On Irmgard Bartenieff

When I began to study with Irmgard Bartenieff in 1975, she was 75 years old.  Her age was just a number – what mattered was the depth and breadth of her many experiences.  She was an icon of possibility for her younger students, a living example of the many ways Laban-based movement analysis could be used in artistic creation, therapeutic intervention, and behavioral research.

By 1975, the Effort/Shape program at the Dance Notation Bureau had an established curriculum: theory (effort/space/shape); observation; Bartenieff Fundamentals; and seminar (a weekly reading and discussion class). … Read More

Looking Back

Named for the two-faced Roman god Janus, the wintery month of January invites both reflection and anticipation.  In a spirit of reflection, I find myself thinking about “Afterward,” a ghost story by Edith Wharton.

In this tale, a wealthy American couple purchase an old home in the English countryside, hoping it is haunted.  They are assured the house comes with a ghost – although they will only know this “long, long afterward.”

As months pass, they forget about the ghost.  Then, while the wife is working in the garden, a stranger appears, asking to see her husband. … Read More

Experience Three Ways of Seeing

Mid-July 2025 marks the historic gathering of the dance notation and movement analysis communities at the Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio.

The 34th Biennial Conference of the International Council of Kinetography Laban/Labanotation kicks off this event, with sessions running Monday, July 14 – Friday, July 18, 2025.

The inaugural Conference on Laban Bartenieff Movement Studies, organized by the Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies (LIMS) follows, beginning on Friday, July 18 through Sunday, July 20.  The first day of the conference will incorporate some joint program sessions with ICKL, including a keynote address by the celebrated American choreographer Bebe Miller and a shared social event.… Read More

Seeing Movement Dynamics

Bartenieff has written that movement dynamics are a critical component in understanding movement behavior.  As she notes, “We see not only the design of movement (its direction and timing) but by its specific dynamics we catch its meaning, its impact and expressiveness.”

Notation captures which part of the body moves, where it goes, and how long the action takes.  Space Harmony/Choreutics approaches bodily movement in space from a more theoretical position by prescribing spatial paths and sequences of whole body action.  … Read More

Looking at Movement in Three Ways

Irmgard Bartenieff notes that there are three crystallizations of Laban’s ways of looking at, describing, and notating movement: “(1) space harmony (choreutics), (2) Labanotation/Kinetography, and (3) Effort/Effort notation.”

In addition, Bartenieff explains that the existence of these three systems enables Laban’s “colleagues and students to study and work with some extremely elusive phenomena in tangible ways.”

The “elusive phenomena” to which Bartenieff refers are human movements.  In everyday life, the actions of our bodies disappear even as they are occurring.  That is, movement exists at a perpetual vanishing point. … Read More

Choreutics Is Inspirational … and More

I have always found Rudolf Laban’s book, Choreutics, to be inspiring.

Here are a few of my favorite quotations:

  • “Movement is the life of space.”
  • “Stability and mobility endlessly alternate.”
  • “Although in analysis we look at movement from the standpoint of an outside observer, we should try to feel it sympathetically from within.”

Find your own inspiration in the upcoming hybrid workshop, “Decoding Laban’s Choreutics,” offered in conjunction with the Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies.

 … Read More

What’s in a Shape?

Shape has emerged as category of its own in the Laban/Bartenieff canon.  Just as there are four motion factors and eight effort qualities, Shape also has its component elements.

In the forthcoming MoveScape Center course, we will be exploring various aspects of shape, starting with Laban’s notions and tracing evolutions and developments.

While the course will cover modes of shape change and shape qualities, participants will also explore related concepts such as fundamental trace-forms (straight, curved, twisted, and rounded); body carriage (pin, ball, wall, screw); gathering/scattering; convex/concave; and motion versus destination (in relation to the shape qualities).… Read More

Shape Makes Four

Nowadays the Laban/Bartenieff canon is a quaternity of four elements of motion: Body, Effort, Space, and Shape – or BESS for short.

Thus it seems that over the decades since I was certificated, Shape has emerged as a category of movement distinct from Body, Effort, and Space.

To be honest, Shape was always lurking backstage, as “modes of shape change” and gerunds like “rising, descending.”  But it’s emergence as a principal performer is new.  And when Shape takes centerstage, the audience responds not only with bravos, but also with cat calls.… Read More

Body Makes Three

By the time I was studying Effort/Shape at the Dance Notation Bureau with Irmgard Bartenieff, the Laban taxonomy had a third component – Body.  This makes sense – there is no visible movement from place to place or mood to mood without the dancer.

Moreover, the integration of Bartenieff Fundamentals into the Laban canon added the essential element of functional action and connectivity to support full expressivity in Effort and Space.

So when did Shape come into its own?  Find out more in the next blog.… Read More

Santa’s Ups and Downs

MoveScape Center (MSC):  Delivering all those gifts in one night is an arduous task.  What is one of your biggest physical challenges?

Santa (S):  Level change.  I’m hopping out of the sleigh, zipping down the chimney, kneeling to place the gifts around the tree, then popping back up the chimney over and over again.

MSC:  What’s your secret?

S:  Bartenieff Fundamentals.

MSC:  Tell me more.

S:  Of all the somatic practices, this is the one that really supports the ability to change levels. … Read More