In the previous blog, I observed that effort is personal.  Exploration of states and drives seems to transport the mover into different psychic landscapes, triggering thoughts, feelings, desires, and memories that are intimate, unique, and individual.

At the same time, effort is universal.  It spreads across every sphere of human life, wherever and whenever dynamic action occurs.

In the map of this dynamic sphere provided by Laban, there are different effort landscapes.  Some areas of the dynamosphere are tropical; some are arctic. … Read More

Choreutics and Eukinetics  — space and effort – are the two broad categories of human movement conceived by Laban.  Laban’s spatial concepts address the visible forms of physical movement through the space surrounding the body.  His effort concepts address psychological intent and motivation, surmised from the dynamic effort qualities employed in visible bodily motion.

I have offered quite a few courses and workshops focused on Laban’s Choreutics. Recently, however, I have been working with Eukinetics.  I am finding that studying space or effort affects the nature of my interactions with students.… Read More

Awakening awareness of the “8 Basic Actions” requires a change in consciousness. In our daily interactions with tools and material objects, we are focused on what we are doing.  Becoming aware of effort qualities and their dynamic combinations requires a focus on how we are using tools and impacting objects.

I’ve been practicing shifting my awareness from what to how – and it’s fun!  I’m finding Action Drives in unexpected places and activities.  My self-image is changing as I become more aware of my daily efforts and find ways to accentuate dynamic rhythms that have been hiding in plain sight.… Read More

Laban not only designed spatial scales, he also designed harmonious effort sequences. We will be exploring these dynamic patterns in “The Action Drive,” a three-week excursion through the dynamosphere.

Human effort seems almost infinite in its variety. Nevertheless, Laban discerned that some changes between effort qualities are easier to accomplish than others. There are natural limits. As in space, so in effort – sometimes you “can’t get there from here.”

Laban’s maps of the dynamosphere and the harmonious effort sequences he designed help us navigate in this energetic domain.… Read More

Laban based his effort theory on the “8 Basic Actions,” or the eight qualitative variations of the Action Drive. Then he had the nifty idea that each of these basic actions could be linked to a corner of the cubic model of the kinesphere. In the upcoming MoveScape Center course, “The Action Drive,” I argue that this model of effort/space affinities, nifty as it may be, leads to very stereotyped ways of embodying the basic actions.

Because these basic actions are utilized primarily in working with material objects, they actually occur everywhere!… Read More

According to Laban, balance “is never complete stability or a standstill, but the result of two contrasting qualities of mobility.” Laban provides the following simple example of contrast: “when one side of the body tends to go in one direction, the other side will almost automatically tend towards the contrary direction.”

Balance in space arises from counter-tensions and oscillations of movement in opposite directions. Laban used this principle of balance in the spatial sequences he designed. For example, the dimensional scale follows the oppositional pattern of moving upwards, then downwards, across the midline of body, then opening away from the midline, shifting backwards, then going forwards.… Read More

As we near the one year anniversary of the COVID pandemic, staying healthy is on everyone’s mind. Health depends upon balance. Rudolf Laban had some interesting ideas about the role of movement in staying balanced – both physically and mentally.

Laban once characterized human movement as “living architecture.” Developing this metaphor, he wrote that “a building can hold together only if its parts have definite proportions which provide a certain balance in the midst of continual vibrations and movements taking place in the material of which it is constructed.”… Read More

“Transitions from one effort quality to another are either easy or difficult,” Laban wrote, noting that no sane person will every jump from one basic action to its complete contrast, “because of the great mental and nervous strain involved in so radical a change.”

Yet, sequencing from one basic action to its complete contrast – for example, floating to punching – is usually how the Action Drive is taught and practiced. This is not only hard; it’s unnatural!

In next MoveScape Center exploration of the Dynamosphere, we are going to take it easy by embodying modulated and organic effort patterns devised by Laban.… Read More