Bringing Choreutics to Life

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In his theoretical masterpiece Choreutics, Rudolf Laban writes that  “getting the ‘feel’ of a movement gives real understanding of it.”  Thus the upcoming Octa workshop, Bringing Choreutics to Life, is all about understanding movement by moving.

Laban’s notions of space, time, and energy are quite abstract.  The complex geometrical models he developed to represent these ideas are hard to grasp.  But Laban’s movement theories can always be linked to concrete movement.  His ideas can be embodied.

Bringing choreutic forms to life requires imagination.  As Laban advises, “it is useful from many points of view to omit entirely all precise instructions as to bodily execution and dynamic intentions, for it will be both advantageous and instructive for the performer to experiment and find for himself the most harmonious way of executing simple forms.”

Typically, choreutic forms have been taught through imitation.  That is, the instructor demonstrates and the student follows.  Several of the Tetra seminar students confessed, however, that they had never really been able to memorize the spatial sequences.  In some way, they were never able to make the forms their own.

I love the choreutic material, and I love teaching it.   I’ve had to use my imagination, not only to bring it to life for myself, but also to help students really get the feel of these forms at the body level.  This, and more, are what I will be sharing in the upcoming Octa workshop.

Choreutics – Decoded!

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Adventurous readers on four continents have now completed my six-week correspondence course, “Decoding Rudolf Laban’s Masterpiece, Choreutics.” As Laban remarks in the final chapter, exhaustive exploration of the “immense domain of space and movement” will demand “the collaboration of generations still to come.”

I guess that means us.

For myself, the next step is demonstrating how to take Choreutic theory into practice in the forthcoming Octa workshop, Bringing Choreutics to Life.

To my fellow Choreutics decoders, I posed the following questions:

Of the many ideas presented in Choreutics, what has stimulated your imagination?  What might you want to pursue in more depth?

The following answers reflect the diversity of topics presented in Laban’s masterpiece, Choreutics, and the many aspects of movement still open for more exhaustive exploration:

“I would like to delve into specific scales, especially the Primary Scale.”

“I am keen to play more with the law of proximity; I’m fascinated by knots, twisted circles, and lemniscates.”

“I am interested in the relationship between space and mood.”

“Lemniscates!  How do we move them?”

“I’m interested in movement as the integration of body and mind.”

“I am interested in supporting my clients in developing their sense of embodiment.”

“In the same way that Laban felt Choreutics could become a way of communicating across cultures, I believe it could be a way of communicating across disciplines….”

“I’m interested in a deeper, experiential understanding of ‘harmony.’”

Rudolf Laban – Symmetry Freak

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Rudolf Laban was crazy about symmetry. His first career as a visual artist spanned the period from 1899 to 1919. During this period, Art Nouveau, with its focus on two-dimensional pattern, was in fashion.   Surviving works show that Laban worked in this style and was familiar with symmetry operations as a means of generating pattern.

Rudolf Laban – Symmetry Freak via Movescape

When Laban turned his artist’s eyes to dance, he realized the power of symmetry for generating three-dimensional patterns.   Virtually all his Choreutic forms and scales are highly symmetrical.

 

In “Bringing Choreutics to Life” we will look at Laban’s use of symmetry from two perspectives. First, understanding the underlying pattern makes it much easier to remember the sequence of movements in choreutic forms. Secondly, the symmetry of Laban’s mobile oscillations foster an enhanced sense of balance in three-dimensional space.

 

Choreutics is exercise for the body and the mind. Find out how in the forthcoming Octa seminar, “Bringing Choreutics to Life.”

 

 

Space Games

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I have space toys, but Laban liked to play space games. He played one game over and over and over and over again and again ….

 

His favorite game went something like this: start at one corner of a polyhedron – it can be a cube, octahedron, or icosahedron. Then trace a line touching every corner only once and return to the corner where you began.

 

Unpublished drawings in the Laban Archive in  England show that Laban played this game over and over again. When he found a pattern that he liked and one that made bodily sense, it became a Choreutic sequence.

 

 

Too often, Choreutic forms are taught through imitation and students are expected to accept the sequence as something “good for you.” Where is the fun in that?

 

In “Bringing Choreutics to Life” we approach Laban’s geometrical sequences with a sense of play. We will work with props and music; we will sing while we do them; we’ll turn them into folk dances and swordplay; and we will search for fragments of Choreutic forms in dance, mime, and circus acts. In short, we will have serious fun!

 

Find out more about the Octa….

 

 

 

 

The Octa Is Coming

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In July, the Octa workshop, “Bringing Choreutics to Life” takes Laban’s space harmony theory into practice. This three-day workshop presents key Choreutic concepts in a way that is accessible for participants new to Laban’s ideas as well as experienced movement analysts.

Laban himself admitted that “our mental functions employ geometrical symbols to express orientation in space, but generally our feeling does not comprehend living movement within geometrical plasticity.” In other words, both understanding and embodying choreutics can be steep learning curve!

 

I ought to know. I’ve been teaching choreutics for over 30 years. While I love the material, I am keenly aware that many students struggle.   In the Octa, I plan to demonstate a variety of ways to present Choreutics and to make it lively and meaningful.

 

Find out more….

The Tetra Takes Off

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Twenty-one brave readers on four continents began the Tetra seminar, Decoding Laban’s Choreutics on March 26th. This “great books” correspondence course is focused on Laban’s posthumously published masterpiece, also known as The Language of Movement.

The Tetra Takes Off via Movescape Center

Over a six-week period, we are exploring the book two chapters at a time. I use the word “exploring” purposefully, for I see this course as a journey of discovery for all twenty-two of us.

