While the Austro-Hungarian Empire was slowly unraveling, Laban left his homeland in 1899 to study art, first in Munich, then in Paris, and later back in Munich again.  This was the period when the great European art academies were still functioning, along with iconoclastic art movements that were breaking new ground.

Trilby, by George du Maurier, is my summer reading recommendation.  Published in 1897, the novel’s setting reflects the author’s own bohemian years as an art student in Paris. … Read More

Before World War I, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was the largest political entity in mainland Europe.  This multi-ethnic empire included much of today’s Austria, Hungary, Romania, Albania, Serbia, Croatia, and parts of northern Italy.

Two books by Fredric Morton make enjoyable reading:  A Nervous Splendor and Thunder at Twilight.

A Nervous Splendor focuses on events and personalities in Vienna during 1888-89.

The central story revolves around the double suicide of crown prince Rudolf, heir to the Empire, and his young lover.  But other leading figures of Viennese culture such as Sigmund Freud, Gustav Mahler, Gustav Klimt, and Arthur Schnitzler are woven into this account of the beginning of the end of the Austro-HungarianEmpire.… Read More

The Spell Drive is the time-less drive. For me it evokes a magic and mysterious atmosphere in which the mover is held in thrall and time itself seems to stand still.

For this effort drive I have chosen “The Listeners,” by the English poet Walter de la Mare.

‘Is there anybody there?’ said the Traveller,
Knocking on the moonlit door;
And his horse in the silence champed the grasses
Of the forest’s ferny floor:
And a bird flew up out of the turret,
Above the Traveller’s head:
And he smote upon the door again a second time;
‘Is there anybody there?’… Read More

Passion Drive is the space-less drive. The mover, engulfed by emotion, loses all motivation to maintain a reasonable orientation. Feelings of all kinds – love, anger, grief, longing, resignation – are the very stuff of poetry.

While there are many contenders, I have chosen “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night,” by the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas.

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.… Read More

For the Action Drive I have selected a short poem by the popular American poet, Carl Sandburg. One critic notes that Sandburg’s style “gives him entry into steel mills and mean streets, into shacks along the railroad, into the hearts of obscure people to whom he feels allegiance.”

Sandburg himself wanted to write “sentences truly alive, with verbs quivering.” See what you think in the following selection, “Prayers of Steel.”

Lay me on an anvil, O God.
Beat me and hammer me into a crowbar.… Read More

Vision Drive is the weightless drive.  The mover, freed from the earth-bound pull of gravity, is free to soar on the wings of imagination.  The following poem, “High Flight” by the aviator John Gillespie Magee, seems to capture this ecstatic mood.

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, – and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of – wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence.… Read More

Every single move we make requires some kind of effort.   Effort is everywhere.  But it is so ubiquitous as to slip from our awareness.  Consequently as part of recent MoveScape Center courses, participants and I have been going on “effort hunts” as a way to stimulate effort awareness.

Laban differentiates “movement thinking” from thinking in words.  Yet he often characterizes effort combinations as creating a distinctive “moods.”  Poetry also captures moods.  So this month’s blogs are an experiment.

I’m going on an effort hunt to see if I can find poems that reflect the mood of one of the effort drives.… Read More

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