Colleagues’ recollections depict Rudolf Laban as a man possessed by creative energy, proliferating rough ideas and then rushing on without completing a line of thought, leaving the elaboration of his creations to someone else.
Laban’s private papers reveal a different picture. Archival traces show that Laban was steadily developing a grounded theory of human movement and utilizing consistent methods to develop hypothetical models. Moreover, archival materials also show that Laban was concerned to control the sheer number of elements in the systems he was building.
In fact, Laban was a miser, and the system of movement analysis he created is very parsimonious. Being parsimonious is not always viewed as a positive trait, but when it comes to theory building, parsimony is an asset for the following reasons.
A parsimonious theory has few concepts and relationships between them. Consequently, a parsimonious theory is more straightforward, more likely to be internally consistent, and easier to connect to reality than a complex theory.
Laban’s effort theory is a great example. There are only four motion qualities and eight effort qualities. Yes, in various relationships and sequences, these elements suffice to capture a wide variety of types of dynamic movement expressions.
I love the elegance of Laban’s effort theories. And in the upcoming Octa seminar, Discovering the Dynamosphere, I will introduce effort models I found in the Laban Archive and connect these with real movement expression. Click here to learn more.