a music conductor’s score.
Simultaneous movements are recorded on vertically aligned frames and the barlines extend down from the top stave to lowest stave, linking the set.

Soirée Musicale
Choreography © Kenneth MacMillan, London 1988. Notated by Julie Lincoln

Each stave is labelled to show who is executing the movement recorded on it. Modifications of the direction sign are used to identify different individuals or groups of people. Women are normally represented by filled in identification heads and men by open ones, to which a variety of cross-outs may be added as required.

Where appropriate, brackets in the left hand margin link the staves of people who are working together.

In multi-person scores the relationships between people, their locations and travel paths are summarised between the top two staves of a linked set providing an overview of the floor plan. Where necessary the relevant information may be restated, or more detailed instructions given, beneath the relevant stave.

‘Stage plans' which give an overview of the working space, may be used in addition to the below-stave summary of the floor plan, and to show the placement of furniture and other structures within the working space. Written in sequence, separately from the score, they can serve as a useful reminder of the floor patterns.

Sequence of stage plans corresponding to the Soirée Musicale excerpt above