Guest blog by Juliet Chambers-Coe.
In A Life for Dance, Laban recounts how he set about developing an artistic community of shared practice and ideals:
“To participate creatively in this great community idea and in the festive spirit which should be the goal and supreme aspiration of every culture…the daily building up of the communal culture which should culminate in festivities and celebrations and be intimately bound up with the development of the self…I asked all those who were sympathetic with my views to come and help realize this dreamed of way of life somewhere in the open country” (Laban, 1975).
Whilst many of us do not have the luxury of time, space and resources for developing such a community in the ‘open country’, the post-modern era in which we now live has provided us with other ways of coming together and for more of us connect worldwide across geographic, institutional and cultural borders.
The Labanarium offers such a community space, where members can develop the self within a supportive like-minded community of movement and dance practitioners and scholars.
The Labanarium is an international resource and network center for the movement community encompassing movement practices of any discipline. In the spirit of Rudolf Laban, the Labanarium seeks to foster an openness to the breadth and diversity of approaches to the practice and study of human movement as a psychophysical phenomenon.
Founded in January 2017, the Labanarium is now one year old. In the past twelve months, we have seen members of the Labanarium community create performances, research events, create and attend workshops, record podcasts, ask questions and connect through movement, on the network and via the mailing list.
Membership is free of charge with only one requirement – an interest in human movement and an openness to the breadth and diversity of approaches that seek to explore it.
So why not join us and check out what is going on in your community, you are very welcome… www.labanarium.com