Eddie Dombauer in 1987 from Computers and the Arts video

Eddie Dombauer in 1987 from Computers and the Arts video

Game Designer Eddie Dombrower Creates the First Dance Notation Software

1981 to 1982
Screenshot of the DOM dance program from the television show, Computers and the Arts (1987)

Screenshot of the DOM dance program from the television show, Computers and the Arts (1987)

In 1981 or 1982 American computer game and video game designer Eddie Dombrower created the DOM system, the first dance notation software, on an Apple II computer. Dombrower studied both dance and mathematics at Pomona College in Claremont, California. After his graduation he found it frustrating that the new microcomputer technology had not solved an age-old problem: how  choreographers could record their work in written form. The DOM system, named after the first three letters of Dombrower's name, allowed choreographers to use a simple system of codes to enter their work. The resulting dance movements were then performed by a figure on screen.

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