The Movement Harmony Project : Part 1 involves moving, writing, and, yes, coloring. Part 1, which launches at the very end of this month, focuses on Choreutics. One of the toughest hurdles of learning Laban’s harmonic spatial sequences is visualizing them. After all, the space around the body is empty. What’s with all these “rhythmic circles” and geometrical trace forms?
Visualizing movement space doesn’t seem to have been tough for Laban. I’ve studied hundreds of mostly unpublished sketches in his archives. These drawings make it clear that Laban could draw the human figure in proportion without a live model. And he could surround the figure with a geometrical shape. In fact, he could draw geometrical forms tilting, rotating, coming apart – that is, moving!
I can’t do any of those things. But I have found a way of presenting Laban’s harmonic scales and Choreutic sequences visually. And that is what participants in the upcoming correspondence course will be doing – coloring templates to create a personal visual reference of major Choreutic forms.
That’s not all – the coloring exercises bridge to movement assignments providing suggestions for embodiment. The writing follows the coloring and moving – providing a chance for reflection on the movement experiences and further discussion with the instructor.