Laban defines choreology as “the logic or science of circles.”  Lest it be seen as a purely geometrical study, he explains that choreology is the “grammar and syntax of the language of movement, dealing not only with the outer form of movement but also with its mental and emotional content.”

Contemporary readings of choreology are more varied.  For example, Benesh notation is also known as choreology.  The Trinity Laban Conservatory in London offers a specialist diploma in Choreological Studies, billed as a contemporary development of Laban’s praxis.… Read More

Based on its original Greek words, choreography is the designing and writing of circles.  In contemporary use, choreography emphasizes design – in particular, the composition of dance steps and sequences.

While acknowledging this common understanding of choreography, Laban adds that the term has been employed “to designate the drawings of figures and symbols of movement which dance composers jotted down as an aid to memory.”  In this sense, Laban’s own efforts to find a way to record movement in symbols is choreography, although he preferred the term “kinetography.”… Read More

In the Preface of Choreutics, Rudolf Laban introduces the word “choreosophia,” explaining it comes from the Greek words choros, meaning circle, and sophia, meaning wisdom.  Combining these ideas, Laban notes that Choreosophy concerns the “wisdom to be found through the study of all the phenomena of circles in nature and in life.”

I have never thought of circles as phenomenal.  Yet according to Laban, the circle plays an extraordinary role “in harmony, life, and the whole of existence.” … Read More

“Space harmony” has been used as a synonym for the term “choreutics,” coined by Rudolf Laban.  Yet his book by that title also addresses Body, Effort, and even Shape.

For example, only five chapters of the twelve chapters Laban wrote concentrate on space. Three chapters focus on effort, another three on body (in relation to space), and one chapter  lightly touches on shape.  Laban disperses chapters dealing with the same topic throughout the book, making for a rich, but also difficult read.… Read More

When I trained, movement analysis was meant to be descriptive, not interpretative.  But no one wants a movement analysis.  Clients want to dance better, eliminate back pain, or understand their own movement patterns.  In other words, they want our movement analyses to yield meaningful results.

Consequently, I have come to believe that the job of the analyst is not over until he/she has made sense of what has been observed.

In fact, we do this all the time, for our movement impressions inevitably influence the informal judgments we make about other people (whether we are aware of this or not).… Read More

Movement analysts have a range of options for recording the movement parameters they have chosen to observe.  As I describe in Beyond Words, recording options include written descriptions, stick figures and do-it-yourself notes, coding sheets of various types, and simplified and formal notation systems.

While there are plenty of choices, recording methods either help or hinder the process of making sense of what has been observed.

For example, in my first job as a movement analyst I was asked to analyze videotaped improvisations as experimental subjects responded to different colors.… Read More

“It’s not what you look at that matters,” Henry David Thoreau wrote, “it’s what you see.”

As movement analysts, we often want to look at every BESS movement parameter.  But it is not necessary to see everything to produce meaningful results.

In Movement Pattern Analysis, we look at every movement the client does.  But what we see are the effort and shape qualities that are consistent through the body as a whole.  That is, out of a seemingly random tangle of actions, we tease out the moments of integration. … Read More