Patterns in Art and Dance

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When a young Rudolf Laban began his art studies in 1899, Art Nouveau, with its emphasis on stylization of natural forms, was in fashion everywhere in Europe. Consequently, Laban came-of-age as an artist by learning to see and create visual patterns, such as the designs shown here.

When Laban’s interests turned to dance, he was already sensitive to the use of symmetry in visual design. And the dances of the period were rich with symmetries – from the corps de ballet and the chorus line to circle dances and festive folk processions.… Read More

The Dance World in 1900

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As Laban’s desire to become a dancer grew, he realized that he had set his heart “on the most despised profession in the world.”  Compared to the visual arts, dance was a discipline defined more by what it lacked than by what it offered.

By the beginning of the 20th century, the visual arts had a long history, surviving masterpieces, institutions devoted to preservation and development, evolving venues for innovation, and most importantly, theories and writings by artists themselves that illuminated practices, styles, and innovations.… Read More

The Art World in 1900

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1900 was the year when Rudolf Laban’s family finally allowed him to study art in Munich.  It was a terrific year to enter the European art world for the following reasons:

  • The great European art academies were still functioning, preserving the knowledge and skills of three-dimensional lifelike representation in painting and sculpture.
  • The late 19th and early 20th century was a period of innovative movements:  Symbolism, Art Nouveau, Fauvism, Futurism, Expressionism, Cubism, Dada….
  • The art world was international. 
… Read More

Modern Art and Modern Dance

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Of all the iconoclastic art movements of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Art Nouveau (literally “new art”) was the most self-consciously modern.  It broke with the long-standing European tradition of realistic painting that conveyed a lifelike three-dimensionality.  Instead, Art Nouveau artists opted for a two-dimensional stylization of natural forms, with an emphasis on pattern.

Likewise, the early modern dancers abandoned long-standing European dance traditions, breaking out of the set vocabulary and spatial geography of classical ballet.

As he emerged as a leading figure of modern dance in Europe, Laban’s familiarity with Art Nouveau not only inspired his search for new forms, but also provided him with a deep understanding of how to create beautiful patterns.… Read More

Laban, Leonardo da Vinci, and Albrecht Dürer

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Rudolf Laban and the great Renaissance artists, Leonardo da Vinci and Albrecht Dürer, shared a common interest – how to depict the human figure in motion with a lifelike three-dimensionality.

Through his academic art studies in Munich and Paris in the early 20th century,  Laban undoubtedly became familiar with the different approaches to representing movement pioneered by Leonardo and Dürer.  Laban’s beautiful figures drawings of dancers testify to his practical grasp of techniques developed during the Renaissance and preserved in academic art training.… Read More

Rudolf Laban: Visual Artist

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Rudolf Laban remains a prominent figure in the world of dance.  Yet, he spent the first 20 years of his adult life studying and working as a visual artist in Germany, France, and Switzerland.  These years of involvement in the visual arts had a direct, yet largely unrecognized impact on his subsequent career as a dancer and movement theorist.

Laban’s last exhibition of paintings occurred in 1919, yet there are hundreds of drawings in archival papers dating from the last 20 years of Laban’s life (1938-1958). … Read More

Laban’s English Renaissance

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The Nazi government’s tightening grip on all the arts and media brought an end to Laban’s dance career in Germany.  And it nearly brought an end to Laban before he was found, ill and destitute in Paris, by members of the Jooss Ballet.

Through his old friends, Laban secured an invitation to the Dartington Hall, where the wealthy Elmhirst family was engaged in an ambitious project – the economic, social, and cultural regeneration of a rural community.  Though deeply depressed on his arrival, Laban found new energy to continue his increasingly diverse studies of human movement through the Dartington circle.… Read More

Laban’s Precarious German Years

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After democracy was imposed on Germany following its defeat in WWI, the new Weimar Republic became a magnet for avant garde artists of all persuasions.  Laban was among them.

There is a lot to read about the dark demise of German democracy, but for summer reading I recommend Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood.  This semi-autobiographical novel chronicles the twilight of the Weimar Republic, drawing on real events and characters the writer encountered, such as his solicitous German  landlady, a decadent English cabaret singer and her admirers, a gay couple, and a young Jewish heiress.… Read More

Laban’s Counter-Culture Period

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Laban’s transition from painting to dancing took place over several years, extending roughly from 1913 to 1919.  These were years he spent in Switzerland – in Monte Verita and later in Zurich.

Laban himself will make guest appearances in the two books I have chosen as summer reading:  Mountain of Truth and Memoirs of a Dada Drummer.

Mountain of Truth, by Martin Green, examines the counter-culture community of Ascona between 1900-1920.  During this period, Ascona became the place for many of Europe’s spiritual rebels to visit or live, and Green discusses Laban as one of the most interesting and representative denizens.… Read More

Laban’s Bohemian Period

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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