Laban’s autobiography, A Life for Dance, is a curious book, but one that reveals a great deal about his creative vision and theatrical activities. As he notes in the letter to his publisher that opens the book:
“I recount in my book how a human being makes his way through thousands of circumstances and events. Since this person happens to be a dance master or even a dance-poet, the book will frequently speak about the precious little-known art of dance. … Read More
In Mastery of Movement, Laban asks readers to observe a person in everyday life, a person portraying a character in a mime scene, and a dancer performing a national or period dance. Observers are to analyze the use of the body, along with the use of space, time, and weight.
This is a useful exercise for any actor; it is also a task that Laban set for himself. In his autobiography, Laban describes his first experiences as a young and very idealistic artist-to-be. … Read More
By Laurie Cameron, Registered Movement Pattern Analyst
My choreographic process has always involved collaborative research – studio time in which “problems” that I have invented (usually based on a theme) are solved in various ways by the artists who will eventually perform whatever eventually materializes. As the director of the process, my job is to organize and orchestrate largely improvised material into some kind of coherent, presentable form.
With strong motivations in both Timing and Anticipating, it has always been important to me to move the process toward a “finished product” in a timely fashion, assuming that all involved trusted me to make sound artistic decisions and hoping to avoid hours of grueling studio work that might not necessarily produce more interesting results.… Read More
As the benefits of physical motion are gaining recognition and undergoing further scrutiny, it is interesting to see how Laban characterized movement health. He wrote, “A healthy human being can have complete control of his kinesphere and dynamosphere…. The essential thing is that we should neither have preference for nor avoid certain movements because of physical or psychical restrictions.”
Clearly, Laban views movement as healthy for both the body and mind. He prescribes a rich range of motion, noting “we should be able to do every imaginable movement and then select those which seem to be the most suitable and desirable for our own nature.”… Read More
Movement occurs in patterns, and these patterns are both expressive and meaningful. In 2017, MoveScape Center’s Red Thread offerings focus on the patterned aspects of movement behavior – in everyday activity, in effort, and in space.
Everyday patterns. The Red Thread journey begins with the Tetra seminar, “Introduction to Movement Pattern Analysis.” Based on the work of Warren Lamb, this three-day course, scheduled for mid-March in the Denver area, demonstrates how movement patterns reveal individual decision-making processes. Participants learn how to observe and interpret movement patterns. … Read More
In my September blogs, I praised the Denver Art Museum’s “Summer of Dance” – four separate exhibitions all focused on American dance. However, I noted that the Denver Post’s art critic disagreed, claiming that dance was a far too trivial topic for a “serious museum” to tackle.
I suggested that the critic’s dismissive comments sprang from the fact that the real value of dance is best understood by dancing. And dance is not really embedded in the lives of everyday Americans.… Read More
Laban’s Choreutic forms both mirror and challenge the natural range of motion of the human body. As Laban was designing these movement sequences, he drew upon his first career as a visual artist. It’s clear from his figure drawings that he had studied anatomy. And he applied this knowledge in theorizing the shapes the moving limbs can trace in space.
As I note in The Harmonic Structure of Movement, Music, and Dance, Laban does not distort the proportion of the body itself. … Read More
Human beings have big heads, and biomechanically speaking, this is a headache. Standing up freed our arms and hands and opened new spatial horizons. But it also means we must cope with balancing our heavy heads against the constant pull of gravity.
Irmgard Bartenieff always felt that homo sapiens are still working out the possibilities of movement in three-dimensional space. Evolution has given us greater potential than we have figured out how to use. And this is where Laban’s Choreutic theories come in.… Read More
Laban moved into new Choreutic territory with five-rings, and consequently they are fascinating to embody. Primarily Laban built his space harmony scales around the cubic diagonals. But the peripheral and transverse five-rings that Cate Deicher and I will be teaching in the Advanced Space Harmony workshop are built around the planar diameters.
The peripheral five-rings create pentagonal shapes around corners of the icosahedron that both match and challenge range of motion for gestures of the arms and legs.
The transverse five-rings trace star-like shapes around corners of the icosahedron. … Read More
by Cate Deicher
What kinds of choreographic impulses can open and closed Choreutic forms elicit in you? In our Advanced Space Harmony workshop, December 3 and 4, Carol-Lynne Moore and I will be exploring the experiences of both kinds of Choreutic forms.
Laban’s Space material has always held a keen interest for me. As I undertook creative projects for dance groups and theater productions, the space material became a springboard for choreographic ideas. Robert Ellis Dunn talked about how Laban’s scales serve to stimulate the neuromuscular system and spark compositional possibilities. … Read More