Laban based his effort theory on the eight “Basic Actions” (aka Action Drive combos). Then he positioned each Basic Action at a corner the cube, making a nifty model of effort/space affinities and creating the Diagonal Scale that every Laban student has practiced.
Most study of the Action Drive stops there, however, leading to some very stereotyped ways of embodying the basic actions.
In the workshop that I will be teaching during the LIMS Conference in July, participants can join me in liberating the Basic 8 – freeing them from the diagonals, finding new ways to Float and Punch and Glide, and practicing some little-known “effort scales” that Laban designed.
Find out more in the next blog.