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?”