It is certainly proving to be a journey of discovery for me. As the guide, I have two tasks. First, I assign questions to provide a focus for each reading assignment. Secondly, I write a commentary on the assigned reading. These commentaries provide background information to help illuminate Laban’s thinking, link themes that recur across chapters, and, in some cases, clarify what Laban appears to be saying.

I have always found some parts of the book to be mystifying. I don’t expect to be able to dispel all the mysteries. However, I am finding that some confusion is due to errors, particularly in the illustrations and notations that accompany them. Perhaps someday an edition of this significant theoretical work can be published with an errata sheet!

For the moment, it is enough to have thoughtful companions and interesting exchange of views as the Tetra takes off.

Oscillations and Deflections

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Untitled design (8)In his masterwork, Choreutics, Laban notes that “oscillations are the means of expression in the two arts, music and dance.”  We found evidence supporting Laban’s observation in the Prototypes project.

Of course, Laban has constructed his prototypic sequences as oscillations, shifting between opposite directions in space.  The simplest pattern, the Dimensional Scale, oscillates between the cardinal directions. So the dancer reaches up, then down; opens the arm sideward, then reaches across the body; finally extends backward, then forward.

For Laban, however, there is more than one way to move up or down, or forward or backward.  For the basic directions “follow one another with infinite variations, deflections, and deviations.”  Thus upward movement can also veer forwards, or to the side, or backwards and across.

We found corroboration of Laban’s two observations in one of the improvisations recorded for the Prototypes project.  The dancers were asked to play with the concept of stability and mobility.  Marina Walchi’s spontaneous creation on this theme revealed an interesting pattern of oscillation.  If she moved up, this was followed by a movement down.  If across, by an opening action, and so on.  The oscillation might occur after a sequence of directional changes, such as down-open-across, across-up, across-down.  Nevertheless, an underlying vibratory pattern appeared.

In addition, the directional changes were not merely dimensional. Rather the shifting pattern was often deflected toward corners of the vertical, horizontal and sagittal planes or towards the diagonals.

Though only a single case, this example is intriguing.  So here is a simple challenge – while talking with a friend, watch his/her hand gestures.  Can you detect a pattern of directional reversal?  Of deflections from the cardinal directions?  Is it possible, as Laban asserted,that “between the harmonic components of music and dance there is not only an outward resemblance, but a structural congruity, which although hidden at first, can be investigated and verified, point by point?”

The Geometrical Alphabet of Space Movement

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The Geometrical Alphabet of Space Movement“We can understand all bodily movement as being a continuous creation of fragments of polyhedral forms,” Laban claimed.  We set out to test this in the Prototypes project.

As I note in The Harmonic Structure of Movement, Music, and Dance, Laban’s polygonal rings are best thought of as “spatial ‘prototypes’ from which dance sequences can be constructed, just as musical scales are ‘model’ tonal sequences from which melodies and harmonies are composed.”  Just as only part of a scale may be found in a musical composition, Laban asserts that fragments of his polygonal prototypes can be found in choreographed movements.

Laban’s assertion was first tested by Valerie Preston-Dunlop.  In 1979 she found fragments of choreutic forms in Martha Graham’s Lamentation and Diversion of Angels and in Jose Limon’s Choreographic Offering.

We found fragments of Laban’s prototypes in a technique class combination choreographed by OU faculty Travis Gatling.  In this sequence, he traces the front edge of the horizontal plane with both arms, then swings the right arm in what at first seems to be a cycle in the sagittal plane.  Closer examination reveals this to be a fragment of a peripheral five-ring, for the arm veers out of the sagittal plane to side high, right back middle, and side low before coming to rest in forward middle.  This fragment of a five-ring captures the normal range of motion for the arm more accurately than a purely sagittal cycle.

We also found fragments of Laban’s prototypes in improvised movement.  As OU faculty Tresa Randall repeatedly tilted and turned, her arms traced slanted circles identified by Laban as “girdles.”   From these tilted spins, Tresa also stabilized temporarily by stretching along a diameter of either the sagittal or vertical plane.

Unexpectedly, we found further corroboration of Laban’s observations in Marina Walchi’s improvisation.  Find out more in the next blog.

Laban’s Idealized Kinesphere

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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.”

Misadventures with Motion Capture

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Untitled design (5)As any performer who has ever worked with technology knows, interfacing human and machine elements is a time-consuming process.  Our experiment with motion capture was no exception.

Fortunately, we had wonderful people to work with – our dancers, Professor Roger Good and his students and staff from the OU School of Digital Media Arts, and Nathan Berger and Rakesh Kashyap from the OU Aesthetic Technology Lab.  The latter two were responsible for the motion capture recording, using a portable MOCAP suit.  This had to be fitted and calibrated on each dancer in order to produce a clean recording.  And this often involved painstaking recalibrations between performances.

It was a very long day, but we managed to record the scales we wanted to capture, along with a dance class exercise, an improvisation, and a section of one of Jean Erdman’s choreographies.  Now even harder work followed, for Madeleine and I had  to learn to read the MOCAP recordings.

While we had certainly captured the trace-forms, they were merely white lines against a black background.  The recording had no visual depth; that is, we could not easily discern which lines represented motion in the front part of kinesphere and which lines represented movements in the dancer’s back space.

Berger and Kashyap came to our rescue here, by creating as skeletal icosahedron that could be superimposed to help us decode the MOCAP tracery.  But this introduced other problems – should the icosahedron turn when the dancer turned, or remain stationary?  Should it tilt if the dancer did, or not?  MOCAP reintroduced issues around systems of reference that have been dealt with in Labanotation.

As with all pilot research projects, Madeleine and I discovered how much we still had to learn.  Nevertheless, a few intriguing findings emerged.  Learn more in the next blogs.