Just Add Flow

Posted on June 13, 2017 by Carol-Lynne Moore

Laban’s well-known basic actions combine the movement factors of Space, Weight, and Time. However, the whole mood of an action changes when Flow replaces one of these motion factors. Then the functional action is transformed into a visionary, passionate, or spell-binding mood.

Laban admits that “even when man sets about a working job and his bodily actions have to fulfill practical functions they are distinguished by personal expression.”

However, when flow takes the place of another motion factor, “the expression is more intense.” According to Laban, this is because “These configurations build up individual units in which the single constituent part submerges entirely.” Thus the whole gains a new meaning and importance. In other words, the Vision, Passion, and Spell drives are distinctive moods in which the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, just as green, while being composed of blue and yellow, is a distinctive color all its own. This is where Laban’s effort theory, composed of only four motion factors and eight contrasting effort qualities, blossoms into a multi-colored landscape encompassing both function and expression.

In the forthcoming workshop, “Expanding the Dynamosphere,” we will start with the basic actions and organic sequences of these actions. Then we explore the transformation drives – Vision, Passion, and Spell. Find out what happens to the chemistry of effort when we just add flow!

Demons Into Goddesses Through Effort Magic

Posted on June 8, 2017 by Carol-Lynne Moore

Laban personifies each of the eight basic actions in Mastery of Movement. He characterizes Floating (all indulging qualities of Weight, Time, and Space) as the Goddess and Punching (all fighting effort qualities) as the Demon. He goes on to note that it will not be difficult for the actor or dancer to depict these characters, for we “remember the age-old symbolism of love’s soft floating movements, and of the violent and abrupt movements of hatred.”

During the recent MoveScape Center Mastery of Movement correspondence course, Rebecca Nordstrom created a sequence of basic actions and imagined this movement sequence as a scenario involving the Demon and the Goddess. It is a beautiful example of how imagination can bring Laban’s effort theories to life.

Becky has graciously allowed me to share her scenario….

Scale of moods order: Punch, slash, wring, press, glide, dab, flick, float.

A demon looks at the large oblong object that mysteriously appeared in his lair. First, he strikes it with his fist, punching repeatedly to try to break it open. He then slings it violently and repeatedly around the room sending it crashing into the walls, floor, and ceiling (slashing). When that doesn’t work, he grabs it in his hands and tries to twist it open with great force (wringing). Lastly, he leans against it with all his force trying to crush it (pressing). Exhausted, he collapses into a heap and falls asleep.

Out of a hole at one end of the object a veiled figure slowly, gently and steadily emerges (gliding). Once free of the object the figure quickly but gently pokes at the surrounding veil with long delicate fingers and toes (dabbing). Once loosened, the veil is gently but quickly tossed aside with flicking gestures.

Now completely free of the veil, the figure begins to spread its wings and gently, delicately rises. As the butterfly goddess knew, she was only able to emerge from her chrysalis cage with the help of the unsuspecting demon. She hovers over his sleeping body to whisper her thanks before floating gently out of his lair and into the bright sunshine.

Laban’s Eight “Basic Actions”

Posted on June 6, 2017 by Carol-Lynne Moore

Anyone with even a brief exposure to Rudolf Laban’s work will be familiar with the eight Basic Actions – float, glide, dab, flick, punch, press, wring, and slash. These functional actions are the bedrock of Laban’s effort theory.

As Laban noted, humans move to satisfy needs. Some needs are tangible – food, shelter, rest, and physical safety. This is where the basic actions come in – we employ these when working with material objects to achieve material needs.

Movement occurs in sequences, and these basic actions can be arranged to create a “scale of moods.” In the recent MoveScape Center correspondence course, “Mastering Rudolf Laban’s Mastery of Movement, we played with creating sequences of basic actions to see what kind of situations these effort changes might suggest.

In Mastery Laban notes that the “chemistry of effort follows certain rules because the transitions from one effort quality to another are either easy or difficult. In ordinary circumstances, no sane person will ever jump from one quality to its complete contrast because of the great mental and nervous strain involved in so radical a change.”

