Space Toys

Mel Brooks had Spaceballs (a Star Wars parody); I have Space Toys.

I’m not kidding. One way to bring Choreutics to life is with good geometrical models. Whenever I’m in a toy shop (or the children’s section of a museum shop), I’m always on the lookout for the newest geometrical toys.

Space Toys via Movescape Center

To be honest, I’m always on the lookout. At the moment, geometrical forms are fashionable as decorative items. I just went to Hobby Lobby to buy pastel paper and walked out with a stellated icosahedron….

 

In “Bringing Choreutics to Life” I will share some of my “finds.” I will also show participants how to make models out of inexpensive materials.

 

Come play with my space toys.

 

Find out more….

 

Decoding Choreutics – Key #1

Another example of Laban’s double vision is his concept of the kinesphere and dynamosphere as dual domains of human movement.  To represent both domains, Laban utilizes the cube.

Decoding Choreutics via Movescape

With regard to the kinesphere, Laban uses the cube quite literally.  Its corners, edges, and internal diagonals serve as a kind of longitude and latitude for mapping movement in the space around the dancer’s body.

 

With regard to the dynamosphere, Laban uses the cube formally to represent patterns of effort change.  This shift in how the model should be interpreted is complicated further by Laban’s use of direction symbols to stand for effort qualities and combinations.

 

When Laban wrote Choreutics in 1938-39, the effort symbols had not yet been created.  Consequently, his dual use of direction symbols to stand in for effort obscures the discussion, but not entirely.

 

To decode the models discussed in Chapters 3, 6, and 9, it is only necessary to translate the direction symbols into effort qualities and combinations.  Once this is done, Laban’s discussion of dynamospheric patterns becomes clear.

 

Want more keys?  Register for the correspondence course, “Decoding Laban’s Choreutics,” beginning March 26.

 

Humane Effort

Human effort is rich, complex, and quite variable. Nevetheless, every individual develops effort habits over time. One’s effort “personality” is the product of individual temperament. It is shaped by social circumstances and developed through movement training and the other activities one engages in – whether voluntarily chosen or not. Thus nature, nurture, and movement experience combine to generate an individual’s ingrained effort habits.

While much of our movement behavior is habitual, we are also able to think about how we move. “Man’s selection of effort sequences no longer appears to be entirely subconscious,” according to Rudolf Laban. Consequently, man “has the possibility and advantage of conscious training, which allows him to change and enrich his effort habits.” This is due to a special kind of effort, which Laban refers to as “humane effort.”

Humane effort can be described as the energy applied to overcome the influence of nature and nurture, to alter the effect of inherited or acquired capacities. Humane effort is a kind of meta-effort, one that arises from the capacity to reflect on the very habitual motions most commonly taken-for-granted. “With humane effort,” Laban notes, “man is able to control negative habits and to develop qualities and inclinations creditable to man, despite adverse influences.”

As Laban elaborate, humane effort is of paramount importance, not only for movement education but also for self-development. F. Matthias Alexander corroborates Laban’s perspective. In The Use of the Self, Alexander chronicles his own struggles to change speaking habits that kept causing him to lose his voice. He had to study the customary way he held his head and neck and to identify damaging patterns that had come to feel natural. To solve his difficulties, he had not only to embody more effective patterns but also to overcome the feeling of naturalness he had come to associate with a way of moving that was harmful.

Overriding “what comes naturally” requires a special kind of effort, one that unites self-awareness with the will to change. Laban felt this was a uniquely human effort. He used the adjective “humane” because he saw this kind of effort as a civilizing and humanizing force, one bearing the best qualities of mankind.

Movement Habits and Effort Awareness

Human effort is ubiquitous. From the time we rise in the morning until we retire at night, we engage in diverse endeavors – all of which require effort and skilled bodily motion.

Fortunately, many of these skilled motions have become habitual and require little conscious thought or reflection. Indeed, there are only a few occasions when we have to think about how we move. If a situation makes us self-conscious, we may become painfully aware of bodily movements. If injured, we may have to adjust the way we do things. And when we are learning a new skill, we have to pay close attention to how the activity is done.

