Is SignWriting & DanceWriting Blending? SignWriting and DanceWriting are both a part of a much larger system, called: Sutton Movement Writing & Shorthand It is a complete movement notation system for recording all movement...not just human movement, but animal and insect movement as well. The system includes five sections: 1. DanceWriting, records dance choreography https://www.DanceWriting.org 2. SignWriting, records signed languages https://www.SignWriting.org 3. MimeWriting, records classic mime and gesture 4. SportsWriting, records gymnastics, ice skating, karate 5. ScienceWriting, records physical therapy, movements of autistic children, body language, animal movements, and so forth. So technically, the Sutton system is ONE writing system, but because dancers do not need a way to write sign language, and signers do not need a way to write dance steps, we went to the work of "specifying" the writing system for different professions. Hence, DanceWriting and SignWriting. However, in the case of writing legs and feet...that is moving towards writing gesture in general - I have noticed that some of the signed languages in the south pacific touch the legs and feet a lot...so there is a case where knowing the whole writing system has value...so the divisions between SignWriting, DanceWriting and MimeWriting can be blurry at times, and they do inter-blend.

Please feel free to write if you have questions. Valerie Sutton DAC@SignWriting.org Deaf Action Committee for SignWriting Center For Sutton Movement Writing an educational nonprofit organization P.O. Box 517, La Jolla, CA, 92038-0517, USA ...return to Questions & Answers Directory...