Follow the “Red Thread that links the Laban/Bartenieff/Lamb legacy to the future of movement study. Expand the scope of what you know about human movement through a series of courses expertly crafted by master teacher Carol-Lynne Moore.
This year the journey of discovery begins in April with a unique exploration of Irmgard Bartenieff’s contributions to the field of Laban-based movement study.
Then, in the summer and autumn, the focus shifts to movement dynamics, with two courses exploring the effort states and drives.
SPRING
“Irmgard Bartenieff: In Her Own Words,” April 4 – 30, 2025
Irmgard Bartenieff (1900 – 1981) played a seminal role in establishing Laban-based movement analysis and notation in the United States. While she is justifiably famous for the somatic practice known as “Bartenieff Fundamentals,” her contributions to movement study far exceed these bodily practices.
This four-week correspondence course draws on the instructor’s own experiences studying and working with Bartenieff from 1975-1981. In addition, participants explore Bartenieff’s integrative vision through a variety of her own writings. These address her initial studies with Laban and her subsequent integration of Laban’s theories into physical therapy, dance therapy, dance education, and cross-cultural dance studies.
The course is designed to present Bartenieff as a change theorist who understood that extending the quality and range of one’s body movement options can extend the quality of one’s functional and emotional life, providing new ways of coping with a continuously changing environment.
Each assignment includes the following:
1) Reading materials, such as articles, interviews, or lectures by Bartenieff that capture her unique perspective and “voice.”
2) Questions focused on these readings to discuss with the instructor via email, facilitating individual study and development.
“Irmgard Bartenieff: In Her Own Words” runs April 4 – 30, 2025.
Registration closes March 28, 2025.
SUMMER
“Incomplete Efforts (Mostly),” August 1-20, 2025
This three-week correspondence course focuses on what Laban called “incomplete efforts” – combinations of only two motion factors. Now known as the “effort states,” these dynamic combinations are hardly incomplete.
Instead, the effort states serve as the “connective tissue” of human movement, linking more intensely dynamic expressions in the ongoing flow of thinking, feeling, and acting.
Laban conceived the six effort states in contrasting pairs: Awake – Dream, Near – Remote, Stable – Mobile. Course participants explore all six states, deepening their understanding of the critical role that these “incomplete efforts” play in function and expression.
AUTUMN
“The Transformation Drives,” October 31 – November 19, 2025
Rudolf Laban’s effort theories are a systematic working out of possible combinations of the qualities of the four motion factors – Space, Weight, Time, and Flow.
Intensely dynamic movements, called “drives,” blend the qualities of three motion factors, while the fourth factor remains latent.
Laban identified four drives: Action (Flow-less), Passion (Space-less), Vision (Weight-less), and Spell (Time-less).
Laban likened these dynamic compounds to a kind of effort chemistry, in which the adding or extracting of motion factors produces profoundly different experiences for the mover.
In this three-week correspondence course participants experiment with the chemistry of effort, experiencing the transformative power of the Passion, Vision, and Spell Drives.