In his first career as a visual artist, Rudolf Laban came of age during the height of the Art Nouveau movement. This “new art” movement turned flora and fauna into stylized patterns. Artists drew upon botanical photos and zoological illustrations as inspirational sources for their own designs.
Laban was undoubtedly familiar with these design sources and the pattern making procedures employed by Art Nouveau artists. When he decided to become a dancer, he must have recognized that dance is also an art based on pattern. Because he wanted to create new dances (not ballets), he had to find new design sources – or create them.
The space harmony (Choreutic) sequences that Laban created can be seen as design sources, not only for dance but also for other kinds of movement invention. For example, I’ve drawn on space harmony sequences to facilitate recovery from a back injury.
Find out more in the next blog.