Laban found trace-forms could be recorded by visualizing them as lines occurring within a geometricized kinesphere. He also felt this form of representation was lacking something.
As the French philosopher Henri Bergson noted, one can move one’s hand from point A to point B, inscribing a line which can infinitely divided into a series of stationary points or positions. This imposes stillnesses on flux.
Instead, the movement creates “the inward feeling of a single act, for in A was rest, in B there is again rest, and between A and B is placed an undivided act, the passage from rest to rest which is movement itself.”
Laban wanted to record motion, but practicalities required him to settle for writing starting and ending points for gestures. Supports are different.
Find out more in the next blog.