Matching and Clashing in Laban Terms

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Warren Lamb set out to use his skills in movement observation and analysis to tease out differences in how men and women perform the same physical tasks. Before discussing what he observed, it is necessary to review some core concepts in Laban theory.

Rudolf Laban delineated four motion factors:  space, weight, time, and flow. Each motion factor varies between contrasting dynamic qualities that Laban conceptualized as having either a fighting or indulging quality.

Fighting effort qualities include directing (space), increasing pressure (weight), accelerating (time), and binding (effort flow).… Read More

Men and Women: Equal But Not Identical

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In an unpublished manuscript, Warren Lamb recalled: “When I was at the Art of Movement Studio in the late 1940s Laban taught that women did light movement and men strong movements. This seemed to me at the time to be completely wrong and symptomatic of thousands of years of conditioning which set up men as ‘macho’ and women as ‘little flowers.’”

Lamb continues: “There were plenty of women, fellow students, around and my observations revealed that they did do strong movement as much and to as great a degree as men, only their strength of movement looked different; it was performed  differently from men.”… Read More

Yin and Yang in Laban Movement Analysis

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Laban Movement Analysis is an objective system for describing human movement, and in this sense it is gender-blind. However, certain male and female associations arose as Laban developed his Choreutic and Eukinetic theories and created space and effort sequences.

Some of the sexual associations can be found in Part II of Choreutics. This section of the book was written by Gertrud Snell Friedburg in the late 1920s and presented as a gift to Laban. Much later, when Lisa Ullmann edited Laban’s original Choreutics manuscript, she translated and added Friedburg’s section to the book.… Read More

Sex and “Biological Motion”

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Biological motion research investigates the visual perception of human patterns of movement by human observers. Point-light stimuli are used in these experimental studies. These are reduced visual displays in which most identifiable features of the human mover are masked. Here is how it works.

In a classic point-light display, the head and each of the major joints of the human figure have been replaced by single points of light against a black background. When placed in motion, the points trace the position of each body part in time, clearly depicting the underlying action.… Read More

Men and Women are Not So Different

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Sex differences also fascinated Ray Birdwhistell, one of the founding fathers of nonverbal communication research. His inquiry began with a focus on biological features of men and women. He pointed out that, beyond distinctive reproductive structures, the bodies of men and women are not that different. Consequently, men and women must “necessarily organize much of gender display and recognition at the level of position, movement, and expression.”

To investigate gender display in relation to these nonverbal factors, Birdwhistell worked with native informants from seven different societies including Asian, Euro-American, and indigenous groups.… Read More

Men and Women are SO Different

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It is generally believed that men and women are different from each other, biologically, mentally, emotionally, and socially. These beliefs give rise to stereotypic notions regarding the traits and abilities of each sex. Consequently, it is not surprising that people believe that women and men show distinctive patterns of nonverbal behavior.

Decades of research have tended to corroborate stereotypic differences between the sexes. For example, in comparison to women, men tend to take up more space; appear more relaxed; interrupt, stare, and touch more often; and smile less often.… Read More

Body Politics

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In Body Politics, her seminal treatise on power, sex, and nonverbal communication, Nancy Henley asks, “What is the first judgment you make about people on initially seeing them? Is your first impression centered on dress, height, face, race, a certain look of the eyes? No, I believe a person’s sex is the first thing you see about them.”

The MeToo movement and current high profile cases of sexual misconduct have focused national attention on the relationship of power and sex.… Read More

Why Study Choreutics? Reason #4

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The cardinal directions – up and down, right and left, forward and backward – form our most basic cognitive map of the space around the body. But according to Laban, the first fact of space-movement is “innumerable directions radiate from the center of our body and its kinesphere into infinite space.”

In other words, our cognitive map of space is highly simplified. Real movement through space is much more complex, full of deviations and deflections from the cardinal directions.

Laban engaged in a detailed yet patterned study of these innumerable lines of motion. … Read More

Why Study Choreutics: Reason #3

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As various parts of the body traverse the kinesphere, the body itself changes shape.  As Laban understood, these changing bodily shapes were linked inextricably to effort, to the mental and emotional processes taking place simultaneously in the mover.

This brings us to reason Number Three for studying Choreutics:  Spatial forms are evocative.

One need only look at the work of Gian Lorenzo Bernini, the greatest Baroque sculptor, to experience the expressiveness of space. I had the opportunity to see his works during a recent trip to Rome. … Read More

Why Study Choreutics? Reason #2

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In addition to providing landmarks in the kinesphere, Laban designed a number of spatial sequences and patterns as technical movement exercises.

Reason Number Two for studying Choreutics:  Laban’s patterns of movement through space enhance range of motion, balance, and coordination.

Choreutic forms – “rhythmic circles and scales” – are a tonic for the body. Range of motion, balance, and coordination are fundamental indicators of physical health.  Thus these are concerns, not only for dancer and athletes, but for everybody.

Laban’s Choreutic forms are based upon his understanding of joint structure and bodily proportions. … Read More