Rudolf Laban – Man of Theatre

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Laban’s life work was to create a rich palette of movement options from which a performer could draw.  By the time he wrote Mastery of Movement, he had a lifetime of experience observing movement and working with dancers and actors, which he distilled into this intriguing work.

Ironically, Laban’s own creative methods and experimental dance and theatre works are little known.   However, recent re-creations of work mounted by Valerie Preston-Dunlop, Alison Curtis-Jones, and Melanie Clarke provide glimpses of his work and methods that are useful in illuminating aspects of Mastery of Movement.… Read More

Laban Is Good Company

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I have been re-reading Laban’s autobiography in preparation for teaching “Mastering Rudolf Laban’s Mastery of Movement.”  Laban’s writings are evocative, and I always find him to be good company.

Laban and I have seldom met in the most luxurious of settings.  During my seven years of doctoral and post-doctoral research, he and I met in a windowless room in the top of the University of Surrey library.  Here he kept me company under fluorescent lights as I engaged with his handwritten musings on yellowing sheets of paper and tried to make sense of geometric sketches in colored pencil. … Read More

Mastery of Movement: Laban’s Other Masterpiece

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Mastery of Movement is for body and effort what Choreutics is for space and shape – the most comprehensive treatment of Laban’s ideas in English.  The book has an interesting history.

The first edition was published in 1950, after Laban had published Effort and Modern Educational Dance, and after he had written (but not published) Choreutics.  Thus Mastery draws upon Laban’s endeavors in industry, education, and theatre.

The first edition is focused on movement for the stage, but Laban’s observations go well beyond this, addressing broader functions of movement in human life and evolution.… Read More

Why Laban Wrote Mastery of Movement

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Laban wrote Mastery of Movement on the Stage (1st edition) “as an incentive to personal mobility.”  And indeed, the first two chapters provide a number of explorations organized around movement themes focused on body and/or effort.  Laban hopes to encourage a kind of “mobile reading,” as he explains in the Preface.

However, he also notes that there is something in the book for those who want to remain in a comfy chair.  That is, such readers can learn more about “thinking in terms of movement.” … Read More

What Makes a Good Team?

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Long before diversity became a political issue, Warren Lamb was encouraging diversity in management teams.  His model of diversity was not based on age, race, creed, or gender. Rather it was based on decision-making style.

Lamb found that the best teams are made up of people who have different decision-making strengths.   That is, you need someone on the team who is strongly motivated to Investigate, someone who Explores, someone who is quite Determined, someone high in Timing and so on.

There is just one problem. … Read More

What Makes a Successful Leader?

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In his observation and analysis of thousands of business executives, Warren Lamb found that leaders come in many shapes and sizes.  That is, there is no single “leader” profile — successful leaders can approach decisions in quite varied ways.

However, Lamb discovered that the characteristic pattern of motivation tapped by the MPA profile has much to do with how a leader defines his or her responsibility.

For example, a leader who emphasizes Attending will believe it is his/her responsibility to analyze the situation, consider alternatives, and make sure there is sufficient informed preparation prior to taking any action.  … Read More

Why I Became a Movement Pattern Analyst

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Shortly after I completed my Laban Movement Analysis training (1976), Warren Lamb gave a short course at the Dance Notation Bureau.  I had been thinking a lot about the relationship between movement and psychology, but in vague and hypothetical ways.  What Lamb presented was much more concrete — it blew me away.

Fast forward 40 years, Movement Pattern Analysis still blows me away for three key reasons.

First, Lamb’s grounded theory connecting movement patterns with motivational initiatives and decision-making processes continues to help me understand my fellow human beings better.… Read More

MPA as a Teaching Tool, Part 2

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By Madeleine Scott, Registered Movement Pattern Analyst

The application of Movement Pattern Analysis in building teams was not the focus of my experiment with making basic profiles of undergraduate dance majors for a seminar on career development.  However, I realized that an implicit team relationship clearly exists between student and teacher.

Students and teachers must work together, or they will fail to collaborate successfully in the educational enterprise.  The profile information about the group allowed me to re-assess the strengths and weaknesses of my own profile.… Read More

MPA as a Teaching Tool, Part 1

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By Madeleine Scott, Registered Movement Pattern Analyst

I utilized the Movement Pattern Analysis decision-making framework to support an undergraduate seminar for dance majors that focused on career planning and resume/portfolio development. In preparation for the course, I had interviewed and constructed basic profiles of all thirteen students.  This revealed specific learning needs of the group and suggested strategies to meet these needs.

For example, students with strong Attending motivation need to be interested in the subject as such.  They need to go into the subject in depth and also see it from a number of different angles. … Read More

MPA and Acting

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By Alison Henderson, Registered Movement Pattern Analyst

One problem for an actor is character similarity — does each character portrayed exhibit the actor’s habitual movements? Having a Movement Pattern Analysis profile gives the actor an understanding of his own thought process so he can see how it differs from his character’s process. Moreover, he can learn his personal movement characteristics/habits that arise from this thought process.

Until now, movement training has looked at body habits separate from the thought process, rather than connected.… Read More