Flow Changes Everything

Posted on June 20, 2017 by Carol-Lynne Moore

When flow takes the place of another motion factor, Laban wrote, “the expression is more intense” and the whole configuration “gains new meaning.” In the Mastery of Movement correspondence course, we tested Laban’s assertion.

Readers were asked to choose one of the transformation drives – either Passion or Vision or Spell. They were to work out the eight effort quality combinations of that drive and then embody each mood.

The Vision Drive combines the motion factors of Space, Time, and Flow (the motion factor of Weight is latent).… Read More

Just Add Flow

Posted on June 13, 2017 by Carol-Lynne Moore

Laban’s well-known basic actions combine the movement factors of Space, Weight, and Time. However, the whole mood of an action changes when Flow replaces one of these motion factors. Then the functional action is transformed into a visionary, passionate, or spell-binding mood.

Laban admits that “even when man sets about a working job and his bodily actions have to fulfill practical functions they are distinguished by personal expression.”

However, when flow takes the place of another motion factor, “the expression is more intense.”… Read More

Demons Into Goddesses Through Effort Magic

Posted on June 8, 2017 by Carol-Lynne Moore

Laban personifies each of the eight basic actions in Mastery of Movement. He characterizes Floating (all indulging qualities of Weight, Time, and Space) as the Goddess and Punching (all fighting effort qualities) as the Demon. He goes on to note that it will not be difficult for the actor or dancer to depict these characters, for we “remember the age-old symbolism of love’s soft floating movements, and of the violent and abrupt movements of hatred.”

During the recent MoveScape Center Mastery of Movement correspondence course, Rebecca Nordstrom created a sequence of basic actions and imagined this movement sequence as a scenario involving the Demon and the Goddess.… Read More

Laban’s Eight “Basic Actions”

Posted on June 6, 2017 by Carol-Lynne Moore

Anyone with even a brief exposure to Rudolf Laban’s work will be familiar with the eight Basic Actions – float, glide, dab, flick, punch, press, wring, and slash. These functional actions are the bedrock of Laban’s effort theory.

As Laban noted, humans move to satisfy needs. Some needs are tangible – food, shelter, rest, and physical safety. This is where the basic actions come in – we employ these when working with material objects to achieve material needs.

Movement occurs in sequences, and these basic actions can be arranged to create a “scale of moods.”… Read More

April Dances Bring Advances 2

Posted on May 18, 2017 by Carol-Lynne Moore

Fifteen years ago, Olie Westheimer, executive director of the Brooklyn Parkinson Group approached the Mark Morris Dance Company about creating a dance class for her clients.  Dance for PD©, a program training teachers and providing classes for those with Parkinson’s disease, is the result.

The program initially met with skepticism, recalls dancer-developer David Leventhal.  Medical doctors felt that dance is “frivolous.”  As Leventhal notes,  “There is a lot of misconception about the amount of learning and skill and brain work and physical work that somebody has to do to execute a dance.”… Read More

MPA Stands Up to Rigorous Testing

Posted on January 31, 2017 by Carol-Lynne Moore

In 2011, I participated in a pilot study examining the validity of Movement Pattern Analysis profiles in predicting decision-making patterns.  Although MPA has been used by senior business teams for over 50 years, its potential application to the study of military and political leaders has barely been tapped.  The pilot study was the first test of this new area of application.

Twelve military officers made up the research participant group.  The research team consisted of Dr. Tim Colton, a political scientist from Harvard and Dr.… Read More

Material Extensions and the Elaboration of Movement Behavior

Posted on February 10, 2015 by Carol-Lynne Moore

The Choreometrics Project, developed by Alan Lomax, Irmgard Bartenieff, and Forrestine Paulay, provides a provocative hypothesis regarding the relationship between tools, work movement, and dance.

Taking a cross-cultural perspective, the project studied dance and work movement as formalized, culturally conditioned behavior, drawing on hundreds of filmed examples from pre-industrial societies. They found that dance mirrors the movements necessary to carry out recurrent work tasks. Moreover, the Choreometrics team found the shape and dimensionality of the dance movement to be associated with the types of tools traditionally employed in working.… Read More

Illustrating the Geography of the Kinesphere with Oranges

Posted on January 15, 2015 by Carol-Lynne Moore

Laban visualized movement space as a spherical orb surrounding the body, which he called the “kinesphere.” He then went on to create a virtual geography for this spherical space, using lines, planes, and regular polyhedra — notably the octahedron, cube, and icosahedron.

Laban’s imaginary geography is quite practical. Nevertheless, imagination fails many students when they have to visualize their own bodies surrounded by geometrical figures.

During the Meaning in Motion lecture last month in New York City, I demonstrated one technique I have used to make Laban’s geometry of the kinesphere concrete.… Read More

New Laban Movement Analysis Book Published!

Posted on November 24, 2014 by Carol-Lynne Moore

Face-to-face communication is divided in two parts: words and the nonverbal actions that accompany those words. Experts agree that movement is the most influential part, and also the most elusive. Words are memorable. Movements disappear in the blink of an eye.

Laban Movement Analysis captures the fleeting dynamics of movement. Created by the eminent 20th century theorist Rudolf Laban, this analytic system is one of the most powerful tools for understanding the nonverbal dimensions of human action and interaction.

Meaning in Motion provides a comprehensive overview of Laban Movement Analysis.… Read More

Body Prejudice

Posted on March 10, 2014 by Carol-Lynne Moore

Like body knowledge, body prejudice originates from our capacity to categorize and generalize on the basis of personal movement experience.  As I write in Beyond Words, second edition:

Over time, a positive or negative meaning comes to be associated with a certain type of movement.  If this meaning is automatically projected onto all similar movements, regardless of context and modifying details, an inappropriate and prejudicial reaction may result.

Just because a movement is pre-judged does not mean it is judged wrongly, but this is always a possibility.… Read More