Imitation and Intuition: More Tools to Enhance Body Knowledge

Posted on March 31, 2014 by Carol-Lynne Moore

According to Laban, human movement can be understood in three different ways. It can be appreciated simply through the unreflective act of moving itself. It can be grasped through objective analysis. And movement can be interpreted by linking concrete actions with abstract ideas and feelings.

Different sorts of understanding arise for each perspective. Movement analysis provides a means for observing with greater definition. It slows the automatic process of interpreting simply on the basis of body knowledge. By so doing, analysis supports taking a more objective approach to movement study and helps one transcend body prejudices.… Read More

Movement Analysis: Enhancing Body Knowledge, Transcending Body Prejudice

Posted on March 24, 2014 by Carol-Lynne Moore

Rudolf Laban observed that movement can be perceived from three distinct angles:

the “biological innocent” — the person enjoying movement inwardly, as a bodily experience,
the “scheming mechanic” – the person who observes movement analytically and objectively from the outside,
the “emotional dreamer” – the person who seeks the meaning of movement in the intangible world of emotions and ideas

Laban asserts that these three perspectives operate constantly in all of us. Sometimes we favor one or the other view, and “sometimes we compress them in a synthesized act of perception and function.”… Read More

Insight and Effort Observation

Posted on February 10, 2014 by Carol-Lynne Moore

Have you ever had the experience of wondering “what is it about that guy”? It’s the kind of wondering that takes place when someone rubs you the wrong way but you just can’t put your finger on why that is.

I had that experience some years ago when my son was in grade school. He had a teacher, who by all reports was brilliant, but during communications with this man I had the regular experience of feeling very put-off. It’s not that the meetings were full of bad news; in fact this teacher gave a mostly positive reports on my son.… Read More

Form and Color in Painting and Dance

Posted on February 4, 2014 by Carol-Lynne Moore

The artist Wassily Kandinsky and the dancer Rudolf Laban were contemporaries and moved in the same bohemian circles in Munich in the early 20th century. Interesting parallels run through their theoretical works.

Kandinsky observed that “painting has two weapons at her disposal: 1) colour, 2) form”. He goes on to note that there is an “essential connection between colour and form”.

An analogous delineation of elements can be found in Laban’s notions of effort and shape. Effort – qualities of dynamic energy – give expressive color to bodily actions.… Read More

Dancing from Mood to Mood

Posted on January 12, 2014 by Carol-Lynne Moore

According to Rudolf Laban, “The dancer moves, not only from place to place, but also from mood to mood.” His perceptive comment illustrates a point that neuroscientists are beginning to recognize – nothing is purely mental or purely physical. Bodily movements accompany thoughts and feelings; and thoughts and feelings accompany movements.

In his unpublished papers Laban also observed, “inner becomes outer and outer becomes inner.” That is, movement not only reflects what a person is thinking and feeling, it also affects one’s inner psychological state.… Read More

Rudolf Laban, Revolutionary

Posted on December 5, 2013 by Carol-Lynne Moore

Around 1913, a visual artist named Rudolf Laban gave up painting to pursue a career in dance. He admitted he seemed to have chosen “the most despised profession.” At the time, dance was the poor relation of all the other arts. Laban set out to change that.

Over the next 25 years, he performed, choreographed, and taught – activities familiar to most professional dancers. But Laban’s efforts went beyond this. He wrote about dance, he organized a dancers’ union, he initiated dance conferences, and he inspired a populist dance movement for amateur performers.… Read More