Bartenieff has written that movement dynamics are a critical component in understanding movement behavior. As she notes, “We see not only the design of movement (its direction and timing) but by its specific dynamics we catch its meaning, its impact and expressiveness.”
Notation captures which part of the body moves, where it goes, and how long the action takes. Space Harmony/Choreutics approaches bodily movement in space from a more theoretical position by prescribing spatial paths and sequences of whole body action. However, neither way of seeing captures how a movement is performed; that is, the qualitative dynamics employed. This is the role of effort observation and analysis.
Movement is a multi-faceted phenomenon that requires more than one way of looking. As Bartenieff concluded in her 1962 lecture at the Dance Notation Bureau in New York City, Laban’s three systems are “invaluable in the training of observation and analysis.” United, these three ways of looking “can make a valuable contribution to the study of the behavior of man.”