Writing Movement

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Laban wanted to write movement, but he was forced to make a compromise in his notation system.  Consequently, notation today differs in how gestures and supports are recorded.

Supporting actions of the body are written as motion away from the point of origin.  Writing motion is like saying, I traveled northward from Denver.   This kind of travel could result in any number of northward pathways.

Gestures (actions of body parts that are non-supporting) are written as destinations, travels from point to point.… Read More

Body and Shape

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Laban’s own visual art background was strongly influenced by Art Nouveau and its focus on stylized patterns and expressive lines. Laban translated this interest in line to his theorizing of dance.

This can be seen in the notion of “trace-forms” – the lines and shapes the moving limbs inscribe in the space around the body. Laban also noted that the body is constructed in such a way that there are four fundamental trace-forms that have the following shapes: straight, curved, twisted, and rounded.… Read More

Foundations of Shape

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The first movement class Laban always taught, according to Irmgard Bartenieff, began with everyone walking and running, until a state of total flow was induced.  Then Laban introduced shape.

Laban would have students mime picking something up and throwing it away.

Through improvisation, these actions were developed into a more dancelike motions of gathering (movement originating on the periphery of the kinesphere and moving toward center) and scattering (movement originating near the body center and extending outwards).

How we shape our movements allows us to adapt to the environment. … Read More

Mostly about Shape

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Body, Effort, Space, and Shape (BESS) are the four broad categories utilized in Laban/Bartenieff Movement Studies. In recent years, Shape has emerged as an independent category, one that draws not only on the work of Laban and Bartenieff, but also of Warren Lamb and Dr. Judith Kestenberg.

The upcoming MoveScape Center seminar, “Mostly about Shape (and a Little Bit about Effort),” traces the evolution of concepts of Shape. Each week focuses on different elements of Shape, including shape flow, formal elements of line, directional movement and carving, still shapes (ball, pin, wall, screw), shape qualities, destination versus motion, gathering and scattering, and concavity and convexity.… Read More

Color and Shape

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Vasily Kandinsky famously wrote that painting is only shape and color.  I have always thought this can apply to movement as well.

In art, color conveys mood and feeling.  In movement, effort – how a movement is performed dynamically – reveals the mover’s feelings and intentions.

In painting, shapes provide a structure for the composition, allowing the artist to lead the viewer’s eye.  In movement, shape provides a structure, allowing the mover to adapt the application of energy to the local environment.… Read More

Irmgard Bartenieff – A Personal Note

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When I began to study with Irmgard, she was 75 – well past retirement age.  But she was not retired.  She remained actively engaged with the study of movement in many different ways.

Irmgard’s primary job was teaching in and directing the Effort/Shape Program at the Dance Notation Bureau in New York City.  In addition, she maintained a small connective tissue massage practice and was quietly writing a book, which would finally be published when she turned 80.

During the winter, Irmgard went to Hawaii, where she did research on Asian dance forms with colleagues at the University of Hawaii. … Read More

Irmgard Bartenieff: Renaissance Woman

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Although Rudolf Laban was a polymath, his reputation today remains siloed in the discipline of dance. This is not the case for Irmgard Bartenieff. Her set of unique and wide-ranging interests led her to understand movement analysis as both an art and a science. Her career reflects a similar diversity.

Irmgard worked as a dancer, creating and performing works; as a massage and physical therapist, treating physical problems; as a dance/movement therapist, addressing psychological issues; and as a dance ethnographer, studying cross-cultural patterns of movement.… Read More

Irmgard’s Insight

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When Irmgard Bartenieff was unable to find a place in the American modern dance community, she returned to her original interests in biology, studying physical therapy, then working with polio victims.  These experiences gave her new insight into the theories she had learned from Rudolf Laban.

Her studies with Laban in Germany focused on dance.  Consequently, Laban’s theories appeared to apply to high functioning movers.  When Irmgard began to work with individuals disabled by polio, she was surprised to find that Laban’s ideas were relevant here as well.… Read More

Betraying Dance?

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According to some reports, Kurt Jooss was very disappointed when Laban began studying industrial work movement in English factories. For Jooss, physical labor had nothing to do with dance. Even in later years, Jooss continued to view “Eukinetics” as dance dynamics, while Laban’s expanding notions of “Effort” related only to work.

Irmgard did not agree with Jooss. Instead, she wrote the following to Laban in 1944:

“I cannot share the doubts of those of your friends who think that you are not doing ‘the right thing’ in the world of dance – to me this world has become – shall I say: ‘enlarged’ or ‘deepened’ under the material and artistic struggle of these last years.”… Read More

Irmgard Bartenieff’s Necessity

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Irmgard Bartenieff was 33 when Hitler came to power in Germany. Two years later, she and her Jewish husband were forced to close their dance company. Although they immigrated to the US in 1937, they found the American dance community did not want European ideas. Consequently, Irmgard and her husband had to find another way to earn a living.

Rudolf Laban’s career followed a similar trajectory. After he immigrated to England in 1937, he too had to find other ways to earn a living beyond dance.… Read More