One challenging aspect of Laban’s Mastery of Movement is his description of many dramatic scenes meant to be embodied by the reader. These scenes involve multiple characters, various dramatic conflicts, and several changes in mood on the part of all the characters involved.
Laban wants the reader to get up and mime these scenes, thinking about how the body would be used, where movement would go in the space around the body, and what kind of efforts would appear and change. … Read More
In Mastery of Movement, Rudolf Laban invokes gods, goddesses, and demons in his discussions of the “chemistry of human effort.”
“Gods as conceived by primitive man were the initiators and instigators of effort in all its configurations,” writes Laban. “The strange poetry of movement that has found expression in sacred dance enabled man to build up an order of his effort actions, which is valuable and understandable to this day.”
Laban goes on to describe floating and gliding goddesses, divinities of joy that flick and dab, gods that wring, slash, and press, and demons that punch. … Read More
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
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
by Laurie Cameron
It is always a challenge to create a syllabus for Laban Movement Analysis. At Pomona College, my goal is to cover the theoretical bases of LMA while encouraging embodiment of the material through regular practice of the Bartenieff Fundamentals and creative explorations that lead students to an understanding of the material within their own physical capabilities. This has to happen in two one-hour and 15 minute sessions per week for 14 weeks.
Meaning in Motion has become an anchor for my course. … Read More
The Montreal event included a full morning of various presentations on applications of movement analysis for the public. The formal lectures, delivered in French or English with simultaneous translation, covered a fascinating array of disciplines and approaches, both qualitative and quantitative.
Brigitte LaChance, a Canadian physical therapist, discussed what Laban Movement Analysis (LMA) contributes to her rehabilitative work with seriously injured clients. Odile Cazes, a French psychometrician, described how she applies Functional Analysis of the Dancing Body (AFCDM) in training osteopaths in hands-on techniques. … Read More
I have space toys, but Laban liked to play space games. He played one game over and over and over and over again and again ….
His favorite game went something like this: start at one corner of a polyhedron – it can be a cube, octahedron, or icosahedron. Then trace a line touching every corner only once and return to the corner where you began.
Unpublished drawings in the Laban Archive in England show that Laban played this game over and over again.… Read More
In July, the Octa workshop, “Bringing Choreutics to Life” takes Laban’s space harmony theory into practice. This three-day workshop presents key Choreutic concepts in a way that is accessible for participants new to Laban’s ideas as well as experienced movement analysts.
Laban himself admitted that “our mental functions employ geometrical symbols to express orientation in space, but generally our feeling does not comprehend living movement within geometrical plasticity.” In other words, both understanding and embodying choreutics can be steep learning curve!… Read More
Another example of Laban’s double vision is his concept of the kinesphere and dynamosphere as dual domains of human movement. To represent both domains, Laban utilizes the cube.
With regard to the kinesphere, Laban uses the cube quite literally. Its corners, edges, and internal diagonals serve as a kind of longitude and latitude for mapping movement in the space around the dancer’s body.
With regard to the dynamosphere, Laban uses the cube formally to represent patterns of effort change. This shift in how the model should be interpreted is complicated further by Laban’s use of direction symbols to stand for effort qualities and combinations.… Read More
I had my profile made by Warren Lamb almost forty years ago. So I think I’ve learned a bit about making use of the information in the profile.
In an earlier blog I noted that movement is a process of change. I can also say that learning to use your movement profile involves change. There are several distinct phases.
Phase 1: You want to be 100 percent in every facet of decision making.
The relative magnitude of the different effort and shape elements in an individual’s repertoire comprise the movement pattern.… Read More