According to Rudolf Laban, “The dancer moves, not only from place to place, but also from mood to mood.” In this beautifully simple statement, he lays out the two broad domains of his movement taxonomy – Space (the movement from place to place) and Effort (the movement from mood to mood).
Laban’s protégé, Warren Lamb, later used the term Shape in place of the word “Space.” He wrote, “Effort goes with Shape organically… These are the two components of movement.”
Lamb goes on to explain that “Some interpretations of my work make it appear that I invented the concept of Shape, but in fact Laban made it clear that this duality was the basis of his work with his definitions of Eukinetics (Effort) and Choreutics (Shape).”
Find out more about this duality in the upcoming MoveScape course, “Mostly about Shape (and a Bit about Effort),” beginning in April.