In last month’s lecture-demonstration, “10 Ways to Bring Laban Theory to Life,” Cate Deicher and I stressed the importance of movement imagination. Laban’s notions of effort and space are pretty abstract, and we feel movement analysts must bring their own imaginative forces to bear when teaching, lest Laban’s ideas seem cut and dried. Which they most certainly are not!
To illustrate this point, I compared Barbie to a Waldorf school doll. Barbie is made of molded plastic, with well-defined features and realistic, somewhat idealized anatomy. Her hands have fingers and her arched feet have toes. In other words, Barbie leaves little to the imagination.
The types of dolls used in Waldorf schools, on the other hand, are very simple. These stuffed dolls are made of cloth. The feet and hands are simply rounded shapes, and the face may only have eyes, with no other features indicated. The dolls are abstract by design so that the child must bring the doll to life and give it definition by exercising his or her imagination.
In many movement arts, the mode of embodiment is carefully prescribed. Which body parts are to be used, where they go in space, how long it takes them to get there, and how the movement is to be phrased rhythmically and dynamically – all these features are clearly stipulated. Like a Barbie doll, little is left to the imagination.
In Laban’s Choreutic scales and Eukinetic phrases, the mode of embodiment is seldom prescribed. The mover has latitude in choosing the bodily coordination, timing, rhythm, and phrasing. Like a Waldorf doll, Laban’s abstract kinetic ideas require the mover to exercise imagination.
Laban had a reputation for sketching his ideas and leaving the details to be worked out by colleagues. However, he was completely capable of working out the specifics of embodiment – I’ve found instances when he did so among his archival papers. Therefore, I believe he left the details of embodiment vague on purpose.
So many movement arts are taught “monkey see, monkey do” – students learn by imitating the instructor as precisely as possible. Imitation will only get you so far with Laban. His ideas demand more, and by so doing, awaken inner forces that otherwise would slumber.