The inspirational passages in Choreutics can obscure the systematic way in which Laban introduces and develops a rational geography of space.
To help the mover orient in the trackless kinesphere, Laban begins with simple, readily recognizable trajectories and moves by gradual steps to more oblique and nuanced trajectories.
First Laban introduces the cardinal directions (up/down, across/open, back/forward). Next he moves on to the cardinal planes (vertical, horizontal, and sagittal), and then to the pure diagonals.
The pure diagonal lines of motion connect opposite corners of the cube – a familiar shape related to the rectangular rooms we mostly inhabit.
Laban only introduces the complex and unfamiliar icosahedron, with its oblique internal transversals and peripheral edges, in Chapter 10.
Join me as I illuminate Laban’s map of the kinesphere step by step in LIMS hybrid workshop, “Decoding Choreutics,” starting in May.