Dance notation records each movement of a dance in a written score, the most common form in the U.S. being Labanotation. Dance scores produced by the Dance Notation Bureau (DNB), the leading center of Labonotation, are used by professional companies and educational institutions for staging works. They are also used in classrooms to train dancers and for scholarly research.

Dance scores contain the full detail of the dance including the steps, relationship to the music, floor patterns, motivation and imagery. Dance scores function for dance as music scores function for music, allowing the dance to live on in accurate and permanent form. Dance scores are created according to the intention of the choreographer, without the work being filtered through someone else's interpretation and without performance mistakes or dancers' idiosyncrasies. They provide the needed information without movement being obstructed by other dancers, costumes, set pieces, stage lighting or dancers moving out of sight lines.

Notation of a dance must take place when it is being taught to dancers who do not already know the work. The notation process does not impinge on the rehearsal process, and additional rehearsals are not necessary. The existence of a notated score does not change ownership or copyright of the dance or the ability to leave the ownership to one's heirs. DNB restricts the use of the score for any purpose without written permission from the choreographer or heirs.