Conceiving bodily motions as lines in space allowed Laban to link his visual art background with his study of dance.
Art Nouveau artists not only had a deep interest in the expressive qualities of line, they also linked this expressivity to the body. For example, in asking how architectural forms can convey an emotion or a mood, the Swiss aesthetician Heinrich Wolfflin, argued that “Physical forms possess a character only because we ourselves possess a body.”
The architect August Endell went even further in ascribing empathic, body-based reactions to straight and curved lines, thick and thin lines, and the direction of the line. … Read More