Consequently, my correspondence students were instructed to shift from floating to its dynamic opposite, punching, by only changing one effort quality at a time. It’s a great challenge — and one that takes you deeper into understanding effort.

Find out more in the upcoming MoveScape Center workshop, “Expanding the Dynamosphere” in New York City, July 29-30.

April Dances Bring Advances 2

Posted on May 18, 2017 by Carol-Lynne Moore

Fifteen years ago, Olie Westheimer, executive director of the Brooklyn Parkinson Group approached the Mark Morris Dance Company about creating a dance class for her clients. Dance for PD©, a program training teachers and providing classes for those with Parkinson’s disease, is the result.

The program initially met with skepticism, recalls dancer-developer David Leventhal. Medical doctors felt that dance is “frivolous.” As Leventhal notes, “There is a lot of misconception about the amount of learning and skill and brain work and physical work that somebody has to do to execute a dance.”

Helen Bronte-Stewart, a Stanford professor of neurology and former dancer, agrees. “As physicians, we stress the importance of physical activity, social interaction and mental stimulation to our patients with Parkinson’s disease. Dance for PD gives them all three.”

Here we have the same triumvirate of benefits noted in the research on contra dance and memory – dancing provides cognitive and social stimulation in addition to physical activity. But that is not all.

As Bronte-Stewart continues, dance is more than just physical therapy – “The PD dancers have told us this type of dance restores their self-image and brings them joy.” Immersed in the activity, participants sometimes find they are able to regain function. For example, during a flamenco dance routine, one woman found herself snapping her once-rigid fingers – “it just came to me,” she recalled in amazement.

April Dances Bring Advances 1

Posted on May 16, 2017 by Carol-Lynne Moore

In late April we celebrate National Dance Week. This year’s festivities come with scientific evidence that dancing is good for you! A research team based at Colorado State University found that contra dancing may help to fend off aging in the brain.

A four-year clinical trial followed a group of 174 healthy adults aged 60 – 79. The group was divided into four parts. One group did aerobic walking, another not only walked but also took a nutritional supplement, the third group participated in stretching and balance classes, and the fourth group attended contra dance classes involving a sequence of figures as dancers progress up and down a line. Each group met three times a week for six months.

The study focused on the fornix, which connects the hippocampus with other areas of the brain and is believed to play an important role in memory. Each participant’s fornix was measured at the start of study and six months later. The integrity of the fornix increased in the dance group in contrast to declines noted in half of the other participants.

This finding led researchers to conclude that “there is more benefit in activities like dance, that simultaneously provide cognitive and social stimulation in addition to physical activity,” according to an article in The Denver Post.

This study of the benefits of contra dancing is just the tip of the iceberg. Find out more in the next blog.

Dancing with Your Eyebrows

Posted on May 11, 2017 by Carol-Lynne Moore

“You must not think of dance as steps,” Rudolf Laban once told a group of student actors. “Dance is meaningful movement. You can dance with your eyebrows. When I have taught you, you will be able to dance with any part of your body.’’

The acting students were skeptical, or course. They thought that dance was frivolous, not serious. Laban, however, had spent a lifetime investigating not only the physical aspects of dance, but also its mental, emotional, and social dimensions. He saw dancing as an activity involving the whole person; he understood that dancing brings together body and mind, self and other.

Now contemporary science is corroborating Laban’s observations with evidence based research. Find out more in the following blogs.

Effort and Imagination

Posted on May 9, 2017 by Carol-Lynne Moore

“Effort is visible in the action movement of a worker, or a dancer, and it is audible in song or speech,” Laban observes in Mastery of Movement. “The fact that effort and its various shadings can not only be seen and heard, but also imagined, is of great importance for their representation by the actor-dancer.”

Awakening the imagination is an important part of enriching one’s dynamic range. Laban draws a close link between imagination and playing. During play, he explains, the child experiments with all imaginable situations — offense, defence, ambush, ruse, flight, fear — searching for “the best possible effort combination for each occasion.” He adds, in children, “we call it play; in adult people we call it acting and dancing.”

