Courses in Laban Movement Analysis (LMA) have become core curriculum, primarily in university dance and dance therapy programs. However, LMA courses are also appearing in other disciplinary areas such as theatre, music composition and conducting, computer animation, and even architecture – disciplines in which some understanding of human movement is relevant. Movement analysis helps future dancers, actors, and conductors move more expressively and creatively while enabling would-be animators, composers, and architects to observe movement more precisely. In all these fields, Laban’s work is appreciated for its utilitarian value.
Movement analysis is obviously useful in disciplines that involve movement and the representation of movement. But could movement study also be useful beyond such disciplines? In anticipation of the publication of Meaning in Motion: Introducing Laban Movement Analysis, I intend to revisit the role of movement study at the college level. What kind of knowledge does movement analysis generate? Does the understanding of human movement have a role to play in general education?
In the following series of blogs, Cate Deicher and I explore these questions and argue that Laban’s ideas are more than merely useful.