Laban’s The Mastery of Movement on the Stage is about meaning. In the opening sentence of the book, Laban observes that “man moves to satisfy a need,” and he notes that these needs can be tangible or intangible. Here, in a nutshell, is a whole theory of human motivation and its intrinsic relation to bodily movement.
We cannot directly see another person’s motives, but we can deduce these from the way a person moves. In the theatre, or in everyday life, we come to know characters and their objectives, not only by what they say, but by how they say it and the bodily actions that accompany those words and tones.
Mastery of Movement is not a book to be merely read. Laban meant it to be an incentive for meaningful movement. He pursues this objective by providing explorations of bodily actions, observation exercises, and dramatic scenarios to inspire effort expression.
While the first edition was focused on the needs of the actor, the second edition, edited after Laban’s death by Lisa Ullmann, extended the focus. Beyond appealing to those concerned with the theatre, Ullmann hoped that the subject “will give inspiration also to those who seek to understand movement as a force of life.”
Want to find out more about movement as a force of life through explorations of bodily actions and effort? Join MoveScape Center’s “Mastering Laban’s Mastery of Movement,” starting in mid-May.