Experimental psychology and Rudolf Laban were born in the same year.
In 1879, a German scientist named Wilhelm Wundt opened the first psychology laboratory at the University of Leipzig. That same year, Rudolf Laban was born in Bratislava, near Vienna.
Perhaps this is mere coincidence. Nevertheless, there is a relationship.
Wundt’s aim was to examine connections between physiology and human thought and behavior; that is, between body and psyche. As an artist-scientist, Laban’s aimed to understand body movement as both a physical and psychological phenomenon.
Laban’s examinations of movement psychology crystallized in his theories of effort states and drives. Find out more in the summer MoveScape Center course, “The Transformation Drives.”