On Choreutics

According to Laban, the third branch of choreosophy is choreutics – “the practical study of the various forms of (more or less) harmonized movement.”  More recent interpretations have characterized choreutics as “space harmony.”  Laban’s original formulation, however, appears to be more integrative.

For example, he also writes that choreutics “comprehends all kinds of bodily, emotional and mental movements and their notation.”  Laban goes on to suggest that choreutics goes beyond movement analysis to an integrative physical practice with social implications.

For example, he writes that “the choreutic synthesis embraces the various applications of movement to work, education, and art, as well as to regenerative processes in the widest sense.”

Moreover, “through its investigation and various exercises, choreutics attempts to stop the progress of disintegrating into disunity.”  Laban closes the introduction to his book by noting that the “choreutic aspect becomes “especially important in our own time with its universal upheaval, and its love-hatred of motion in life, sciences and the arts.”