Anyone with even a passing acquaintance with Laban Movement Analysis will have encountered the “eight basic actions” – float, punch, glide, slash, dab, wring, flick, and press. These are the readily recognizable combinations of the motion factors of space, weight, and time that Laban identified in practical working actions.
Transposed to the dance studio, these basic actions are usually performed in conjunction with diagonal spatial trajectories, as an oscillation between contrasting actions. So one might float upwards along a diagonal path, then punch backwards in the opposite direction.
While this practice serves a didactic purpose, it leads to very stereotypic ways of performing these basic actions.
In the “The Movement Harmony Project, Part 2,” we will liberate the basic actions from a diagonal scaffolding and place them in other parts of the kinesphere.
We will also interrupt the oscillation between opposite actions to experiment with more natural effort phrasings.
You can move beyond effort stereotypes. Find out more in the upcoming “Effort Harmonies” course, starting in late October.