Effort patterns become habits as one matures, Laban notes, and that is why young humans “have a much more varied scale of effort capacities at their disposal than their elders.” This statement reminds me of Isadora Duncan’s observation that most people resort to a set of habits, and “with these few stereotyped gestures, their whole lives are passed without once suspecting the world of dance which they are missing.”

Revitalize your own dynamic range and stimulate your movement imagination in the forthcoming Red Thread workshop, “Expanding the Dynamosphere,” July 22-23, in New York City.

Beyond Mechanical Movement

Posted on May 4, 2017 by Carol-Lynne Moore

In discussing the actor who is an artist, Laban writes “this kind of performer concentrates on the actuation of the inner springs of conduct preceding his movements, and pays little attention at first to the skill needed for presentation.” In other words, this actor focuses on the inner intention to move.

For Laban, this inner intention manifests through visible behavior as EFFORT. Effort reveals itself as a fighting or indulging attitude towards one of the four motion factors of flow, weight, time, and space. These attitudes color the way a given action is done, imparting a perceptible quality and making movement meaningful.

As human beings, we can exercise a great deal of conscious control over how we move. We can learn to make a physical effort – to be gentle and to push harder, to move quickly and gradually, to control and focus our motions or let them flow freely and indirectly. We can put on a good show.

Without linking thought, feeling, and action, however, movement becomes mechanical. From Laban’s perspective, meaningful effort requires inner participation.

Activate your inner springs of motion in the upcoming Red Thread workshop, “Exploring the Dynamosphere,” July 22-23, in New York City.

Mastery of Movement Takes Off

Posted on May 2, 2017 by Carol-Lynne Moore

I launched the new MoveScape Center correspondence course, Mastering Rudolf Laban’s Mastery of Movement, with 19 reading companions on five continents (North and South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia). In early April we plunged into the first chapter.

In his Introduction, Laban covers a dizzying array of topics, addressing animal and human movement; playing, dancing, and acting; humane effort; movement thinking; dance as a civilizing force; and more. Yet how he delineates virtuosity and artistry seems to have provoked the most heated responses from my fellow readers.

According to Laban the virtuoso employs the “mechanical perfection of speech and gesture” to mirror “man’s happiness, folly and misery.” By representing “the more external features of life,” this actor entertains, allowing the audience “to find comfort and relief from its workaday sorrows.”

On the other hand, there is another kind of actor, one who pays “little attention at first” to skillful physical representation. Rather this actor concentrates on mirroring “the hidden processes of the inner being.” As Laban sees it, a different kind of contact with the public results, one that he sees as being on a higher rung.

Not all my reading companions agree with Laban. And I’m delighted to see that a close reading can trigger reflection and critical response. The whole experience is making me think more about the relationship between virtuosity, artistry, and mastery. That’s what I like about Laban. Even if one doesn’t always understand what he means, he encourages thinking about the many dimensions of embodiment.

Effort Shape and Individual Difference

Posted on April 20, 2017 by Carol-Lynne Moore

Lamb affirmed that “effort goes with shape organically.” Yet careful study of an individual’s movement pattern will reveal an emphasis on effort more than shape, or vice versa. Lamb came to feel that this difference was fundamental and significant.

For example, he observed that an emphasis on effort reflected an Assertion-oriented approach to decision making. Such a person is driven, applying his or her energies, both physical and mental, to make things happen. This decision-maker gets results by focusing, applying pressure, and setting the pace.

An emphasis on shape reflects a Perspective-oriented approach to decision making. An analogy to drawing is helpful here. If I’m drawing an apple, and I change my position relative to this object, my view and perspective also changes. Thus shifting places and shaping the body allows the decision-maker to see the situation from different angles, broadening the scope, gauging value, and projecting the steps needed to reach a goal.

Recent pilot studies have shown that the relative emphasis on either Assertion or Perspective is predictive of how much information and how much time an individual needs to make a decision. These results demonstrate the validity of movement analysis when compared with other established criteria for discerning individual differences in decision making.

There is, of course, much more nuance in a Movement Pattern Analysis profile. From a research perspective, however, it is vital to test the most global factors first before digging deeper. With positive results to date, research efforts can continue. There is still much to be learned!