The Icosahedron Revealed

As my imaginary conversation with Laban progresses, he begins to share more deeply.

CLM:  I always suspected there was more to your choice of the icosahedron as a model of the kinesphere.  Please go on.

R.Laban:  You see, the icosahedron isn’t found in any crystalline forms. That is, it isn’t found in inorganic matter.  But some microscopic organisms have icosahedral shapes – it is one of the shapes nature chooses for living forms.

Icosaheadron-Devealed

CLM: Why is that important?

R. Laban:  Because life curves, and most trace-forms of human movement are curvilinear.

CLM:  Yet in Choreutics you write that “We can understand all bodily movement as being a continuous creation of fragments of polyhedral forms.”  Polyhedra have straight edges and angular corners….

R. Laban:  You mustn’t take everything I write so literally.  Movement is curvilinear, but in order to create a geography for the kinesphere, I had to use geometrical forms.  By conceptualizing trace-forms as rhythmic circles; that is, as polygons, these shapes can be matched to the geometric geography of the kinesphere.

CLM:  I think I’m beginning to understand.

R. Laban:  You see, my polygonal trace-forms are stylizations of the organic curves of human movement.  I’ve simply done what visual artists do when they take the curved shape of a leaf or a flower and geometricize it.  They create a pattern.

CLM:  That’s what you’re doing, then. You are imposing a pattern on the curves of living movement.

R. Laban:  That’s exactly right. Without patternthe movement just disappears as it is occurring.  By geometricizing trace-forms and the geography of the kinesphere, I’ve provided some “fixed points” so that dance and movement can be objects for contemplation and study.

CLM:  Now I think I really need that cool drink!