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Vladimir Ivanovich Stepanov (1866–1896), was a dancer at the Mariinsky Theater in Saint Petersburg. His book, The Alphabet of Movements of the Human Body (French: L'Alphabet des Mouvements du Corps Humain) was published in Paris in 1892. The book describes a notation that encodes dance movements using musical notes instead of pictographs or abstract symbols. Stepanov breaks complex movements down to elementary moves made by individual body parts, enciphering these basic moves as notes. This method of dance notation, improved by Alexander Gorsky, notated many ballets from choreographer Marius Petipa. Today, this method is preserved in the Harvard University Library Theatre Collection and is known as the Sergeyev Collection.
Stepanov wrote his book from an anatomical perspective. The movements were written in terms of joints of the body, along with flexion, extension, rotation, direction, and adduction. After taking an anatomy course, he continued his studies in Paris. Once it was adopted by the St. Petersburg school, Stepanov was given the title Instructor in Movement Analysis and Notation; however, he died at age 29. The system continued to develop following his death.
After Stepanov's death, Alexander Gorsky printed Table of Signs in Stepanov notation. This publication was a slightly enhanced version of Stepanov's original work. Many other variations of Stepanov notation were made following this, such as Conte notation and Nicholas notation.