Rudolf Laban perceived a logical relationship or “affinity” between the six cardinal directions and the effort qualities of Weight, Space, and Time.

For example, “a feeling of lightness corresponds with reaching upwards,” while a strong movement tends downwards.

Movement across the body “makes for a confined use of space,” which Laban links with straight, direct effort quality.  Opening outwards brings about spatial freedom, and correlates with a roundabout, indirect quality.

Sudden shocks and jerks of fright case the body to contract, consequently Laban relates quickness to movement backward. … Read More

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

In Labanotation, bodily gestures are recorded as linear trace-forms having a definable starting and ending destination.  In contrast, bodily supports in locomotion are written as motion away from a starting location.

In Labanotation, Ann Hutchinson Guest distinguishes destination from motion in the following way.

“In traveling from Rome to London, one is moving between two fixed points in the world.  The direction happens to be a northwesterly one, but the traveler need not be aware of this.’’

“A traveler starting on a northwesterly path from Rome may not know what his goal is; he may only know his direction in relation to his starting point.”  … Read More

Laban found trace-forms could be recorded by visualizing them as lines occurring within a geometricized kinesphere.  He also felt this form of representation was lacking something.

As the French philosopher Henri Bergson noted, one can move one’s hand from point A to point B, inscribing a line which can infinitely divided into a series of stationary points or positions.  This imposes stillnesses on flux.

Instead, the movement creates “the inward feeling of a single act, for in A was rest, in B there is again rest, and between A and B is placed an undivided act, the passage from rest to rest which is movement itself.”… Read More

The imaginary lines of longitude and latitude make it possible to navigate on the open seas.  In a similar way, Laban used the edges and corners of regular polyhedra to provide landmarks for tracking the pathways of moving limbs in the trackless space around the body.

This clever innovation allows for the movement of bodily gestures to be recorded as a line in space having a particular starting and ending point, with reference to a geometrical scaffolding of the kinesphere.… Read More

The limbs move through the space around the body, creating lines and shapes that disappear even as the movement is occurring.  But what if the joints of the limbs, like little jet engines, left a vapor trail, allowing the movement trajectories to be seen, recorded, and studied?

This is what Rudolf Laban had in mind when he coined the term “trace-forms”to refer to the imaginary vapor trails inscribed by the moving limbs on the space around the body.  His next challenge was to find a way to record these trace-forms so that they could be reconstructed from a notation score, just as the shape of a melody can be reproduced from a musical score.… Read More

Laban wanted readers of Mastery of Movement to engage both mind and body.  Besides physical exercises, he provides observation prompts to engage performers in the study of everyday behavior, along with dramatic scenarios to be enacted.

Most of Laban’s scenarios include multiple characters, and this can be a bit daunting for the person reading the book alone at home.

However, movement imagination can be stimulated through movement observation.  Mastery of Movement discusses mime as well as theatre and dance.  I have found that contemporary mime provides great examples of how a single performer can create multiple characters without saying a word.… Read More

Mastery of Movement extends Laban’s notion of effort beyond functional work activities to notions of “incomplete efforts” and “transformation drives.”  Laban had already explored movement expression in his own choreographies.  But his effort theories were enhanced by the work he did with students at Theatre Workshop and the Northern Theatre School, fertile training grounds for some of England’s finest actors.

“You must not think of dance as steps,” he once told a group of student actors.  “Dance is meaningful movement.  You can dance with your eyebrows. … Read More

In the Preface to Mastery of Movement, Laban states that “every sentence in this exposition is written as an incentive to personal mobility.”  He wants readers to get up out of their arm chairs and MOVE.

Consequently, the second and third chapters contain descriptions of 103 exercises for the reader to perform.  Systematic exploration of bodily movement is valuable, but 103??!

In the forthcoming hybrid course, I have organized the exercises around 8 themes to be used as a basis for improvisational prompts or choreographed sequences. … Read More

Mastery of Movement is for Body and Effort what Choreutics is for Space and Shape – a comprehensive survey of these expressive elements of movement.  Moreover, the book offers tantalizing glimpses of Laban’s aesthetics and philosophy.

The first edition, published in 1950, was focused on movement for the stage, but Laban’s observations go well beyond this, addressing broader functions of movement in human life and evolution.

After the first edition went out-of-print, Laban was planning another edition, but he died before this could be completed. … Read More