Effort and Consciousness

Posted on July 28, 2014 by Carol-Lynne Moore

(This excerpt is taken from my book, The Harmonic Structure of Movement, Music, and Dance According to Rudolf Laban.)

As noted earlier, Laban initially perceived two fundamental psychological attitudes: one of resisting or fighting the physical conditions influencing movement, the other of yielding and accepting these conditions. These attitudes were used in the construction of bi-polar qualities for each of the four motion factors. In later years, Laban hypothesized correlations between these four motion factors and the four functions of consciousness theorized by Jung: sensing, thinking, feeling, and intuiting. Jung used these constructs to develop a dense theory of personality type in which each function is modified by many other psychological factors such as attitudes or extraversion or introversion, conscious development or unconscious regression, and so on. Put simply, however, Jung explained the four functions as follows: “Sensation (i.e. sense-perception) tells you that something exists; thinking tells you what it is; feeling tells you whether it is agreeable or not; and intuition tells you whence it comes and where it is going.”

To elaborate, the function of sensing has to do with the perception of what is tangible and palpable in the immediate environment. Laban associated this perceptive function with the motion factor of weight and the intent to apply pressure firmly or delicately. As Katya Bloom puts it, weight “relates to the physical-sensory world, the actual material substance of the body, and the sense of touch.”

The function of thinking has to do with rational judgment based upon the analysis and classification of sensory data in relation to ideas and concepts. Laban associated this function with the motion factor of space and the effort exerted to orient oneself directly or flexibly in the environment. According to Bloom, space relates to “one’s point of view on the outside world. It implies a space for reflection and thought, and is therefore related to the mind, to the mental aspect of experience.”

The function of feeling allows one to establish what one likes and what one dislikes and this judgment is often experienced as a visceral reaction of attraction or repulsion, pleasure or pain. Laban associated feeling with the motion factor of flow and the effort to move with fluid abandon or to hold motion in check. Bloom sees the control or release of tension as analogous to “the control or release of feelings” and relates flow to “the experience of emotion in the body.”

Finally, the function of intuition has to do with sudden perceptions and insights that seemingly do not arise from immediate sense perception or methodical reasoning. Laban associated this function with the motion factor of time. Here Laban seems to be drawing on Henri Bergson’s idea that intuition is the direct apprehension of a “living time” that is experienced “from within.” Living time does not move smoothly at a steady rate: some hours fly by, while other hours creep. Laban appears to see the decisive effort to speed up or slow down as arising from this internal, hence “intuitive” sense of timing.

Learn more about the psychology of movement at the upcoming Octa Seminar, August 7-9, 2014. Register now.

The Mobius Body/Mind

Posted on July 10, 2014 by Carol-Lynne Moore

Generally, we think of surfaces, like a strip of paper, as having two sides. But a strip of paper can be twisted and its ends glued together to create a Mobius strip, a surface that has only one side. This means that if you start tracing a line on the outside of the Mobius strip, you soon find yourself tracing the line on the inside of the strip without having to lift your pencil. In other words, the outer becomes inner and the inner becomes outer.

Rudolf Laban used the Mobius strip as a metaphor for human movement. The inner impulse to move becomes outwardly visible as the body energetically traverses space. Our visible actions – how we move through space – also impact the way we feel inwardly.

For example, I used to wonder why vacuuming always made me angry. Then I became aware of my tendency to vacuum with jerky, forceful strokes. This repeated rhythm of fighting efforts affected my mood. In contrast, a friend of mine liked to iron whenever she was upset. She found the gliding actions were calming.

The forthcoming MoveScape seminar, “Discovering the Dynamosphere,” illuminates the Mobius body/mind and provides multiple opportunities to experience how inner becomes outer and outer becomes inner when we move.

Effort Balance

Posted on July 7, 2014 by Carol-Lynne Moore

Balance plays a significant role in Rudolf Laban’s thinking. This emphasis is understandable. As I note in The Harmonic Structure of Movement, Music, and Dance, “balance is a significant aspect of somatic experience… health, both mental and physical, is said to depend upon balance.”

Indeed, as Laban observes, the human body has to withstand a variety forces that can throw it out of balance – not only forces that arise in the outside environment but also those that come from within. Congruently, balance in movement has both kinespheric and dynamospheric aspects.

Balance for Laban is an oscillation between opposites. In physical space, a movement forward is counter-balanced by a movement backward. In effort, shifting between a forceful action and a gentle one sustains equilibrium and a balanced range of movement expression.

Laban applied this simple principle to develop much more complex spatial and dynamic sequences. One of the most interesting dynamospheric models is a lengthy sequence of effort phrases that oscillate rhythmically between completely contrasting action drive moods. This complex dynamic sequence seems to represent a model of almost perfect effort balance. In contrast, the effort “knots” Laban charted provide models of effort imbalance that are rich with dramatic and psychological implications.

In the August Octa seminar, “Discovering the Dynamosphere,” we delve deeply into Laban’s notions of effort balance and imbalance.

The Dynamosphere: Mapping Human Effort

Posted on July 1, 2014 by Carol-Lynne Moore

According to Rudolf Laban, human beings move not only from place to place but also from mood to mood. The visible movement of the body from place to place occurs in what Laban called the “kinesphere” – the space immediately adjacent to the body. The movement from mood to mood is more subtle and must to be inferred from how an action is done. Is it vehement or gentle, leisurely or abrupt? Does it build in intensity or gradually wane? Laban developed a system of “effort” terms to capture these various dynamic qualities and the moods they suggest.

The intention to move begins in what might be termed “psychological space.” Laban called this psychological space the “dynamosphere.” It is the “inner world in which impulses surge and seek and outlet in doing, acting, and dancing,” the domain of human effort in which the movement from mood to mood occurs.

As Laban conceived them, the dynamosphere and kinesphere are parallel movement territories. They share many characteristics. For example, Laban created three-dimensional geometrical models for both spheres. These models allow him to map both the movement from place to place and the movement from mood to mood, capturing both the physical and emotional characteristics of human actions.

In the forthcoming Octa seminar, “Discovering the Dynamosphere,” we explore the inner landscapes of movement moods, using some of the maps that Rudolf Laban provided.