Effort and Assertion

Posted on October 6, 2015 by Carol-Lynne Moore

Every voluntary human movement involves applying energy to change the position of the body.  Energy can be applied in many different ways.  Rudolf Laban referred to these various qualities of kinetic energy as effort.  Similarly, the moving body can trace many different shapes as it traverses space.  Consequently, the human beings possess a richer range of motion than most other species.   As Laban observes, “When jumping the cat will be relaxed and flexible.  A horse or a deer will bound wonderfully in the air, but its body will be tense and concentrated during the jump.”  … Read More

Walking Is Recuperative

Posted on August 13, 2015 by Carol-Lynne Moore

According to a story in the Washington Post, mounting scientific evidence shows that sitting for long periods of time can lead to poor circulation, heart disease, and joint pain.  Unfortunately, many American adults sit for approximately eight hours a day on the job. However, a recent study at Indiana University showed that five-minute walking breaks reversed some of the negative effects of prolonged sitting, especially when integrated into the working day.

This study supports Rudolf Laban’s notion that working activities should be designed to incorporate active recuperation rather than passive rest periods or breaks. … Read More

Exertion and Recuperation

Posted on August 11, 2015 by Carol-Lynne Moore

When the dancer Rudolf Laban began to study work movement in British factories, two concerns predominated.  The first was efficiency; the second was fatigue.  By the 1940s, of course, there were laws governing the length of the workday and providing additional protection for the health and safety of workers.  Nevertheless, repetitive activity of any sort is tiring.  Human beings are not machines.  We cannot repeat any motion endlessly without the need for variation.

In turning his dancer’s eyes to repetitive labor, Laban identified a basic rhythm. … Read More

Movement and Health

Posted on August 4, 2015 by Carol-Lynne Moore

Movement is good for you!  Increasingly medical research is underscoring the health benefits of bodily motion.  Yet this is hardly news.  Prior to World War I, Rudolf Laban began giving movement classes in southern Switzerland.  In the nearby Kuranstalt Monte Verita, according the Mary Wigman,  “there were a number of very sick people who believed that the warm sunny climate would ease their suffering.”

An elderly lady bound to her wheelchair who suffered from an incurable kidney disease was among those attracted to Laban. … Read More

Movement and Managing Success and Failure

Posted on July 9, 2015 by Carol-Lynne Moore

In Ambition, Gilbert Brim observes that “we look for the challenges that are right for us, for what we can just manage, and in this way form and shape our lives.” For most of us, however, identifying the “right challenges” is a matter of trial and error. It involves not only assessing the situation, but also assessing our own capabilities.

The latter assessment is the more difficult, for as the novelist Thomas Mann notes, “Our consciousness is feeble; only in moments of unusual clarity and vision do we really know about ourselves.”… Read More

Embodiment: What Goes Around, Comes Around

Posted on July 2, 2015 by Carol-Lynne Moore

A wise man once observed that prayers are always answered. But what comes to you is not what you think you want, but what you embody.

Movement Pattern Analysis developed by Warren Lamb provides an objective picture of what an individual embodies and how individual patterns of movement are linked to decision-making processes.

Lamb found that all of us have a preferred pattern of taking action, and we will act in accordance with those preferences whenever we can. Power comes from understanding your preferred pattern and how to use it most effectively.… Read More

Extending Laban’s Notions of Embodied Cognition

Posted on June 18, 2015 by Carol-Lynne Moore

By observing that “the dancer moves, not only from place to place, but also from mood to mood,” Laban established human movement as a psychophysical phenomenon. He went on to relate the “movement from mood to mood” –manifested as effort variation – to psychological functions of giving Attention, forming an Intention, and making a Commitment to embodied action.

Laban’s protege, Warren Lamb, reasoned that there must also be correlations between the “movement from place to place” and psychological functions. He found the following associations.… Read More

The Mind in the Body

Posted on June 16, 2015 by Carol-Lynne Moore

According to Rudolf Laban, “The dancer moves, not only from place to place but also from mood to mood.” This simple statement establishes movement as a psychophysical phenomenon. Indeed, Laban was ahead of the embodied cognition theorists, for he recognized that bodily movement happens in two domains – the physical domain of visible space and the psychological domain of thought and feeling.

Thoughts and feelings cannot be observed directly, but they can be inferred from how a particular action is performed.… Read More

The Body in the Mind

Posted on June 11, 2015 by Carol-Lynne Moore

The notion of embodiment refers to the assumption that thoughts, feelings, and reactions that are grounded in sensory experiences and bodily states. By extension, mental processes involve simulations of physical actions and perceptions. For example, early childhood experiences moving about in the physical environment are believed to structure later understanding and representation of abstract concepts such as status, power, time, etc. 

Such notions tend to redress the position of movement professionals as a cognitive minority. As I noted in an earlier blog, we believe that movement is meaningful and may be studied in all its dynamic variations, yielding valuable insights into human behavior.… Read More

Embodiment is Hot

Posted on June 9, 2015 by Carol-Lynne Moore

Attention movement professionals – the body is now on everyone’s mind. From psychologists and philosophers to computer scientists and robotic engineers, everyone is saying goodbye to Descartes and the separation of body and mind and hello to “embodied cognition.”

Put simply, embodied cognition posits that intelligent behavior emerges from the interplay between brain, body, and the environment. Thinking is no longer the function of an isolated brain performing disembodied calculations based upon abstract concepts. Instead, the raw materials for thought are distributed over the brain, body, and environment and coupled together via our perceptual systems.… Read More