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The transition from the halting performance of the beginner to the smooth execution of the expert has much to do with mastering the appropriate effort phrasing and repeating the sequence of actions a sufficient number of times. This allows the neuromuscular pattern to be initiated and run “automatically,” without undue conscious intervention.

As a consequence, much of our movement behavior is unreflective. And this is very efficient – until we want or need to change our physical manner of being in the world.

Change requires a special kind of effort, which Rudolf Laban referred to as “humane effort.” In the next blog, I discuss this intriguing concept.

Effort and Virtuosity

It takes a special event to awaken us to the awesome variety and potential perfection of human effort. A virtuoso performance on the musical saw did so for me.

Colorado Symphony OrchestraA recent concert by the Colorado Symphony included the “Habanera” from the opera “Carmen,” in which the well-known aria (usually sung by a soprano) was performed by soloist Caroline McCaskey on a saw. By holding the handle of the saw between her knees, bending the blunt metal tip with her left hand, and bowing the straight edge, she was able to replicate the tones of the human voice. One can only imagine the hours of practice it must have taken to replicate an operatic melody on a tool! It was marvelous to witness the complicated networks of changing effort qualities employed in this virtuoso performance.

Rudolf Laban describes virtuosity as the “mechanical perfection of movements” in which “the victory of mind over matter appears complete.” He goes on to note that “virtuosity of this kind uses the movements of the body as the skilled laborer uses his tools. The high economy of effort which characterizes skill is common to both the laborer and the virtuoso.”

According to Laban, we are charmed by virtuosity because “the high economy of effort makes the movement look almost effortless.” And this is ironic – such perfection should inspire us to become more aware of how we apply effort in our own endeavors. Yet often it does not.

During my years as a starving artist in New York City, I came to appreciate the range of artistic events available. It was possible to see the very best, and also some of the very worst. Wonderful performances were not always instructive. The artists made it look so easy that I suspended my critical faculties and merely enjoyed the experience. In contrast, the dull dance concert or the struggle of the beginning stand-up comedian on open mic night was often more thought-provoking. The lack of skill provided an opportunity to become more aware of the effort elements needed to sustain interest or get a laugh.

Human Effort is Omnipresent

In preparation for the MoveScape Octa seminar later this week, I have been thinking a lot about human effort. As Rudolf Laban perceived, “the animal world is rich in effort manifestations, but each animal genus is restricted to a relatively small range of typical qualities.” Human beings manifest a much richer range of motion and “can establish complicated networks of changing effort qualities.”

MoveScape CenterThe results of human effort are all around us, for increasingly we spend our time in man-made environments, in homes, in office buildings, in vehicles that transport us from one to the other. At work or play, we employ a variety of implements that are also man-made. Some were crafted by hand, but the majority were produced by a machine. Yet, behind each machine stand the human beings who conceived it, designed it, and oversaw its production.

Man-made artifacts are palpable products; we can see and feel them. The complicated networks of changing effort qualities that produced them have disappeared. Human effort becomes invisible. In fact, we take it for granted. It takes a special event to remind us of the richness of our own efforts and the potential for the perfection of their application.

In the next blog, I explore a recent event that reminded me of the importance of effort in human endeavor.

Effort and Consciousness

(This excerpt is taken from my book, The Harmonic Structure of Movement, Music, and Dance According to Rudolf Laban.)

As noted earlier, Laban initially perceived two fundamental psychological attitudes: one of resisting or fighting the physical conditions influencing movement, the other of yielding and accepting these conditions. These attitudes were used in the construction of bi-polar qualities for each of the four motion factors. In later years, Laban hypothesized correlations between these four motion factors and the four functions of consciousness theorized by Jung: sensing, thinking, feeling, and intuiting. Jung used these constructs to develop a dense theory of personality type in which each function is modified by many other psychological factors such as attitudes or extraversion or introversion, conscious development or unconscious regression, and so on. Put simply, however, Jung explained the four functions as follows: “Sensation (i.e. sense-perception) tells you that something exists; thinking tells you what it is; feeling tells you whether it is agreeable or not; and intuition tells you whence it comes and where it is going.”

To elaborate, the function of sensing has to do with the perception of what is tangible and palpable in the immediate environment. Laban associated this perceptive function with the motion factor of weight and the intent to apply pressure firmly or delicately. As Katya Bloom puts it, weight “relates to the physical-sensory world, the actual material substance of the body, and the sense of touch.”

