Our first port-of-call was Budapest, the home of Laban’s maternal grandparents. This magnificent city, often compared to Paris, straddles the Danube, with the imperial palaces in Buda and the iconic parliament building in Pest. Although severely damaged in the final days of World War II, the splendid architecture along the river has been reconstructed and must look now much as it did when Laban visited his grandparents in the late 19th century.
Laban’s father was a career officer in the Austro-Hungarian Imperial Army. When his mother accompanied his father to exotic postings in the Balkans, Laban stayed with his grandparents in Budapest. His grandfather was a prominent doctor, with a lovely home and vineyards outside the city. Laban seems to have been fond of both grandparents. In his autobiography he describes his grandfather as “the essence of infinite kindness,” while his grandmother displays “graceful vitality.”
When Laban describes his future aspirations with these “venerated people,” his grandfather applauds his “revolutionary ideas,” while his grandmother intuits that Laban “will become an artist.” Such understanding must have meant a lot, for his father wanted Laban to follow in his military footsteps.
Through a series of promotions, Laban’s father was ennobled and given an aristocratic title (which passed to Laban himself). Consequently, his parents must have participated in Viennese court life. Thus Laban grew up in a context of privilege, against the backdrop of an imperial culture rich in ceremonial and social aspects. Drifting past the palaces along the Danube, one captures a sense of the background that Laban would later reject. But that takes us to another port-of-call…