Effort in Human Life – Laban’s Vision

Some of the most thought-provoking statements by Laban are found in the first chapter of Mastery of MovementHere are several of my favorites….

“Man’s body-mind produces many kinds of qualities.  He can jump like a deer, and, if he wishes, like a cat.”

“Besides the comparative richness of human effort capacity, one can notice an effort speciality which might be called humane effort… effort capable of resisting the influence of inherited or acquired capacities.”

“It is perhaps not too bold to introduce here the idea of thinking in terms of movement. … Read More

Mastery Is Not “Just about Movement”

Laban’s The Mastery of Movement on the Stage is about meaning.  In the opening sentence of the book, Laban observes that “man moves to satisfy a need,” and he notes that these needs can be tangible or intangible.   Here, in a nutshell, is a whole theory of human motivation and its intrinsic relation to bodily movement.

We cannot directly see another person’s motives, but we can deduce these from the way a person moves.  In the theatre, or in everyday life, we come to know characters and their objectives, not only by what they say, but by how they say it and the bodily actions that accompany those words and tones.… Read More

Laban’s Closing Acts

Laban did some of his most important work during the last two decades of his life.  He extended his study of movement beyond dance – to physical and mental labor,  movement for actors, physical education for children, and even  psychotherapy.

Each time Laban turned his eyes to a different arena of human activity, he developed his ideas.  And he wrote a book – Effort, The Mastery of Movement on the Stage, Modern Educational Dance, and Effort and Recovery (which remains unpublished).… Read More

Laban’s Choreutics in Context

In Choreutics, Laban relates human movement to a dizzying array of subjects – Pythagoras, crystals, Lissajous curves, symmetry, musical semitones, lemniscates, cuboctahedra, the Golden Mean.  Consequently, for each reading assignment in the “Decoding Choreutics” course, I provide a written Commentary to help participants understand the wide-ranging relationships Laban mentions.

Dance historian Walter Sorrell claims that Laban was “a voracious reader whose thirst for knowledge embraced everything from religion and philosophy to literature and science.” This is because artistic and scientific circles overlapped to a much greater extent during Laban’s lifetime than is now the case.… Read More

Third Time Charm for “Decoding Choreutics

MoveScape Center has run “Decoding Choreutics” twice – once in 2016 and again in 2017.  Over 40 students on four continents have taken the course.  Here is what they say about the experience.

“This has been a wonderful re-connecting with Laban’s teaching.”

“The questions were the perfect assistant in helping me to form clear understandings of Laban’s writings.”

“The pace was lovely and kept me fully engaged from week to week.”

“When reading Choreutics on my own, I often felt either inspired or frustrated. Read More

Why Choreutics Needs Decoding

Laban wrote Choreutics during 1938-39, while convalescing at Dartington Hall in England.  He intended for the book to introduce his ideas to the English reading public.   Then World War II broke out.  The resident artists at Dartington Hall were dispersed, and Laban gave the manuscript to his Dartington benefactors for safe keeping.  The manuscript was only rediscovered and published in 1966, after Laban’s death.

When Laban wrote Choreutics, he had not yet invented the symbols for effort notation.  Consequently, he had to use spatial direction symbols, amended with a small “s,” to represent effort qualities and combinations.… Read More

Popular “Decoding Choreutics” Course Returns

Coming in early March — MoveScape Center again offers a unique opportunity to study Rudolf Laban’s masterpiece, Choreutics ! 

In this inspirational work, Laban articulates his understanding of the physical and metaphysical dimensions of human movement.  And although his presentation is logical, many parts of the book are difficult to grasp.

That is why I have developed this correspondence course.  Together with me over six weeks, participants read the first 12 chapters – though not necessarily in numerical order.  Here’s why.… Read More

The Movement Observation Phrase

Rudolf Laban noted that movement occurs in patterned phrases of preparation, exertion, and recuperation.  When I was learning to analyze movement, I found applying this structure helped me see movement events more clearly.

We all have movement habits; that is, there is a pattern to each individual’s movement behavior in which certain facets of movement occur more frequently than others.  The pattern is real, but it takes time to see it.  And this is where phrasing is helpful.

Preparation in observing actually has two parts: relaxation and attunement. … Read More

Harmony and Disharmony

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

Elements of Movement Harmony II

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