The Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies (LIMS) celebrated its 40th anniversary with a fabulous conference in New York City in early June. This international gathering was an embarrassment of riches, with fascinating workshops, panels, papers, and dance events.
Forty years ago, I was part of the Founding Board of the Institute, and I remember clearly our first conference in 1979 (celebrating the centennial of Laban’s 1879 birth). We were a young group of founders, enthusiastic and somewhat inexperienced. But in 1979, many of Laban’s colleagues were still active. We managed to bring many of these “big names” in movement study over from Europe – Lisa Ullmann, Sylvia Bodmer, Warren Lamb, Geraldine Stephenson, Anna Markard (Kurt Jooss’s daughter), Martin Gleisner, and, of course, our inspiration-in-residence, Irmgard Bartenieff.
We looked up to these pioneers, as many of us were just beginning careers.
Forty years later, not only have the LIMS founders matured, the whole field has matured. It is nice to find that, while we retain a youthful enthusiasm about the study of human movement, we are now a group of maturing professionals, with years of experience applying Laban Movement Analysis in many ways. Find out more about how Laban movement studies are growing up in the next blogs.