The Icosahedron Revealed

Posted on May 18, 2018 by Carol-Lynne Moore

As my imaginary conversation with Laban progresses, he begins to share more deeply.

CLM: I always suspected there was more to your choice of the icosahedron as a model of the kinesphere. Please go on.

R.Laban: You see, the icosahedron isn’t found in any crystalline forms. That is, it isn’t found in inorganic matter. But some microscopic organisms have icosahedral shapes – it is one of the shapes nature chooses for living forms.

CLM: Why is that important?

R. Laban: Because life curves, and most trace-forms of human movement are curvilinear.

CLM: Yet in Choreutics you write that “We can understand all bodily movement as being a continuous creation of fragments of polyhedral forms.” Polyhedra have straight edges and angular corners….

R. Laban: You mustn’t take everything I write so literally. Movement is curvilinear, but in order to create a geography for the kinesphere, I had to use geometrical forms. By conceptualizing trace-forms as rhythmic circles; that is, as polygons, these shapes can be matched to the geometric geography of the kinesphere.

CLM: I think I’m beginning to understand.

R. Laban: You see, my polygonal trace-forms are stylizations of the organic curves of human movement. I’ve simply done what visual artists do when they take the curved shape of a leaf or a flower and geometricize it. They create a pattern.

CLM: That’s what you’re doing, then. You are imposing a pattern on the curves of living movement.

R. Laban: That’s exactly right. Without pattern, the movement just disappears as it is occurring. By geometricizing trace-forms and the geography of the kinesphere, I’ve provided some “fixed points” so that dance and movement can be objects for contemplation and study.

CLM: Now I think I really need that cool drink!

Laban Clarifies the Geography of the Kinesphere

Posted on May 15, 2018 by Carol-Lynne Moore

As my imaginary conversation with Laban continued, the topic of the icosahedron came up.

CLM: Let’s talk more about the kinesphere.

R.Laban: Think of it as the bubble of territory surrounding your whole body – the space you can reach with your limbs without taking a step.

CLM: Does this movement space have a shape? Is it a sphere?

RL: Ideally yes. But I needed to give it a more definitive shape, with some landmarks the dancer or mover could use for orientation. Eventually, I chose the icosahedron.

CLM: I know that’s one of the Platonic solids. There are only five of these regular polyhedra, and they were all known to the Greeks. However, the icosahedron is not the most familiar one because it isn’t found in nature. Why did you pick the icosahedron?

RL: Well, the cube is probably the most familiar shape, but it isn’t very spherical. The icosahedron comes much closer. And if you set it on an edge, the twelve corners, the edges, and the internal rays can be used as a kind of longitude and latitude for mapping movement.

CLM: So you use the icosahedron to create a geography for movement space. That’s amazing.

RL: There’s a lot more to it….

CLM: I’m sure there is, but let’s get something cool to drink!

Movement Health – Laban-style

Posted on December 20, 2016 by Carol-Lynne Moore

As the benefits of physical motion are gaining recognition and undergoing further scrutiny, it is interesting to see how Laban characterized movement health. He wrote, “A healthy human being can have complete control of his kinesphere and dynamosphere…. The essential thing is that we should neither have preference for nor avoid certain movements because of physical or psychical restrictions.”

Clearly, Laban views movement as healthy for both the body and mind. He prescribes a rich range of motion, noting “we should be able to do every imaginable movement and then select those which seem to be the most suitable and desirable for our own nature.”

When I did my Laban Movement Analysis training in the mid-1970s, the faculty used to give individual “movement prescriptions” in the middle of the year. These were meant to be fun and usually aimed to encourage exploration of less preferred movement elements. However, the underlying rationale was not made transparent to students, who were sometimes left guessing as to why they received a certain prescription.

Warren Lamb took a more direct approach in the hundreds of individual movement tutorials he taught in the late 1950s and early 1960s. First he assessed the individual’s movement patterns. Then he worked with their effort and shape preferences, gradually building less preferred qualities into a unique movement sequence that the person could continue to practice and refine.

Want to find out more about your own movement patterns? Join the “Introduction to Movement Pattern Analysis” course, March 17- 19, 2017.

Five-rings Anyone?

Posted on November 3, 2016 by Carol-Lynne Moore

Laban moved into new Choreutic territory with five-rings, and consequently they are fascinating to embody. Primarily Laban built his space harmony scales around the cubic diagonals. But the peripheral and transverse five-rings that Cate Deicher and I will be teaching in the Advanced Space Harmony workshop are built around the planar diameters.

The peripheral five-rings create pentagonal shapes around corners of the icosahedron that both match and challenge range of motion for gestures of the arms and legs.

The transverse five-rings trace star-like shapes around corners of the icosahedron. These shapes stimulate new ways to think about trace-forms and areas of the kinesphere, and they can be fun to embody.

Put some stars in your kinesphere with the upcoming Ico workshop in New York City, December 3 and 4. But hurry, registration closes November 28.

Snakes in Space?

Posted on October 25, 2016 by Carol-Lynne Moore

Rudolf Laban thought so; he found them in the kinesphere! “Snakes” are one of the seldom taught space harmony forms that Cate Deicher and I will be exploring in our “Advanced Space Harmony” workshop, December 3-4, in New York City.

Our aim in this workshop is to introduce new Choreutic forms and demonstrate how these can serve as a design source for movement. Unlike most of the familiar space harmony scales, snakes are not rhythmic circles. That is, they do not begin and end at the same point in the kinesphere. Instead, they are open forms that lend themselves to development and movement invention.

We promise that Laban’s snakes don’t bite. Don’t take our word for it — find out for yourselves in the upcoming Ico workshop.

Laban’s Idealized Kinesphere

Posted on April 14, 2016 by Carol-Lynne Moore

The sphere is Laban’s model for the space adjacent to the mover’s body. The center of gravity of the body is also the center of the kinesphere, which extends equally in all directions, establishing a boundary based on the areas of space that can be reached without taking a step.

According to Laban, “all points of the kinesphere can be reached by simple movements, such as bending, stretching, and twisting, or by a combination of these.”

Laban’s choreutic prototypes exploit this spherical movement space using symmetrical trace-forms that oscillate up and down, from side to side, and in front and behind the body.

Since this perfect sphere extends equally in all directions from the center of the body, theoretically there is as much movement space behind the body as there is in front. However, our Prototype Project motion capture and video records indicated that the actual kinesphere is not a perfect sphere but a more lopsided bubble that extends farther in front of the body than behind.

This stands to reason, because the construction of our limbs makes it harder to reach behind the body. Laban certainly was aware of this. But he was an idealist. His kinesphere and his highly symmetrical choreutic trace-forms represent human movement potential. Even our well-rehearsed dancers were not fully able to actualize this potential range of motion (although this was partly because the motion capture suit made footing uneven due to sensor attachments on the dancer’s feet).

As the accompanying photo shows, reaching deeply behind the body is possible, if something of a virtuoso feat. Is Laban’s idealized kinesphere meant to foster virtuosity? No, he merely wants us to be well-rounded. As Laban stresses, “ A healthy human being can have complete control of his kinesphere.” He goes on to note that some restrictions in free use of areas of the kinesphere can be caused by lack of exercise, weakness, anxiety, or timidity. However,“the essential thing is that we should neither have preference for nor avoid certain movements [or areas of the kinesphere] because of physical or psychical restrictions.”