Effort in Human Life – Laban’s Vision

Some of the most thought-provoking statements by Laban are found in the first chapter of Mastery of MovementHere are several of my favorites….

“Man’s body-mind produces many kinds of qualities.  He can jump like a deer, and, if he wishes, like a cat.”

“Besides the comparative richness of human effort capacity, one can notice an effort speciality which might be called humane effort… effort capable of resisting the influence of inherited or acquired capacities.”

“It is perhaps not too bold to introduce here the idea of thinking in terms of movement.  This thinking does not, as thinking in words does, serve orientation in the external world, but rather it perfects man’s orientation in his inner world in which impulses continually surge and seek an outlet in doing, acting and dancing.”

“The components of the effort qualities displayed by a virtuous and by a vicious person are the same and include the same elements of movement.  The arrangement of the inner impulses creating the movement shows, however, differences in rhythm and stress.”