Motion in Meaning |

Cate Deicher and I had a wonderful time teaching the Meaning in Motion workshops last month at the lovely Balance Arts studios in mid-town Manhattan. Fifteen movement analysts, both seasoned professionals and recent certificate program graduates, kept us on our toes as we reviewed key Laban Movement Analysis concepts and explored advanced theories of effort and space.

Cate and I had planned the workshops around two closely related themes: stimulating movement imagination and using Laban’s Eukinetic and Choreutic models as design sources. Review of key concepts was always linked with a creative exploration. For example, after reviewing the Dimensional Scale, participants choreographed “folk dances” based on moving up and down, sidewards, and forward and back. After brushing up on the Action Drive combinations, participants were introduced to “modulated” sequences of Action Drives, asked to embody these, and then to choose one sequence and develop it as a short duet. A Bartenieff Fundamentals sequence that moved from the floor to standing was turned into duets, drawing on various relationship concepts. Symmetry operations were used to generate studies based on the A Scale.

The weekend culminated with the publication celebration for Meaning in Motion and our lecture-demonstration of “10 New Ways to Bring Laban Theory to Life.” The demonstration involved sewing, chopping, chanting, clapping, and various activities with oranges, balloons, a bathrobe, and a Barbie doll. There was method in this madness, though, and I’ll be sharing some of these ideas for teaching Laban theory in the next few blogs.

During the past three decades, I have taught in something like 26 Laban Movement Analysis programs in the U.S. and Europe. Along the way, I’ve developed many handouts, devised assignments and creative exercises, and even produced small booklets on special topics like space harmony.

About five years ago, I started compiling these materials into one booklet. Whenever I worked with a new student group, I revised the booklet. Gradually, a few colleagues began to order this material for their college LMA courses, and the idea to produce a textbook was born.

Meaning in Motion: Introducing Laban Movement Analysis is the result. While it incorporates teaching materials I developed over time, everything has been reworked, carefully illustrated, and organized to be user-friendly and affordable.

For example, I want students to be able to take my book into the movement studio, flip it open to read a scale or effort phrase, and make notes in the book itself. So Meaning in Motion is a spiral bound paperback.

There is more than one semester’s worth of theoretical material in the book. But I did this for two reasons. First, I want instructors to be able to choose the topics they wish to emphasize and pursue in more depth. Secondly, I want students to realize it takes more than one semester to learn LMA!

Toward the end, there is additional material for study in the back of the book. This includes extensive bibliographies along with more effort and space material. I’ve also salted the book with “Creative Explorations.” These provide ideas for linking theory and practice. The instructor can use these as classroom exercises or students can use the Explorations to work more on their own.

The official publication date is December of this year. To celebrate, I will be signing books at the Labanize lecture-demonstration in New York City on Sunday afternoon, December 7th, at the Balance Arts Studios.

Registration for Labanize, and the whole Meaning in Motion weekend of workshops closes December 1.

Finding New Meanings in Motion

Evolution of Meaning in Motion: Introducing Laban Movement Analysis