Expressive Lines of Motion

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As Laban began to study the expressive lines of dance, he perceived relationships between form and the anatomical structure of human joints.

“The tradition of dance,” Laban writes, “enumerates four fundamental trace-forms which have the following shapes:  straight, curved, twisted, and rounded.”  All more complex shapes “are built up by these four formal elements.”

According to Laban, this limitation to four shapes is governed by the body’s anatomical structure, which permits only certain movements to be made by bending, stretching, twisting, and combinations of these actions.… Read More

From Visual Lines to Dancing Shapes

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In 1913, the painter Rudolf Laban declared he was giving up art to pursue his interest in dance.

He did not really give up art, however.  He continued to sketch and draw, using his graphic skills to study the evanescent shapes traced on space by the moving body.

Coming of age as a European artist during the transition from Art Nouveau to Abstract Expressionism gave Laban some powerful ideas and skills with which to study movement shapes.  For example, Hermann Obrist, with whom Laban studied, admonished his students to understand natural objects as images “full of expressive forces, full of linear, plastic, constructive movements.”… Read More

What’s in a Shape?

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Shape has emerged as category of its own in the Laban/Bartenieff canon.  Just as there are four motion factors and eight effort qualities, Shape also has its component elements.

In the forthcoming MoveScape Center course, we will be exploring various aspects of shape, starting with Laban’s notions and tracing evolutions and developments.

While the course will cover modes of shape change and shape qualities, participants will also explore related concepts such as fundamental trace-forms (straight, curved, twisted, and rounded); body carriage (pin, ball, wall, screw); gathering/scattering; convex/concave; and motion versus destination (in relation to the shape qualities).… Read More

Shape Makes Four

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Nowadays the Laban/Bartenieff canon is a quaternity of four elements of motion: Body, Effort, Space, and Shape – or BESS for short.

Thus it seems that over the decades since I was certificated, Shape has emerged as a category of movement distinct from Body, Effort, and Space.

To be honest, Shape was always lurking backstage, as “modes of shape change” and gerunds like “rising, descending.”  But it’s emergence as a principal performer is new.  And when Shape takes centerstage, the audience responds not only with bravos, but also with cat calls.… Read More

Body Makes Three

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By the time I was studying Effort/Shape at the Dance Notation Bureau with Irmgard Bartenieff, the Laban taxonomy had a third component – Body.  This makes sense – there is no visible movement from place to place or mood to mood without the dancer.

Moreover, the integration of Bartenieff Fundamentals into the Laban canon added the essential element of functional action and connectivity to support full expressivity in Effort and Space.

So when did Shape come into its own?  Find out more in the next blog.… Read More

Laban Had Two: Choreutics and Eukinetics

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According to Rudolf Laban, “The dancer moves, not only from place to place, but also from mood to mood.”  In this beautifully simple statement, he lays out the two broad domains of his movement taxonomy – Space (the movement from place to place) and Effort (the movement from mood to mood).

Laban’s protégé, Warren Lamb, later used the term Shape in place of the word “Space.”  He wrote, “Effort goes with Shape organically… These are the two components of movement.”

Lamb goes on to explain that “Some interpretations of my work make it appear that I invented the concept of Shape, but in fact Laban made it clear that this duality was the basis of his work with his definitions of Eukinetics (Effort) and Choreutics (Shape).”… Read More

Dance and Politics

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During the tumultuous history of the 20th century, nations have been dissolved and created.  In the latter instance, dance has been utilized to create and to critique national identity.   In The Body of the People, Jens Richard Giersdorf examines these dual functions during the brief existence (1949-1989) of the socialist German Democratic Republic (GDR).

Giersdorf argues that dance in the GDR “is one of the few cases in recent times of dance being purposefully utilized for the establishment of a distinct national identity at all levels of artistic practice and social discourse.”… Read More

Dancing in Utopia

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Zweig’s memoir chronicles the descent into dystopia and the multiple displacements triggered by war —  features of the life of his generation that also impacted Rudolf Laban.  Yet there is another side to the history of this period, one captured in Larraine Nicolas’s chronicle, Dancing in Utopia.

The book focuses on Dartington Hall, a rural estate in southwest England purchased by the wealthy Elmhirsts in 1925.  The couple aimed to create a community where industry and agriculture were carried out scientifically and where the arts would be available to all workers.… Read More

Laban’s Times

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For an insightful look backwards, I recommend Stefan Zweig’s memoir, The World of Yesterday.  Zweig (1881-1942) was a contemporary of Rudolf Laban (1879-1958).  Both were born and educated in the Austro-Hungarian Empire and both became artists – Zweig as a popular writer in the 1920s and 1930s; Laban as a leading dancer during the same period.

In his final book, written in 1942, Zweig provides a first-person description of peaceful European culture before the first world war and the subsequent violent disruptions of the war, the rise of fascism, and the beginning of the second world war.… Read More

Back to the Future

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The month of January is named after the Roman god, Janus.  Janus, the god of doors, gates, and transitions, is depicted as having two faces – one looking back and one looking forward.

This depiction calls to mind Winston Churchill’s observation:  “Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”

Movement is evanescent, yet by now, movement study has a history, in part due to the seminal work of the 20th century polymath, Rudolf Laban.   Lest we forget this history, this month’s blogs address books that provide insight into the life, times, and career of this pioneer in the study of human movement.… Read More