How Santa Uses Eukinetics

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In this exclusive interview, Santa Claus has confessed he loves the work of Rudolf Laban and uses it daily to maintain agility of body and mind. In this final exchange, he encourages readers to practice exertion and recuperation as a mindful way to beat holiday stress.

MoveScape (MS): You mentioned you also practice Laban’s Eukinetics. How does this help you stay fit, Santa?

Santa Claus (SC): Eukinetics is about how we apply effort and energy in everyday tasks. The sequences Laban created support a balanced application of energy by focusing on exertion and also on recuperation.… Read More

Santa’s Body/Mind Exercises

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MoveScape’s exclusive interview with Santa continues….

MoveScape (MS): Despite your age and (if you don’t mind my saying) your weight, you exude health and vitality. How do you do it, Santa?

Santa Claus (SC): I’m a closet Labanophile.

MS: A what????

SC: I study the work of Rudolf Laban and practice Choreutics and Eukinetics daily. Laban designed these sequences of movement to support a healthy range of motion and expression. For example, I use the Dimensional and Diagonal Scales to warm up, and then I cycle through the door, table, and wheel planes.… Read More

Up on the Housetop, Down through the Chimney

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In the exclusive MoveScape Center interview, Santa discussed some of the physical challenges of his profession and his secret weapon for staying fit.

MoveScape (MS): How do you prepare for the huge job of worldwide gift delivery?

Santa Clause (SC): I train all year for Christmas Eve. I focus on level change in particular.

MS: Why is that?

SC: I’m up and down chimneys all night. So I do Bartenieff Fundamentals every day.

MS: How does the Bartenieff approach help?

SC: I appreciate the emphasis on level change in the Bartenieff’s Basic Six.… Read More

Santa Claus Confidential – A MoveScape Center Exclusive

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Once again, MoveScape Center has obtained an exclusive interview with the Jolly Old Elf himself – Santa Claus. As usual, he has some terrific advice for keeping the holidays merry and bright!

Santa’s holiday hacks this year focus on ways to keep the aging body/mind lively and quick. If anyone knows about aging and maintaining corporeal and mental agility, it’s Santa. After all, he’s been on-the-job for centuries, and shows no signs of retiring!

Santa knows the importance of moving. That’s why he has targeted his holiday advice exclusively for Laban Movement Analysts.… Read More

The Grotesque in Dance

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Writings on the grotesque seldom discuss dance.  Yet, during the 1700s, Italian dancers trained in a “grotesque” style were in demand all over Europe.  These grotteschi combined French ballet technique with a vigorous athleticism and pantomimic skills to portray comic and “foreign/non-European” characters.  This historical precedent provides a clue to the creative uses of the grotesque.

The grotesque, above all, represents the Other.  The Other may simply be someone of another nation, race, or creed.  Or, within a given situation, the grotesque may depict “Otherness” by transgressing social norms. … Read More

Body, Mind, and Harmony

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As the Zen master Shunryu Suzuki noted, “The mind and the body are not one and not two.”  This is undoubtedly one of the most vexing paradoxes of human life.   But perhaps it would not be so vexing if we simply paid more attention to movement harmony, to those moments when mind and body meld seamlessly in the medium of physical action.

Movement harmony matters because it is so ubiquitous that we take it completely for granted.  Normal voluntary movement is miraculous because most of the time we manage to accomplish what we intend without excessive conscious effort, either physical or mental.… Read More

Harmony and Disharmony

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While Laban was certainly concerned with how the different movement elements of body, space, effort, and shape cohere in meaningful human actions, he was also interested in exploring disharmony.  To widen his understanding of harmonic and disharmonic movement patterns, Laban reportedly visited a lunatic asylum in Paris in 1902, basing a later personal solo, “Marotte,” on his observations.

Notions of disharmony also served as Laban developed a repertoire for his chamber dance groups.  One type of dance was called a “grotesque.”… Read More

Harmony and Individuality

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While Laban identified relationships between body, space, effort, and shape, he did not prescribe particular movements as inherently harmonious.  Instead, he writes that “there are considerations such as individual expressiveness or taste which can influence the personal conception of harmony in movement.  Graceful movements will suit one person more than vital or bizarre movement, or the contrary may be the case.”

Individual expression depends upon the individual having a rich range of motion. Balance comes into play again here.  According to Laban,“the essential thing is that we should neither have preference for nor avoid certain movement because of physical or psychical restrictions.” … Read More

Elements of Movement Harmony II

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In addition to proportion, balance, and symmetry, Laban identified order, kinship, and unity of form as elements of movement harmony.  

Order is particularly important in spatial sequences.  For example, if a series of continuous movements were to be filmed, then cut apart and randomly spliced back together, a dream-like sequence would result, full of unexpected jumps, overlaps, and repetitions.  According to Laban, a movement makes sense only if “it progresses organically,” with phases following in a natural order of directional change.… Read More

Beyond Movement Analysis to Movement Harmony

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Recently the question has arisen as to what the body of Rudolf Laban’s work should be called.  The most commonly used moniker – Laban Movement Analysis – omits the integrative aspects of Laban’s ideas.  This is where harmony comes in.

Harmony brings things that are different into relationship with one another.  In music, harmony is heard as a relationship of different tones. In painting, harmony is seen as a relationship among different colors.

In movement, harmony unites the distinctive human faculties of thinking, feeling, willing, and doing. … Read More