The imaginary lines of longitude and latitude make it possible to navigate on the open seas. In a similar way, Laban used the edges and corners of regular polyhedra to provide landmarks for tracking the pathways of moving limbs in the trackless space around the body.
This clever innovation allows for the movement of bodily gestures to be recorded as a line in space having a particular starting and ending point, with reference to a geometrical scaffolding of the kinesphere.
This is the system used in Labanotation today. Although it proved workable, Laban wasn’t happy about it.
Find out why in the next blog.