For the Action Drive I have selected a short poem by the popular American poet, Carl Sandburg. One critic notes that Sandburg’s style “gives him entry into steel mills and mean streets, into shacks along the railroad, into the hearts of obscure people to whom he feels allegiance.”

Sandburg himself wanted to write “sentences truly alive, with verbs quivering.” See what you think in the following selection, “Prayers of Steel.”

Lay me on an anvil, O God.
Beat me and hammer me into a crowbar.… Read More

Vision Drive is the weightless drive.  The mover, freed from the earth-bound pull of gravity, is free to soar on the wings of imagination.  The following poem, “High Flight” by the aviator John Gillespie Magee, seems to capture this ecstatic mood.

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, – and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of – wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence.… Read More

Every single move we make requires some kind of effort.   Effort is everywhere.  But it is so ubiquitous as to slip from our awareness.  Consequently as part of recent MoveScape Center courses, participants and I have been going on “effort hunts” as a way to stimulate effort awareness.

Laban differentiates “movement thinking” from thinking in words.  Yet he often characterizes effort combinations as creating a distinctive “moods.”  Poetry also captures moods.  So this month’s blogs are an experiment.

I’m going on an effort hunt to see if I can find poems that reflect the mood of one of the effort drives.… Read More

Effort phrasing follows a general pattern of preparation, main action/exertion, and recuperation.  This pattern can be studied through the lens of effort states and drives.

Because of their dynamic intensity, effort drives often occur as exertions, while effort states function as preparations and recuperations.

The incredible diversity of styles, rhythms, and effort phrasings found in human movement can seem overwhelming. Nevertheless, Laban discerned some underlying relationships that govern and to some extent limit effort changes.

In “The Transformation Drives” course, we examine the relationships of states to drives. … Read More

Everyone who has ever studied Laban will have some familiarity with the spatial scales he designed, such as the Dimensional and Diagonal Scales.  But did you know that Laban also created effort scales?

In Mastery of Movement Laban wrote: “Anybody can start with any of the basic action moods… He can then with greater or less effort mobility run through whatever scale of moods he likes.”

The effort scales that Laban designed support effort harmony and a balance of dynamic energies.… Read More

We cannot observe the ever-changing flow of thoughts and feelings directly, but we can infer motivations and intentions by how someone moves.

Moreover, we can affect our own thoughts and feelings by changing the ways in which we move.

In the upcoming MoveScape Center course, “The Transformation Drives,” we work with effort combinations, rhythms, and patterns to experience the links between body and mind, thinking and feeling, willing and acting.

Find out more in the next blog.… Read More

Irmgard Bartenieff once observed that Laban’s effort theory and notation enabled his colleagues and students “to study and work with some extremely elusive phenomena in tangible ways.”  Dynamic kinetic energies – which Laban called “efforts” – are certainly elusive, changing and disappearing even as they occur.

That is why those who study movement need to invest in an effort bank in two ways.

First, movement experience with the effort elements and compounds is essential.  This should be enriched through reflection on the “felt sense” of the states and drives and the images and contexts they bring to mind.… Read More

Investing in an “effort bank” helps the movement specialist use Laban’s effort theories effectively.  An effort bank is not a brick-and-mortar structure, however.  It is a personal treasury of experience acquired by moving and observing effort.

The upcoming MoveScape Center course, “The Transformation Drives,” helps participants invest in their effort banks.  This is done in several ways.

First, the course provides images and suggestions for embodying the eight variations of each of the transformation drives – Passion, Vision, and Spell – and discovering their personal meanings.… Read More