We also explored mixed 4-rings.  These are rectangular forms comingling transversals from two different A and B scales with peripheral edges to connect them.  The resulting form is a twisted plane that lies in only one half of the kinesphere.

Mixed 4-rings with steep transversals are confined either to the mover’s right or left. Those with flat transversals lie in front or behind.  And those with flat transversals are situated above or below waist level.

Moreover, the mixed 4-rings are not two-dimensional flat planar forms, like the mixed 2-rings.… Read More

Some forms in Part 2 of Choreutics are a real departure from space harmony “business as usual.” For example, in all well-known Choreutic forms, Laban avoids using the short and long edges of the cardinal planes. These peripheral and transverse lines are either plumb with the line of gravity or perpendicular to it. Thus they are stable — and to be avoided!

Also, all the well-known Choreutic forms use the cubic diagonals as their axes.

However, in Part 2, Laban begins to employ planar edges in the trace-forms and planar diameters as axes.… Read More

The spatial sequences that Laban presents in Part 1 of Choreutics  are “rhythmic circles” – closed polygonal trace-forms that begin and end in the same spatial location. But in Part 2, Laban created open sequences that begin and end in different parts of the kinesphere.

We explored several of these open forms, notably “snakes” and “shears.”

Snakes are taken from the volutes of the A and B Scales – essentially a volute linked to the next point in the scale. They lead on in space and lend themselves to free improvisation in terms of finding a way to complete the sequence.… Read More

Last fall, a dozen brave explorers and I delved into Part 2 of Laban’s masterwork on spatial aspects of movement – Choreutics. We needed to be brave, because this part of the work presents many transverse and peripheral space harmony forms that are seldom taught today. But that is not the only, or most daunting, challenge.

Part 2 is based on a compilation of forms that Gertrud Snell Friedburg prepared as a birthday present for Laban in 1929. By this date, Laban had published the rudiments of his dance notation system.… Read More

When Laban was a military cadet, the Austro-Hungarian Empire stretched over the whole of southeast Europe and into the Balkans, embracing peoples of diverse races, nationalities, customs, and religions. To escape from his duties in the dreaded machine shop, Laban volunteered to direct a festival of cadets. This would include national dances of the various groups represented in the military academy – Germans, Hungarians, Slovaks, Poles, Bohemians, Styrians, Tyrolese, Italians, Ruthenian Russians, and Herzegovinians.

According to Laban, this idea was met with great enthusiasm, and all the cadets “wanted to bring their national characteristics into the limelight.”… Read More