Seductive Virtuosity: The Winter Olympics

Posted on March 6, 2018 by Carol-Lynne Moore

Although I’m not a big sports fan, I must confess that I am completely seduced by the virtuosity of the Olympic athletes. The dangerous things they do so well are truly mesmerizing.

The danger is part of the appeal. Ice, snow, and steep slopes make perilous surfaces for even normal locomotion. What amazes me, however, is the extent to which the skiers, snowboarders, and skaters are increasingly airborne – turning, twisting, somersaulting – and somehow returning to earth intact and sliding on to the next fantastic trick.… Read More

Movement, Magic, and Transcendence

Posted on February 15, 2018 by Carol-Lynne Moore

The magical powers of movement fascinated Laban. Two anecdotes recounted in his autobiography highlight his keen interest – the first was observing a folk dance meant to make warriors immune to wounds; the second was witnessing Sufi rituals in which dancers actually stabbed themselves but the wounds closed immediately. Laban mused, “Belief in a magic that conquers nature was surely just foolishness, a childish superstition – but even so, wasn’t there something great, something immense hidden behind it?”

This reflection, or perhaps quest, is reflected in many of Laban’s theoretical writings, where he hints at the spiritual value and transcendental power of movement. … Read More

Laban and War

Posted on February 8, 2018 by Carol-Lynne Moore

Rudolf Laban’s father was a general in the Austro-Hungarian Army. As Laban writes in his autobiography, “My father taught me the life of a soldier, which fascinated me almost as much as did the arts.” Subsequent events show that the life of the artist won. Nevertheless, Laban drew on his military background when it came to theorizing dance and movement.

As Gwynne Dyer asserts, for almost all human history, a battle “has been an event as stylized and limited in its movement as a classical ballet, and for the same reasons: the inherent capabilities and limitations of the human body.” … Read More

Laban and Work Movement

Posted on February 6, 2018 by Carol-Lynne Moore

The ground-breaking efficiency studies done by Rudolf Laban and F.C. Lawrence in British industry are well-known. The critical role these observations of work movement played in the development of Laban’s effort theory is far less understood. But a careful reading of Mastery of Movement, Laban’s most complete explication of effort, reveals this to be the case.

In 1947, Effort, jointly written by Laban and Lawrence, chronicled their discoveries studying work movement. Effort deals exclusively with the Action Drive – combinations of the motion factors of Weight, Time, and Space. … Read More

Movement and Human Needs

Posted on February 1, 2018 by Carol-Lynne Moore

“Man moves in order to satisfy a need,” Rudolf Laban writes in the Introduction to Mastery of Movement. “It is easy to perceive the aim of a person’s movement if it is directed to some tangible object. Yet there also exist intangible values that inspire movement.”

Laban returns to the theme of tangible and intangible motivations several times in Mastery. In many ways, his notions of the motives that spur human movement echo Abraham Maslow’s theory of a Hierarchy of Needs.… Read More

Unlocking Laban’s Legacy

Posted on January 18, 2018 by Carol-Lynne Moore

I began my blogs this year by looking back. Now I want to look forward – to how the past accomplishments of pioneers of movement study can enrich present and future generations.

Rudolf Laban’s assertion that human movement has a harmonic structure analogous to musical harmony is one idea I would like to see taken seriously enough to be tested. While I have presented Laban’s notions in detail in The Harmonic Structure of Movement, Music, and Dance, this is not enough.… Read More

Exciting Times in the Laban Archive

Posted on January 16, 2018 by Carol-Lynne Moore

For most dance and movement people, glistening with sweat and reveling in the joys of embodiment, research in a dusty archive must sound like one of the dullest pastimes ever. Few things are as exhilarating as dancing, but discovering things in an archive can also be exciting. I ought to know.

I spent seven years (with time out for good behavior!) doing research in the Rudolf Laban Archive at the National Resource Centre for Dance in England. I was perusing Laban’s unpublished writings and drawings.… Read More

More Archival Traces of Bartenieff

Posted on January 11, 2018 by Carol-Lynne Moore

Irmgard Bartenieff’s letters to Rudolf Laban, as I mentioned in the previous blog, also reveal how she adapted to American culture and redefined herself as a professional – moving beyond dance into physical therapy, dance therapy, and dance anthropology.

In a letter to Laban dated July 21, 1944, Irmgard wrote:

“I went into my work with the sick abnormal body with this curiosity, and I discovered, while always working with the sick as well as with the average untrained working person, how deeply buried the joy and understanding of movement is in most people – to a degree that we really cannot be astonished about the small audiences dancers get.”… Read More

Archival Traces of Irmgard Bartenieff

Posted on January 9, 2018 by Carol-Lynne Moore

Prior to the Bartenieff Symposium last year, I arranged to peek at a few files in the newly accessible Bartenieff Archive at the University of Maryland. My aim was to look at correspondence between Warren Lamb, Judith Kestenberg, and Irmgard. I think of these three leading figures in the field of movement study as a triumvirate of minds. While they each did their own thing, they also studied and worked closely with one another. There must have been a fascinating cross-fertilization of ideas….… Read More