This study probes how the notions of choreography has formed and changed in relation to dance notation. Two manuscripts, not by accident identically titled, are examined— Chorégraphie by Raoul-Auger Feuillet and Choreographie by Rudolf von Lavan—with regard to their respective understandings of the principles of dance and their socio-political contexts. This study brings Feuillet and Laban into a historical perspective beyond the previous literatures that solely focused on either of them. In Feuillet, choreography was defined as the composition of dance by means of notation. The space for dance was identified as flat and rectangular one, which led to the principles of ballet with the emphasis on geometrical shapes, establishing the two-dimensional plasticity as the aesthetic norm of the time. The act of composing dance by notating movement accompanied the emergence of the choreographer-subject which objectifies bodies of dancers, and thus the invention and development of dance notation was supported by the absolute monarchy out of its interest in the absolutistic body available to be controlled and disciplined. Laban developed the concept of choreography as the notation of forms and qualities of movement in space harmony. Laban theorized scales and rings in crystal space as new principles of movement, founding three-dimensional plasticity with its unceasing mobility as the aesthetic norm of modern dance. Complying with modernist ideal of progress and efficiency, Laban also applied his principles to choreograph movements of industrial bodies. Addressing manuscripts of Feuillet and Laban, and their contribution to the historical formation of the notions of choreography, this study unfolds the concepts of choreography in multilateral contexts, complementing and surpassing the prevalent, literal understanding of its meaning as dance-writing, which will provide the cornerstone for elucidating the historicity of choreography leading up to the present.