The function of thinking has to do with rational judgment based upon the analysis and classification of sensory data in relation to ideas and concepts. Laban associated this function with the motion factor of space and the effort exerted to orient oneself directly or flexibly in the environment. According to Bloom, space relates to “one’s point of view on the outside world. It implies a space for reflection and thought, and is therefore related to the mind, to the mental aspect of experience.”

The function of feeling allows one to establish what one likes and what one dislikes and this judgment is often experienced as a visceral reaction of attraction or repulsion, pleasure or pain. Laban associated feeling with the motion factor of flow and the effort to move with fluid abandon or to hold motion in check. Bloom sees the control or release of tension as analogous to “the control or release of feelings” and relates flow to “the experience of emotion in the body.”

Finally, the function of intuition has to do with sudden perceptions and insights that seemingly do not arise from immediate sense perception or methodical reasoning. Laban associated this function with the motion factor of time. Here Laban seems to be drawing on Henri Bergson’s idea that intuition is the direct apprehension of a “living time” that is experienced “from within.” Living time does not move smoothly at a steady rate: some hours fly by, while other hours creep. Laban appears to see the decisive effort to speed up or slow down as arising from this internal, hence “intuitive” sense of timing.

Learn more about the psychology of movement at the upcoming Octa Seminar, August 7-9, 2014. Register now.

Human Effort and the Four Motion Factors

(The following passage continues the introduction to Rudolf Laban’s ideas about human effort. It is taken from my forthcoming book, Meaning in Motion: Introducing Laban Movement Analysis.)

Because movement is a psychophysical phenomenon involving the whole person, how someone moves reveals something about how they are feeling. The individual’s inner attitudes become visible through effort. Rudolf Laban characterizes these inner attitudes as “fighting or resisting” and “indulging or yielding.”

Movements are bound to evolve in space as well as in time, and in this evolution of movement the weight of the body is brought into flow. These four elements – Space, Time, Weight, and Flow – are the building blocks of Laban’s effort taxonomy. They are the four motion factors towards which the mover adopts a fighting or indulging attitude, as follows.

Space is the effort exerted to aim and orient movement. A fighting attitude is expressed in direct motion, in which linear aim with a singular focus is noted. An indulging attitude is expressed as indirect action, in which curvilinear plasticity and continuous changes in the direction prevail.

Time is the effort exerted to pace the movement adroitly. A fighting attitude is expressed as sudden action, in which quickness and acceleration are noticeable. An indulging attitude is expressed in sustained movement, producing a lingering action in which deceleration prevails.

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Weight is the effort exerted to apply the right amount of pressure. A fighting attitude is expressed as strong weight, in which firm pressure and forcefulness prevail. An indulging attitude is expressed as light weight, in which delicacy and a gentle touch are noticeable.

Flow is the effort exerted to control movement. A fighting attitude is expressed as bound flow, in which the motion is restrained and easy to stop. An indulging attitude is expressed as free flow, in which the action is relaxed and difficult to stop.

 

 

Human Effort

(The following passage is taken from my forthcoming introductory textbook on Laban Movement Analysis, Meaning in Motion: Introducing Laban Movement Analysis. The following excerpt is from the chapter on effort.)

First and foremost, human effort is volitional. “Man moves in order to satisfy a need,” Rudolf Laban asserts. The voluntary motions we make require energy. Not only can we be more or less energetic when we move, we can also change the quality of energy applied. We can alter at will how we move. For example, it takes more force to push open a heavy door then to smooth a piece of tissue paper. We can choose the right amount of pressure to apply. Similarly, it takes more precision to cut a straight line than to scatter breadcrumbs for the birds. We can choose whether to focus our movements precisely or follow random pathways. These variations in how we move are what Laban called “effort”.

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Obviously, controlling how we move is important in executing practical actions. But as Laban observed, even practical actions “are distinguished by personal expression.” Because movement is a psychophysical phenomenon involving the whole person, how someone moves reveals something about how they are feeling. The individual’s inner attitudes become visible through effort…

Find out more about these inner attitudes in the next blog.