Effort phrasing follows a general pattern of preparation, main action/exertion, and recuperation.  This pattern can be studied through the lens of effort states and drives.

Because of their dynamic intensity, effort drives often occur as exertions, while effort states function as preparations and recuperations.

The incredible diversity of styles, rhythms, and effort phrasings found in human movement can seem overwhelming. Nevertheless, Laban discerned some underlying relationships that govern and to some extent limit effort changes.

In “The Transformation Drives” course, we examine the relationships of states to drives. … Read More

Everyone who has ever studied Laban will have some familiarity with the spatial scales he designed, such as the Dimensional and Diagonal Scales.  But did you know that Laban also created effort scales?

In Mastery of Movement Laban wrote: “Anybody can start with any of the basic action moods… He can then with greater or less effort mobility run through whatever scale of moods he likes.”

The effort scales that Laban designed support effort harmony and a balance of dynamic energies.… Read More

We cannot observe the ever-changing flow of thoughts and feelings directly, but we can infer motivations and intentions by how someone moves.

Moreover, we can affect our own thoughts and feelings by changing the ways in which we move.

In the upcoming MoveScape Center course, “The Transformation Drives,” we work with effort combinations, rhythms, and patterns to experience the links between body and mind, thinking and feeling, willing and acting.

Find out more in the next blog.… Read More

Irmgard Bartenieff once observed that Laban’s effort theory and notation enabled his colleagues and students “to study and work with some extremely elusive phenomena in tangible ways.”  Dynamic kinetic energies – which Laban called “efforts” – are certainly elusive, changing and disappearing even as they occur.

That is why those who study movement need to invest in an effort bank in two ways.

First, movement experience with the effort elements and compounds is essential.  This should be enriched through reflection on the “felt sense” of the states and drives and the images and contexts they bring to mind.… Read More

Investing in an “effort bank” helps the movement specialist use Laban’s effort theories effectively.  An effort bank is not a brick-and-mortar structure, however.  It is a personal treasury of experience acquired by moving and observing effort.

The upcoming MoveScape Center course, “The Transformation Drives,” helps participants invest in their effort banks.  This is done in several ways.

First, the course provides images and suggestions for embodying the eight variations of each of the transformation drives – Passion, Vision, and Spell – and discovering their personal meanings.… Read More

The parsimony of effort theory poses practical problems for movement observers.  There are only four motion factors and eight effort qualities, which makes the categories for classifying effort quite general and abstract.

For example, compare the actions of driving a shovel into hard soil and passionately embracing a loved one.  Superficially the two actions do not look at all the same.  Yet increasing pressure (the contending quality of the motion factor of weight) is likely to be present in both actions.… Read More

Using a very limited number of movement elements, Laban found a clever way to theorize the diverse kinetic qualities of human movement. He conceptualized an “effort chemistry” analogous to chemical science.

Chemists have identified a limited number atomic elements – substances that cannot be broken down into simpler substances. Combined with each other, however, elements produce the diversity of organic and inorganic substances that make up our material world.

In Laban’s effort chemistry, the four motion factors combine in groups of twos and threes to produce a variety of dynamic states and drives. … Read More

In the previous blog I claimed that Laban’s effort theory is elegant; that is, his ideas explain the dynamics of human movement clearly, directly, and economically.  Yet the elegant parsimony of the model is also troublesome.

At its most basic level, there are only eight qualititative terms in the effort model with which to describe any movement that any human being can do.  How can only eight terms begin to capture this diversity?

Because effort theory doesn’t end with only eight movement qualities. … Read More