In the upcoming MoveScape workshop, “Exploring Your Kinesphere,” we focus on the central lines of motion – dimensions, diagonals, and planar diameters – for two reasons.

First, these are the fundamental lines of motion that Laban uses to define directions in the kinesphere.

Secondly, these central lines of motion connect body and space.  Here is how.  Because your body occupies the center of your personal movement space, body center and kinespheric center are congruent – one and the same.

Consequently, dimensions, diagonals, and diameters can be felt, as vectors emerging from body center and extending outwards into your kinesphere and beyond. … Read More

Level provides another simple way to organize the kinesphere.  Laban identified three levels – low, middle, and high.

Low level is near the floor and accessed by bending deeply.  Middle level is where we live in normal activities.  High level is accessed by stretching and extending the limbs.

Laban suggested that individuals may show a preference for a certain level.  For example, “a high-dancer has a natural tendency of uplifting and rising.  He will prefer movements which stress erectness of the body carriage.” … Read More

Laban defined the kinesphere as the space surrounding the body that can be reached by extended limbs without taking a step.  This personal space is defined further by the notions of “reach space.”

Quite simply, limbs can be extended in three ways – fully extended to access “far reach space,” partially extended to access “middle reach space,” and barely extended to define the space close to the body in “near reach space.”

Reach space is central to “proxemics” – the study of space and how it makes us feel in relation to objects and others. … Read More

The observation that God geometricizes has been attributed to Plato, but it could be ascribed to Rudolf Laban as well.

To create a longitude and latitude for mapping body movement, Laban gave the empty space adjacent to the mover a shape.  Or rather, three geometrical shapes – the octahedron, the cube, and the icosahedron.

These geometrical shapes of the kinesphere seem cold, linear, and abstract in sharp contrast to the warm, rounded, concreteness of the body.  Yet Laban found relationships between the two that unlock access to space in new ways for the mover.… Read More

It is easy to think of general space as an empty void offering an overwhelming number of possibilities for movement. Laban came up with helpful concepts to avoid overload.

For example, level provides a simple way to organize empty space in a way that can be related to the dancer’s body. Laban identified three levels – low, middle, and high.

Low level is near the floor. The mover can access this area of general space by bending deeply, or kneeling, crawling, even slithering or rolling along the floor.… Read More

Rudolf Laban notes that we can distinguish between the space within reach of the body (the kinesphere) and “space in general.”

General space may be like an empty room (think of a dance studio).  Or it may be characterized by the objects within a space, which serve as landmarks and/or obstacles (think of a living room with sofa and chairs).

Landmarks help to structure and guide movement, if only because we don’t like to collide other objects (like sofas and chairs). … Read More

Rudolf Laban coined the term “kinesphere” for the space surrounding the body that can be reached by extended limbs without taking a step.  He also notes that “we never leave our movement sphere but carry it always with us, like an aura.”

From this description, it is easy to think of the kinesphere as a fixed bubble surrounding the body, an empty orb with boundary at the limits of far reach.

But, in fact, our movements create the kinesphere, establishing its shape and extent moment by moment. … Read More

Space may be the final frontier on Star Trek, but it is the first frontier in human life. Access to space (and the desirable things in the surrounding environment) motivate the infant’s movement development.

There is a classic sequence, from rolling to lifting the head, to sitting, crawling, cruising, and walking. At each juncture the child encounters another plane – the horizontal, the vertical, and finally the sagittal – developing a cognitive map of the territory through which he/she can move.… Read More