The Flow of bodily effort unfolds in space, and the space we live in has only three dimensions. This three-dimensionality posed a problem for Laban as he looked for relationships between the four motion factors and their intrinsic spatial tendencies.
Laban found affinities between the three motion factors of Weight, Space, and Time and the Vertical, Horizontal, and Sagittal dimensions respectively. Then he ran out of places for Flow in the outer space surrounding the body.
Flow may not be naturally affined to the space outside the body, but rather to the psychological inner world in which our thoughts and feelings fluctuate continuously. Perhaps Laban came to this conclusion. He recognized that combinations of Weight, Space, and Time manifest in practical actions working with material objects in the visible space around the body. In these actions, Flow is latent.
When Flow replaces one of these motion factors, however, it alters the very nature of the act. Rather than motion directed to a tangible object, the movement is inspired by intangible values.
Laban conceived this poetically, in his delineation of the three Transformation Drives. He recognized that effort has many functions. It serves orientation in the external world, and also “perfects man’s orientation in his inner world.” Flow is the key to this transformation. For as Laban wrote, inner becomes outer and outer becomes inner.