Choreutics Decoded – New Fun Forms

Some forms in Part 2 of Choreutics are a real departure from space harmony “business as usual.” For example, in all well-known Choreutic forms, Laban avoids using the short and long edges of the cardinal planes. These peripheral and transverse lines are either plumb with the line of gravity or perpendicular to it. Thus they are stable — and to be avoided!

Also, all the well-known Choreutic forms use the cubic diagonals as their axes.

However, in Part 2, Laban begins to employ planar edges in the trace-forms and planar diameters as axes. Two of the most fun forms using these previously “forbidden edges and axes” are the peripheral and transverse 5-rings.

There are 12 peripheral 5-rings. These pentagons hang from a short edge of one of the cardinal planes, surround one corner of the icosahedron, and mark off a zone of the kinesphere in a new way. Explorers liked these forms. They were interesting to embody and seemed like something drawn from daily life – “in sport, dance, or conversation.”

There are also 12 transverse 5-rings. These star-shaped pentagrams  surround a corner of the icosahedron and travervse a long edge of one of the planes. They have a “sign of Zorro” feeling of slicing through an area of the kinesphere, yet combine the stability of planar edge with other more demanding off-vertical transversals.